As to the main *cough* breaker *cough* being 60/80. It is a fuse. The fuse holder is rated to 80 amps and the fuse installed is 60 amps; hence the 60/80.
Dave, understand from your comments in the video that the daily extraction from your sunny boy and uploading to PVOutput is kind of a hassle...
I don't have experience with pvbeancounter; but I'm using
SBFSpot, a similar tool that is just sitting on a small Raspberry Pi class linux machine doings it's business.
Installed it a few years ago, and hardly ever look at; it just works :-)
The documentation includes even a simple step-by-step tutorial on setting it up on a PI. I'm using it to connect over ethernet to my SMA STP7k, but the software also supports bluetooth. Besides the info logged to pvoutput a lot of more detailed information is logged to database and csv files.
link:
https://sbfspot.codeplex.com
Agree the distribution box looks like a monkey installed it. Nothing is nice and neat. I guess I'm used to seeing bus bars and modular systems common in the US. This would never pass code or even come close to it!
Dave - if your so interested in your solar power data why didn't you go with micro-inverters. I have live graphics that I can play to show me the dynamic power of each panel. Significantly more nerd porn available that way! Check out the Enphase micro inverters and the software/interface. It really is damn cool and I have been using it for a few years and still impresses me to this day.
Well, here in a 2 bedroom flat around 60 years old I have a slightly upgraded board ( as in, upgraded from wire in fuses sometime in the 1970's when the DCC wire was replaced with PVC wire, and this board was upgraded when my father bought to replace the ancient HYMAG breakers it came with) with a incoming mains douvble pole isolator, a double pole feed for the water heater in the basement, the earth leakage breaker, then 6 circuits providing all power, 2 for lighting, 3 for plug outlets, and the last one for the electric stove and oven. Spare breaker that used to supply a instant heat boiler for the kitchen, now I just use the geyser downstairs.
Only original wiring is the supply wire, old 16mm DCC rubber insulated, which is direct to the meter. If I ever replace that I will have to put in a new cable, 16mm split concentric cable, wired via a separate route, as the old wire is not too likely to pull out of the old steel conduit easily. As it is only around 20m to the meter room that at least will be easy to do, there are existing cable trays and mounts to hold it. Just have to paint the exposed sections to match the building.
There is enough capacity to handle all the loads, though there are a few socket outlets per breaker, so you do not really need a single breaker per outlet, though you might in the USA, and it is generally good in industrial use, where you might have a lot of high current loads all at once.
That looks like a very professional system Dave installed but if you don't live in Australia I can highly recommend the "Eyedro" monitoring system
I bought it here: http://www.amazon.com/Eyedro-EHEM1-Home-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00EP774LM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
They're a Canadian company I think, we've used their "myeyedro" monitor for nearly a year and it's super reliable.
The best part about it though is the software, after looking at the Solar Analytics interface I can definitely say that Eyedro is on par if not better, you get all the things Dave complained that were missing, like user level monitoring of individual phases in real time (with 3 second or less intervals), much more flexible graph scaling and ranges, it can also give predictions and savings and it can be integrated with solar systems too but I haven't tried that since I don't have one.
The only real downside is that it doesn't actually measure the line voltage, the user has to input that value and it assumes it stays constant all the time (which of course it doesn't), so the overall accuracy is nowhere near as the one shown in the video, but hey for a one time payment of 130$ I can't complain much!
Thank you! any other alternatives?