The Power Quality tool recently helped me solve a problem that was costing me $$$. For the last several months (turns out it was like 6+) our power bill went from virtually zero to $150. During this period, our use had gone up quite a lot due to charging the Tesla, but our solar production also seemed down. There were no glaring issues when reviewing Sense data, Enphase solar data, or the FPL website (other than more money due to increased demand for power). About 1.5 months ago, I discovered that some of the individual panels were not reporting at all one day but would function normally the next. It seemed likely that it was interference on the data transfer from the microinverters to the hub, which is a finicky set up where it transmits over the electrical wiring. Apparently, other electrical appliances plugged into the same circuit will cause interference; so I “cleaned up” the circuit where the hub was plugged in by removing some noisy appliances. Problem solved??
The panels were generally reporting normally, but high power bill and somewhat lower production, but what I thought could be seasonal etc. Last week, almost none of the microinverters would report, so I started moving the hub around, resetting things, confirmed wiring all intact etc. Finally, started digging into the error messages that Enphase reported and discovered “AC Voltage Out of Range” mixed in the many…many other errors and messages.
Here is how Sense saved the day! The Power Quality function has always shown that our power was a bit hot and dirty with 5-10 Dips & Spikes per month and running at like 125-126 volts. When the first solar issues started, it showed 30+ events…with our power running at 127 volts, but I had not recognized the relationship. When things really got bad, Sense showed 1000+ events and around 130v! Turns out, that was the key.
When the panel microinverter experiences voltage above or below a set point (depending on geographical settings), it suspends production. Turns out that to start, our power was hovering at the top end of that range, and just started tipping over the line. Apparently, in the last few months, FPL increased the power a bit to us, which caused the entire issue. Finally recognizing it was an FPL issue and not mine, the came out to find it at 132v on each line and simply “told dispatch to cool it down a bit.” The next day…down to 118v and everything is gravy! THANK YOU SENSE!
Okay…for the issue. Power Quality seems to be rather glitchy when it comes to the graph and data. At one point it updated to show me the day the data (on the 7th), now it is stuck at the 6th. Been trying to refresh, clear cookies etc. and still stuck. I have heard this can be an issue, but I also thought it was fixed months ago. Thoughts?
