How to wire a solar watt meter
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 มี.ค. 2014
- To measure the power going into your battery from your solar panel(s), put the battery on the load side and the solar/controller on the source. To measure the amount of power being used by your equipment, put the battery on the source side and the solar/controller on the load side.
In this video, I show you how simple it is to wire an inline watt meter for your solar panels. You literally just need to put it inline between your battery and charge controller. It will then tell you how much power is going into your battery (from your solar panels) and how much power you're using. Not only can you see real-time data but also historical over the day or longer - depending on the features of your watt meter.
The same wiring would be used for a wind turbine.
Sorry for the background construction noises. They're a bit too loud to edit out without affecting the quality of the spoken audio.
You'll see I have the watt meter wired to a motolite solar master battery which is a deep cycle battery produced in the Philippines.
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+Alfa Ms connect a load and use a power meter to measure the output.
Gadget Addict i
@Benedicto your youtube settings have replies disabled so I can't reply directly. I'm also using a cheapo PWM charge controller with my watt meter and it works fine. You shouldn't need a more expensive MPPT controller to make it work. Of course MPPT is generally better to optimize your solar setup if you can afford it. Did you try swapping the load and source around the other way and checking the readings then?
No I have not tried swapping, however I will. I will check my settings so you reply directly. Thank you very much.
Thanks for your help Phil. I changed the wiring opposite of yours and it works just fine now. Load to battery, Source to battery terminals on charge controller. Why do you think yours works one way but mine works the other. Again, I am using a GT Power RC watt meter. I think it's very similar to Watts Up. Anyway, thanks again.
I REALLY like that set of helping hands you have there! HEAVY DUTY
I forget to put the shrink tube on first about 30% of the time.
Finally figured out that this unit can be used to read 12V battery charger output volts and amps. Source side connects to the charger leads and the load side connects to the battery you want to charge. Thanks for sharing.
You need one meter on the panel side before the controller and another meter on the load side after the controller for comparison. The whole idea is to make sure input amp hours is greater than out, not possible using only one of these meters
that wire holder and fan invention is genius. i can't wait to make one.
man,i like your setup with the wires and the alligator clips, that's just great...
You have given an excelent explanation here! Thank you very much! Very usefull.
Great video and so very clear and helpful...Thank You!
Great man!! As always we can lear a lot from your videos! Big thanks!!
Super helpful video! Thanks for sharing!
thank you so much this was really helpful
Thanks brotha, helped me out 👍
I use 2 , one between the SOLAR and CHARGE CONTROLLER and one between the CHARGE CONTROLLER and the BATTERY. so i know how much power output the solar panel going through the controller, and how much power output is the controller giving the battery .
Great video! I purchased a GT Power RC watt meter and have tested it with a battery charger as the source and a 12V battery as the load. Meter reads all functions perfectly. I attached the watt meter exactly as you have instructed to the charge controller on my small portable solar system and the watt meter will not read any amp functions. The charge controller is a cheap 15 amp unit that came pre-installed on my folding set of two 50W mono panels. Could the problem be with the charge controller? Should I go MPPT? Thanks.
Hey, thanks for awesome video. I hooked one of these babies up. With the load side of it going to my batteries. Only glitch I see is. That when my 21 watt fountain pump powers up. The analyzer goes crazy and starts giving some crazy reading. I have a 25 watt panel, 2 12v LAB'S in parallel = 20ah. And a 21 watt 1.7amp pump. Can you please advice. Much appreciated. Cheers!
wow phil nice setup
Clean setup!!
Would that hook up read volts as well as amps/ watts going into the battery. Thanks, I'm learning
Phil, how would you use two meters (wired in opposite) to give you solar power in, as well as load out? One meter between panel/battery and one battery/load? Cheers
Cool soldering rig 👍👍👍
hi, great video, its helped me a lot putting together my 12v lighting in my garage. I have a question, if I had 2 watt meters would it be possible to go from the charge control into meter1 to read panel info then into meter2 to read how much power is being used then into the battery?
sephuk Yep that would work absolutely fine :) There are other higher priced meters available that could do that in one go.
Sir your video is very helpful to me. May i know what part of the controller you inserted the two wires of the LOAD SIDE of the watt meter? I mean what is the portion of the controller you inserted the two wires from watt meter? Sorry to ask but i am a newbie & my electricity knowledge is just starting. Thanks.
Hi Phil,
Could I connect this type of watt meter to a car battery charger. (CTEK). I need to keep a mower battery topped up with this charger. My thinking is with this meter I'd have a visual check on the state of the battery.
very good information
Hi, Do you have any updates on how well it is working.
I also once have that watt meter but I disconnected it from my off grid system cause I thought it was consuming power from my batts. or maybe I just wired it wrong. I connected the source side to controller and the load side to wire supplying loads. this measures the power I am using. If I flicked a switch to turn on a light it displays amperage of the loads used.
When you hook your battery up and then you hook it up to the charge controller did you put it into the battery terminal Parts on the charge controller
Does the back light light up when it's during power or should it come on as soon as you connected to the battery
Brilliant , thanks
Godbless good job a clear video
Can you hook up the watts up meter in line from the solar panels to the charge controller to monitor the panels? Thanks
If you just want to measure how much power the solar panel is generating, yes, you can do this :)
I have a 10 amp controller and a 300W inverter (600w peak). So I assume I should not connect the inverter to the controller but take it direct from the battery to avoid fying the controller. If so, can I measure the whole power draw from the battery (from the loads on the controller and the inverter) by connecting the my 130amp watt meter as in your video but joining the inverter leads to the lead from the battery to the controller on the controller side of the meter? also. what cabling are you using in your set-up.
Thanks - great videos - so clear.
Any chance on a view on this query, please, as I have just finished building my box and need to start wiring the thing up. Ta! ;-{)
Gadget Addict please respond to this question, i also would like to know this, how to measuse the in and outs from the battery in total!
Hey Gadget Addict thanks for the video, I have a question for you. Should I wire my inverter straight from the Charge controller or Can I plug it directly from the battery? Some people say that you shouldn't add too much load to the Charge controller and recommend to wire the inverter from the battery? Thanks again!!
You are not allowed to connect the inverter to solar charge controller. Inverter should connect to the battery.
Why is the watt meter waking up when it's only connected to the LOAD side? It's reading the voltage and drawing power... why? Will I have to wire another switch there to cut the wattmeter?
Thank you Gadget addict for this wonderful tutorial. I have a question, does it remember the Ah or Wh after power goes off. I mean if i connect this meter between solar and charge controller and when at night solar power goes down , will it remember the next day ?
No
that was informative but you missed out one thing, the wires from the load go the charge controller, are these the middle pins that state battery ? Does it show in watts what the solar panels are producing an how much they have produced in Kwh per day ?
That damn saw in the back. WHAT!
Please reply! What if I will change the direction, source or load, because when charge controller will charge the battery, current direction will be opposite, it will flow from charge controller to battery, so in this situation will it work, or it will blow the circuit of watt meter? because now the current direction is opposite, please reply
isnt the source the charger? the load is a battery that needs charged? also i was under the impression these only measure in one direction. i was also under the impression you need a shunt if you want to see watts both going into and leaving the battery. am i right? btw i just wired my "watt meter" that can handle 200 amps and it started to melt my thing jumper cables. i was using jumper cables that are about the size of a mutimeter's test probes. also, just a question: how does the charge controller handle seeing the state of the battery though the watt meter? i am concerned the watt meter may interfere with the charger ability to read the battery and either not charge or over charge the battery. i am just trying to learn, not attacking anyone.
phil finally i bought bigger panel bigger battery and a charge controller ill upload my setup update:))
Awesome, I look forward to seeing it!
A trick to joining those wires is not to twist them but push them together head on so the strands go inside to other wires stands, then solder.
True, especially for thicker wires :)
ok, how to wire this watt meter to see the amps and volts produce by the solar panel.....
need your help.
Sir.. May i Ask where you bought the deep cycle battery? I've been looking for one for a long time! And how much
sir can i know the dimension of this wattmeter, and what is the smallest voltage and current it can read. thanks in advance
Hi phil. What am i measuring if i connect the source to my cc and the load connected to the battery? Will i be able to monitor how many Ah I'm using in a given day.
You'll be measuring how much power you're dumping into the battery. Reverse it and you'll be measuring how much you're using (through the charge controller, not including any devices connected directly to the battery).
How to connect that watt meter to hybrid charge controller (wind and solar)? please answer my question
you will burn a meter up connecting the source to the battery like you said the load is the battery
i was about to comment on that, source is solar battery is load
ha ha ha me too and those wires going to the inverter are too skinny also that kind of BATTERY is JUNK motolite its not really a deep cycle my motolite golf cart batteries are junk it is just like a car batteries cannot hold the power easily discharge not even a year since i purchase
Hi Phil; You failed to explain what contacts on YOUR CC you connected to. What are they labeled as? i.e.: are they called output meter connections? I ask this because the only other contacts on my CC are for overcharge dump. Is that what they are on yours?
Jackson Steen Depending on what you're measuring, you'd either connect the watt-meter wires to the battery terminals or solar terminals of the charge controller. Check out the video description :)
What do you use the rasberry Pi for ?
What if your inverter is connected straight to the battery? And i want to see what's getting pulled out more than what's going into the battery.
Just wire this between the battery and inverter :)
Can you put the battery wires on the battery controller instead of on the battery itself?
is it waterproof? will it show the historic total power used
I'm most probability wrong but should the source on the watt meter be connected to the charge controller and load to battery as the charge controller is the power source to the battery from the solar panels :)
It depends what you want to measure, I've put some instructions in the video description :) Thanks for the feedback!
Battery is the loud
You didn’t specify where to hook it on the charge controller. I have a load hooked to the PVC side and on the battery side I am in hook to the DC in but I’m getting nothing
Ok I am confused... I have a wind turbine, and solar. They are as far as I am aware the SOURCE... and the LOAD is the battery that is being charged... How is this the other way around? Because if I reverse the wires, the cables run, solar/wind turbine ---> charge controller ---> then LOAD side of watt meter ----> then Battery on SOURCE side...?? How is the solar or wind turbine going through the charge controller a LOAD...? It's the SOURCE OF THE POWER INPUT !! Then the LOAD is what you are charging or using the power for... i.e LED lights etc...
Totally confused now...
can i put it the other way around? i want to measure how much power it is going in from charge controller to the battery. Well I guess what I want to do is, how much power I have generated for that day. My charge controller doesn't show my that.. It only shows how much power is being generated, volt and amps. Let me know of other option on how I can do that.
Yes that can be done. I gave some alternative wiring options in the video description :)
When you hooked up that wattmeter you hooked it to the battery side first and then the controller but it looks like you installed it in the battery part of the controller not the solar panel part if you understand what I'm talking about
I want to also measure the the power comming from the solar panels going into the charge controller so I put my meter *(the same as you have) between panel and controller with the controller as load. This works fine. If you have to meters you can see the loss of power caused by the charge controller. . But every morning my meter has crashed. This is because at night it does not get any power and when the sun comes up the voltage slowly rised and the meter crashes dureing start up.
So I connect the + and - from the battery I am charging to the external power inputs of the watt meter. But now my charge controller allways sees voltage on the panel side. This is dude too common grounding and I cannot find a solution for it. The only way so far is useing a seperate power supply to power the watt meter but how do I do that when having an offgrid solar setup? Getting an extra panel just so I can charge an other battery to mearuse watt seems a bit crazy.
Same question here.
Funny I just got one, noticed the only way to get low voltage measurements is to apply a fixed power to pins on side at least 9v-60v
Do you have battery indicator in there?
How to know if the battery is 50% full or not?
Charlie John Gatasi The wattmeter shows the voltage of the battery. From that you can estimate the battery charge state.
where did you get the watt meter?
Hi, where did you buy your watt meter? CDR King doesn't seem to have them.
I bought it from Cavite Eco Solutions. Their prices are a little higher than other local sellers but they nearly always have immediate stock available.
After this vid i got a watt meter and hooked it up between the solar panel and charge controller .
But now every new start of the day the watt meters turns on with all weired things on the screen,when i unplug and plug the solar panel back in it starts working again.
how much is the motolite battery you used in this video? thank you!
I think I paid 3,200 for it, direct from Motolite for home delivery. It's a 40 ah, solar master deep cycle battery.
Do you have video how you made this cabinet setup? Pls post it,
There will be a future video on that :) Thanks
Hi. I've just bought one from powerwerx and they are clear that the source is the input and load is the output. It also says "only current from source to load can be measured. Drawing current in reverse will cause damage to the meter" that said this is not a powerwerx so best individuals check with their own instructions.
I'm lost. That meter is wired incorrectly surely. The 'source' should be charge controller and 'load' should be battery. If measuring watts of the load on battery, 'source' would be battery and load would be item you connect to battery such as motor, light etc. ie 'source' is in and 'load' is out.
+jackbox It depends what you want to measure. Check the video description for wiring options :)
Three ways that I can see: (1) panel/source/load/controller (measuring raw panel output), (2) controller/source/load/battery (measuring charge being put into battery), and (3) battery/source/load/electrical items (measuring load on battery and state of charge). Not sure what its measuring back to front. It depends how watt meter is wired internally I suppose. Great meter either way :D
My wattmeter looks like yours. My one has a small hole on the source side. Behind it there are 3 pins. Does anyone know what function they have? External display power and/or holding the data? Backlight? Or for adjusting?
These pins are used to power the meter when the voltage is below 5 volts or so. The centre pin is positive. One of the outer pins is negative, the other is used to reset the readings. Not sure which way round, and I believe that the reset is not implemented on all models.
For mine pin 1 is negative and pin 3 is rest. Pin 1 is the pin farthest from the thick red/black wires, and closest to the little square at the top left of the hole. Incidentally mine wont run with less than 7 volts.
@@carlosrey5378 thank you i was wondering why mine wasnt powering up with a 5v usb but once it gets 7V and slighty higher it operates perfectly and does not switch off when theres no source power
Can I connect the meter directly to the solar panel? I need to monitor the amount of power it produces in one hour, is there something that could monitor that?
+mamamia13 You can measure the output from the solar panel yes. If you check the video description, I talk about which way to connect it depending on exactly what you want to measure.
Gadget Addict Do you know if i can graph the change in wattage over time? If there is any tool hat you can recommend for this it would be great!
mamamia13 There are some watt meters that come with that feature built in and can export to a microsd card or USB pen drive. But using this one, I don't think there's any practical way without some complicated arduino project.
+Gadget Addict could you send me a link to one that does that? It would be really helpful
is ts possible to install solar panel directly to battery then power inverter? what would be the effect if without power controller?
Technically it's possible, but it's not advised. You wouldn't have any protection against over voltage / over charging and would likely damage the battery in a short period of time and perhaps break your inverter eventually..
can i use car batteries? if i dont have deep cycle battery? if i dont have power controler is the battery still charging if i directly connect it to the solar panel?
Francisco Besana You can use a car battery but it won't survive very long because they're not designed to be regularly and heavily discharged. The battery would charge if you directly connected the solar panel to it but you have no control over the voltage and no protection against over charging. Using the wrong type of battery and not using a charge controller is only going to end in failure. Please be careful and avoid anything dangerous that could hurt someone or cause a fire.
i have been installing solar panels for over 15 years, for them who wants to know the correct way. you connect the solar panel to the controller the battery on controller to watt meter source, . the watt meter load to battery . then you will know how many amps you solar panel is given you. some people just do not do there research,
if you want to know how much you use, put a watt meter to controller lights out source then load to on and off switch then to you lights or power
Most of the video is about how to solder wires. You could reduce dramatically your video without suffering the value.
My question is - does the wattmeter have the internal battery and can it save the meaured values for a time when disconnected from the battery?
True, I could have cut some bits down. It's hard to find the right balance between of value added footage. As for your question, I haven't seen any that have built in batteries. But some models do have internal memory that can retain data even after power is lost. Mine doesn't retain data after the power is lost. Hope this helps :)
phil good news! i alredy upload it check it now
For some reason on mine, the red wire is negative and the black live. Must have been having a bad day when they assembled it !
+pjcmjc lol very weird indeed!
nice work,but try again without the maddening grinding metal ,in the backround,thank you!
Where can I buy your solar watt meter like yours? Can you send me the link?
Hi Thomas, I bought the watt meter from a company in Cavite. I can find the details again tomorrow and send to you :)
i finally both a digital multimeter
Good news! Where'd you get it? Finding it useful?
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Hello bro this is wrong connection, what will happen when charge controller will charge the battery.💥💥🔥😀
If the battery is drawing power from the charge controller, doesn’t it then become the load?
you noticed that as well , you do not put load back into controller, controller goes to source load goes to battery then you know how many amps your solar panel is producing . if you want to know how much you use, then from lights out put to another source watt meter load to a switch then lights
When you installed your charge controller when you did the positive to positive on the battery negative to negative on the battery what about when you hooked it up to the. Charge controller did you hook it in the battery in the charge controller that's what it look like you did please get back to me Mike you didn't hook it up to the panel side
How much and where did you get your watt meter? :)
+mckoy estrada From Cavite Ecosolutions and cost around 1000 or 1200 PHP. I have seen other sellers more recently with them for around 750 PHP. Or you can order from China with free delivery for around P600 (13USD).
Thanks!
Thanks!
why there rooster around ? what country u in ?
+j 6815 J The Philippines. Very common here even in built up residential areas in the city.
+Gadget Addict , cool !
Battery is the load
Very Nice. I wanna get a Watt Meter too for my setup. Gotta get me some solar panels, then I'll be in business. (+1 : 142)
MARK 1 It's very useful to be able to instantly see your input or output :)
I have this too, but it did not save Wh.
this meter freezes with low voltage of the dawn.
that mean battery meter not solar meter, install between solar and controller to measuring solar power .
I see too many of those on TH-cam. Yes, it is good practice to flux and pre-tin the wires. It is also clever to slip the heat-shrink tubing beforehand than to regret it after. But... Pb/Sn is brazing and not soldering. In other words, it is just skin-deep foreing metal "glue". It is advisable to create a good mechanical bond (twist or crimp of some sort) before brazing. This is common professional practice that any 1st year student in electronics will learn. As a matter of fact, a good side-to-side Pb/Sn brazing is supposed to last for 25 years, whereas a simple dry wire-wrap should last up to 40. For the benefit of all. No offence intended. Good tuto as far as the première intention is concerned!
Thanks for the feedback and tips. I've watched many soldering tutorials, even by professionals that solder to military standards. Usually I would make a mechanical connection (e.g. twist) before soldering but that's not practical on a wire this thick. If you have a tip for these kind of thick wires I'd certainly love to hear it. Thanks!
If source is battery that mean battery meter not solar meter .
you are only showing what is going out of battery and not what is been put into the battery these units only work one direction
David Simpson Check the video description for the wiring options depending on the info you want to know :)
i did not see the text i was refering to what you said in video you said source to the bettery and load to the cc as you said this you said this will show power in to battery and out of batterythats why i said it will only show power out not power in
Hello all... could you please clarify what electrically the watt meter does from the battery to the CC? The way its wired there is only measurement of what's coming out of the battery. Or have I missed something? I am looking for a simple meter that measures power in off the solar panels and what's leaving the battery to my load.... thanks for your help.
this is wrong its back to front, thanks for wasting my afternoon fool
Read the video description you fool.
Gadget Addict i luv u
of course he is wrong load goes to battery , source comes from controller , he has probable got a o level and trying to cover his arse, look at my other replies
Please remove this video. I wired my system wrong because of your advice. Didn't you realize you wired it backwards before you posted the video? What was I thinking? Of course the load is the batteries. I'm uber pissed.
+Chris Ragan you can wire it either way depending on what you're measuring. Read the video description for more information.
i agree you have messed me about you are a fool
Yes battery is the load
Your are wrong
you bet he is wrong battery is load, source is controller, you would not put a petrol generator output into a wall socket . look at my recent replies
What a mess..
I would not wast your time they are inaccurate
your right the guys an idiot probable dot a o level look at my replies