v4 meter VAR phase - missing for high PF?
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 6:50 pm
Background: I have two V4 units one on service entrance one on solar inverter
V4 unit on solar system reports significant VAR, about 8% of watts, so for 6KW solar I have near 500VAR (a significant value) . Under these conditions effective PF is rounded off to 1.00 (it is about 0.996) in the V4 report.
I have noticed that the phase indicator perfix for PF (COS) appears to get removed once PF (COS) field hits 1.00.
Problem as I see it: VAR values with unknown phase cannot be combined to find net consumption side VAR.
I have service and solar EKM units, it should be possible to do the math to find consumption side VAR (in an analogous fashion to finding the consumption side watts with the augmented information of the "current direction" field)
If you can report VAR magnitude there must be a phase known for it within the V4. Removing VAR phase information because significant digits of PF have been maxed out does not sound at all correct to me.
Please tell me if I am missing something (I see no other place where VAR phase can be obtained than the PF prefix)
Or alternatively I request that VAR phase be made available (not filtered out of the PF/COS field) so that accurate calculations can be enabled - firmware upgrade?
thanks
V4 unit on solar system reports significant VAR, about 8% of watts, so for 6KW solar I have near 500VAR (a significant value) . Under these conditions effective PF is rounded off to 1.00 (it is about 0.996) in the V4 report.
I have noticed that the phase indicator perfix for PF (COS) appears to get removed once PF (COS) field hits 1.00.
Problem as I see it: VAR values with unknown phase cannot be combined to find net consumption side VAR.
I have service and solar EKM units, it should be possible to do the math to find consumption side VAR (in an analogous fashion to finding the consumption side watts with the augmented information of the "current direction" field)
If you can report VAR magnitude there must be a phase known for it within the V4. Removing VAR phase information because significant digits of PF have been maxed out does not sound at all correct to me.
Please tell me if I am missing something (I see no other place where VAR phase can be obtained than the PF prefix)
Or alternatively I request that VAR phase be made available (not filtered out of the PF/COS field) so that accurate calculations can be enabled - firmware upgrade?
thanks