Is the Fronius Smart Meter worth the additional expense? How will the extra monitoring features benefit you? As expectations from solar energy systems increase, so does the dilemma of whether to include a consumption monitor or not. However, this one device could help save you thousands more than going solar without it.
Reading this post, you are likely to exist in either one of two scenarios. You’re looking to buy a brand new solar system with a Fronius inverter, or you want to enhance the features of your existing Fronius infused solar energy system. No matter which camp you are from, the following reasons may provide some compelling insight into whether you need a Fronius Smart Meter.
7. Superior insight & CONTROL.
Using the Fronius Solar. online web portal, access your complete energy profile. The entire picture of your energy usage patterns in association with a Fronius grid-connected inverter.
Energy insight below with & without the assistance of the Fronius Smart Meter:
With Fronius Smart Meter | Without Fronius Smart Meter | |
|---|---|---|
Solar production data | Yes | Yes |
System status notifications | Yes | Yes |
Grid consumption data | Yes | No |
Solar to grid export data | Yes | No |
Monetary savings data | Yes | No |
Ohmpilot (hot water) control | Yes | No |
Full energy profile understanding | Yes | No |
6. It's different to your electricity meter.
New versions of supply-authority-owned electricity meters are also referred to as “smart meters” in some world areas. Due to proprietary technology inside, these two meters serve a completely different purpose.
Your supply-authority-owned Smart Meter isn’t very smart to your advantage (smarter for the supply-authority). You can, though, take advantage of its attributes. Cycle through the necessary recordings at the intervals you desire and record the information on a spreadsheet on an ongoing basis.
In-real time, the Fronius Smart Meter provides energy import and export data in conjunction with production data effortlessly within the Fronius Solar.web portal. Easily calculate the perfect time for appliance operation in times of optimum energy savings or when surplus energy is exported to the grid.
Picture; Supply-authority owned “smart meter” in Australia (electricity meter).
5. SAVE MORE THAN WITH SOLAR ALONE.
Knowledge truly equals power in this instance. With solar alone, we receive remarkable production monitoring insight: the sun rise and fall, shading implications, system status updates, kWh’s produced etc. However, a portion of the equation is missing for true energy profile insight—energy appliance consumption.
Simply generating power and guessing what appliances to use and when is as good as driving down the road, assuming how fast you are going by the speed of the other cars. Not accurate enough to avoid the potential consequences. The Fronius Smart Meter lets you know what energy you consume from the grid while understanding what appliances need to be shifted to use solar energy better.
Depending on the maximum power output of your solar system, staggering appliance operation time is often the most effective bill reducing solution. A Fronius Smart Meter facilitates the critical load shifting insight due to a better understanding of consumption data. Accurate load shifting in line with solar production is the key to energy true saving success.
Additional savings: Better load shifting abilities reduce the need for excessive battery capacity in the future, saving thousands more for the extra kWh in storage.
4. View LIVE CONSUMPTION from anywhere.
There are two benefits to this unseemingly compounding point. With the assistance of an active internet connection, view your entire energy profile live from wherever you are in the world with a smart device or portal access.
On-demand electricity bill control. The world is evolving to more intelligent appliances which can operate in the palm of your hand, on-demand – in the same way you enjoy your Netflix. No longer wait until your electricity bill arrives. View the detailed energy information of your home or business as you desire. One less complication you no longer need to worry about in anticipation.
Remote home surveillance. Don’t get creeped out with this point. Hear us out, and it’s not as sinister as you may think. Picture this; you’re at work, the kids arrive home from school. You’ve told them to leave the air conditioner off today. It’s just not needed (let’s say the pool needs the free solar power to operate the pump that afternoon). Kids being kids, they don’t think to open a few windows to cool the home. They go directly for their trusted cooling appliance, which costs them nothing to operate. You, however, are crafty enough to have a Fronius Smart Meter installed with your solar energy system. You login into your Fronius Solar.web app at the time you know they will be home and spot the silent leach burdening your electricity bills. Checkmate.
Picture; Fronius Solar.web portal remote monitoring access.
3. Detect faulty appliances.
How can one device be this powerful? By understanding how your energy flow works, you begin to understand the characteristics of appliances that operate daily; fridges, air conditioners, heaters, pools, pumps, hot water and so forth. Not only are these devices used daily, but they are often big consumers of electricity when adding up their overall kWh.
Consider a fridge, an appliance that runs all day and night. The electrical consumption of many modern fridges are characteristic and something we become acquainted. Think of viewing fridge consumption data as a minor baseline load (a consistent draw with frequent small lumps). When a fridge seal begins to perish or lose its seal, the consumption data becomes uncharacteristically distorted as the Fridge starts to compensate for variable temperatures. The distortion to your energy profile is easily identifiable and almost instant within the Fronius Solar.web app. You’ve now saved a year or more of lost energy than without the Fronius Smart Meter.
Alternative appliances will display similar distorted patterns, which are easily identifiable simply by monitoring grid power draw.
2. ALL POWER SUPPLIES BENEFIT.
Both single and three-phase power supplies have the opportunity to gain complete insight into the entire energy supply. Unlike many alternative makes, which have not quite perfected the art of single and three-phase power supplies. Rest assured, Fronius has two versions of the Fronius Smart Meter. No matter your grid power supply, the Fronius Smart Meter is built for your installation.
Associated reading: 6 EASY WAYS TO IDENTIFY A SINGLE OR 3-PHASE POWER SUPPLY.
Picture; Fronius single-phase smart meter (left), Fronius three-phase smart meter (right).
1. UNRIVALLED ENERGY MANAGEMENT.
The Fronius Smart Meter is a significant piece towards understanding your entire energy profile. Understanding how you use your electricity ensures you can manage it better with solar production. Very few string inverter type solar energy systems, combined with an integrated smart meter, can provide detailed analytics for both homeowner and supporting installer.
So, do you need a Fronius Smart Meter? Absolutely! If you love data and energy control as much as we do, that is. However, it will depend on your circumstance and how well you can adapt to technology at the end of the day. It won’t be helpful if you don’t care much for data, energy analysis, or retaining historical information. Education, though, is the key. A better understanding of the elements will always take you further.
98% of technical experts suggest the Fronius Smart Meter is a key component in controlling bill reduction and ensuring the ability to see what other solar energy system owners cannot.
Video; View the Fronius Smart Meter in action with an accompanying Fronius energy system.
LIVE POLL: What major feature is most important to you?
What appeals to one person doesn’t always appeal to the next. We’d love to hear your thoughts on which feature of the Fronius Smart Meter appeals to you the most with Solar Analytica Polls.
If you would like a copy of the associated technical details, click the required links below to download now.
- 1-phase Fronius Smart Meter manual.
- 3-phase Fronius Smart Meter manual.
- Fronius Smart Meter datasheet.
- Fronius international website, Fronius Smart Meter (external site).
Hi, I was wondering if you have any contacts who may install a Fronius Smart Meter onto an existing Fronius system that I already have? Do you know what I might expect to pay for installation?
Solar Analytica isn’t aligned with any manufacturer or installer. As for cost the product and service are very much installation-specific, the following variables will affect the price:
-Single or three-phase power supply.
-Available switchboard space.
-Distance from the Fronius inverter to the main switchboard.
-Building accessibility.
Smarter energy is most definitely better energy, you are on the right track seeking out the Fronius Smart Meter.
Hi Solar Analytica, I have recently had a solar system installed, 6kw of Trina panels with a 5kw ABB inverter. My inverter doesn’t come with wifi app and doesn’t tell me what I’m using, only what it’s bringing in. Will the smart meter connect to my meter box and tell me all of this info or do I need a Fronius inverter etc? Regards, Ash Homewood.
In your particular scenario consider Solar Analytics. It truly is superior for installations that don’t come with a manufacturer supplied monitoring device, software, app etc much like your scenario. Essentially these guys do monitoring/software exceptionally well and in many cases, better than the manufacturers themselves. In conjunction with energy import/ export/ production information, Solar Analytics delivers independent information based on your geographical location as to whether your solar energy system is producing to expectation or not. Finally the BIG plus, Solar Analytics communicates via the mobile network = No WiFi dropouts. Both Fronius software & Solar Analytics is superb for system monitoring. Therefore the answer is simple, if you have a Fronius inverter, choose the Fronius Smart Meter, if you have anything else, definitely consider Solar Analytics as a superior 3rd-party monitoring product and software.
When you install the smart meter to your Fronius should you lose prior data like earnigs that the inverter software had captured? I have had mine stop recording at 8pm or 10pm to always restart at midnight. Earning showing as $00.00 or stuck on some other amount for days. Installer giving my extra investment little interest even though I will not pay until it is accurate like the software that came with the inverter. All it was missing really was from grid use.
Hi we recently installed a 15kw solar system with a Fronius 15kw inverter and Fronius smart meter. I have been monitoring very closely over the last 2 months and have found that the electricity companies meter is out by over 50% compared to our FSM. Usage is 50%+ higher & the feed to the grid is also approx. 50% higher than the FSM. Just wondering if you have heard of this before?
Is it an electricity bill or a meter reading that you are gauging the electricity usage by? If it’s the electricity bill is there a chance it has been estimated by the utility?
Hi. I am about to install a system with a Tesla power wall 2 and fronius primo 2 invertor. Will the tesla app tell me the same info as the fronius smart meter or should I get the meter as well. Thanks
You may find your Tesla monitoring data limited into what the Fronius Solar.web software can offer as this is one of the more detailed platforms available. That being said, if you are after general consumption insight, the Tesla app may suffice.
Hi, we have just had a Fronius 6W 3-phase inverter installed with the standard energy provider smart meter. We are looking at either a Fronius Smart Meter or a Solar Analytics smart meter. Given the posts in this section are from 2018, has much changed ie. which smart meter would be better. We like the look and feel of the SA smart meter however is it better to go with similar branded components.
Solar Analytics is a very good software that utilises cellular data as opposed to WiFi which can be quite advantageous in certain scenarios. Remember, inverter manufacturers are hardware manufacturers first, software developers second. Solar Analytics is a software developer first. It’s highly likely you won’t be disappointed with Solar Analytics as it is consistently updated to deliver the information you require.
Hi message states, Smart Meter not connected. I got a challenge number 398413 but I don’t know what to do next. Thank you
My 3rd party solar company has installed a smart meter. Can this be used by my energy retailer as well or does my energy retailer have to install a different smart meter of their own?
Hi, I will be getting 2 x 5KW Fronius inverters for two phases, I have 2 phase power. I have researched and found that the information from teh smart meter will only be accurate if I use a Fronius 3phase smart meter (with just 2 phases connected). Is this true? Thanks
We have installed a Fronius smart meter to work with our 3 phase 10 kWh inverter with 2 relays but we don’t seem to be able to run both relays at the same time as they trip out. So we have to switch off one of them and select manually which relay we want to operate. Can you offer any insights into this issue?