Solar Monitoring Solution
DECK Monitoring was designed with residential and commercial system owners and installers in mind. DECK Monitoring’s simple, powerful, and field-proven monitoring and display services work with your residential or commercial solar electric or wind system to provide web-based visual displays.
DECK Monitoring allows system owners to see, track and share their energy production in real time on the internet via a graphics-rich public online dashboard, increasing customer satisfaction. A highly configurable alarm, and contractor notes settings, allows the installer or system owner to receive automatic alerts instantly in case of an inverter failure or an under-reporting system. Monitor energy generation, demand, irradiance, and performance data down to the string level – with user-defined real time and historical reporting capabilities.
This remote monitoring solution allows you to manage and view your solar energy system or whole-building energy usage in a single view. You can view your system anytime, anywhere using a web browser or any internet-connected device. Residential and commercial installers can assure customers that their renewable energy system is operating properly. DECK provides views for post-installation support, alerting you to failure issues and providing tools for remote trouble-shooting. The DECK service also generates the regular reports required for performance-based financial incentives available under programs such as California’s CSI.
Residential Monitoring Service
DECK’s Residential Monitoring Service gives the residential system owner the monitoring and visualization tools to understand their solar energy system. The residential solution allows you to improve your net metering results and reduce your electricity bill by managing your energy use.
The image at right is a typical simple view showing real-time and historical data about energy generation, the building’s energy usage, and environmental information. Energy information can be selected to show daily, weekly, monthly and yearly comparisons. A simple Flash application shows consumers “How Solar Works” as well.
DECK offers inverter-direct monitoring for many grid-tie inverters as well as revenue-grade, inverter-independent monitoring that can be used for power purchase agreements, performance incentives and renewable energy credit trading. Residential monitoring systems are for home users only, are single phase, and measure only kWh, not volts and amps.
As with the commercial service, solar integrators who install residential monitoring for their clients also get full access to the DECK admin panel at no extra charge. This allows integrators to track performance of all of their DECK Monitored systems in one view, set custom alarms and reminders, and keep service notes online.
Commercial Monitoring Service
With DECK’s Commercial Monitoring Service you get an accurate and real-time view of your savings and production whenever and wherever you need it. It allows you to view your whole-building energy picture by monitoring one or many building systems in a single view. Pricing is based on the actual monitoring services delivered, not on the kW size of the job.
This graphically intuitive solar monitoring solution allows you to view your solar energy production in a single dashboard view. The Project Details and About tabs allows the customer to include their own pictures and text in dedicated areas to describe and promote their green investment. The DECK dashboard can be easily integrated into a customer’s website, providing ready made green PR and awareness. The DECK service also generates the regular reports required for performance-based financial incentives available under programs such as California’s CSI, where DECK is listed as a Private Data Provider (PDP).
For large projects, DECK also provides string monitoring on the DC side, which allows integrators, owners and PPAs to ensure that their system is operating at peak efficiency. DECK’s advanced string outlier graph shows at a glance if any strings are underperforming, while giving the integrator the ability to adjust the tolerance level to prevent false alarms due to shading or other factors. String monitoring can easily pay for itself in a large system by providing alerts if a string underperforms, which otherwise would pass unnoticed.
DECK Monitoring includes ANSI standard revenue-grade meter with 2% accuracy and meets metering and reporting requirements of California EPBB and PBI programs and of all states requiring revenue-grade meters. All packages include hardware, 5 years of hosted monitoring services and 5 years of warranty coverage. Weather data and building load are options that can be added to the monitoring package. Broadband internet access is required for standard systems. Cellular modems are optional.
Indoor and outdoor kiosk and flat screen display options are also available and are a great way for a customer to promote their green investment in a public place such as a lobby or elsewhere their place of business. The DECK Administration Panel is also included at no extra cost. This password-protected Admin Panel allows you to keep track of all of your customers in one map view and to be alerted of system issues and inverter errors.
