Solar energy is taking over the renewable energy market at a pace that is far greater than wind or tidal energy. It is not surprising at all as it was something that was totally expected. Of course, if you were to have a climate that is akin to the past few damp days that I had, then your solar panels are useful for nothing but being a shade to those poor birds drenching in the rain. But then, it will not always remain so and that is exactly why we have them installed. Now if you wish to quantify the energy produced from your cells and like to keep a record for it, then here is the device for the task.
Inverter maker Xantrex on Thursday introduced a device for gathering performance data on rooftop solar electric panels. The Xantrex Gateway is designed to monitor the amount of electricity that solar panels generate and transmits that information to a person’s PC through a home Wi-Fi connection. Monitoring equipment is commonly used for large-scale installations at corporations or power plants. This gateway is designed specifically for people’s homes or small-scale solar power installations. Xantrex built a Yahoo widget that can log system performance on a PC directly from the Gateway and display information graphically.
A gadget like this is an absolute delight for someone who is obsessed with statistics like me. The device tells you exactly how much you have gained and converted that energy in to useful work. The new monitoring device is useful in the fact that it might teach the world how profitable their initial investment in solar technology is by quantifying the stats.
