It would be awesome for the tempest to measure total sokar gain/accumulation for the day. This cane be used to predict solar panel output for a given location over time.
I guess most solar panels already give daily accumulated energy/power. My solar panels do. Besides the solar panel often are at an angle and directed towards the south, whereas the tempest measures almost 180 degrees straight up, so it isnât seeing the same sun as the solar panels do.
I think you might have misunderstood my intention. Accumulated solar gain for the day (mapped over time) would allow me to determine where to best place my (yet to be placed) solar panels. BTW, your solar controller is what gives you your accumulated solar gain (and probably allows you to map it out over time) but that is only after you made a very costly outlay to place the panel array in the first place.
To me, it is an interesting statistic that the tempest is already gathering (but not trending over time). Placement aside, it could give a fairly accurate understanding of how much solar I can collect in the general area through the seasons.
Thatâs a good idea but Iâm not sure how the Tempest is going to help you. The Tempest is placed in a different manner than solar panels.
Perhaps if you described your future plans for your solar installation we could help you make the case.
Perhaps you could define what you mean by thisâŚ
Do you want some kind of average w/m2 measurement over the 24 hour period ?
If I had 24 hours of once every 5 minute average w/m2 readings, how would you measure âaccumulatedâ in that case ? Itâs not the same as counting mm of rain and just adding them up, is it ?
Sounds like a job for grafana to me.
There is formula that takes the 1 minute readings and gives you the daily total.
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Perhaps I started this is a weird way. Let me state it differently. The Tempest already measures solar gain every x minutes and plots in throughout the day. What I would like is that data to be report-âableâ based on intervals like monthly/weekly/last n months). Determine a location for a solar array (stationary or moving along the azimuth) does not necessarily Require an exact measurement from the optimum angle for an array⌠yet it does start with a total amount of sunlight (solar gain) for the general area. For example my location of my tempest is eventually where I would LIKE the array, but that is dependant on how much solar collection I map out over the coming winter months.
So I am not asking for a specific measurement that is not there, nor am I asking that it be reported differently. I am asking specifically for a reporting metric on this sensorâs data collection (and for that matter âŚprobably all other sensor data) that would allow a trend analysis on the aggregate of the data based on a time period selection.
I can, of course write a script using the API that does this, but not everyone can. So I thought it would be a good ask to make the data available in aggregate (not and endless scroll of daily data in the interface).
MK
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I donât disagree with you. You are not the first to ask for this data.
unless your various locations are very far apart, there isnât a lot of difference in the expected return of an optimal oriented solar panel. The biggest difference is the angle or shape of the roof, and the tempest isnât going to do a good job measuring that for you. Or the influence of shadows.
Great idea. There is currently a daily average W/m2 displayed as a daily value in history. It would be great if it (and all the daily values in history) was reportable as weekly, monthly, annual or date range reports.
edit added screen value example:
cheers Ian
That is exactly what third party software like grafana or weewx do.
You are right, Grafana (SaaS) being the easiest.
But really, should a tempest user need to port data to a different tool simply for trend analysis of data already stored on weather flow servers?
I donât think so!
Disagree. No company can be expected to provide any and all possible aggregations of any and all possible sensors. They can (and do) provide a nice API to let creative users with even minimal development chops to summarize public data any way their heart desires.
I would argue that WF seems to have taken a corporate tact that forecasting is their main gig, so itâs not terribly surprising to me re: what their app shows.
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Remember that doing so for over 11k stations means extra server load, extra cost. Yep nothing is for free in this world.
Do you pay an annual fee for the service you get ??? Try some other brands and somehow they all try to make you pay in some way and if not, most probably your user data is sold to others like your mail to whoever wants to spam your inbox.
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Okay, I submitted an idea, you guys can vote for it (or not). Not sure why you feel you have to argue about the efficacy of it from the outset (this is, after all, what the voting system is for)
However, I will say that if you think WF is a physical product company, you are Naive. Their AI service/data platform is where they will derive their profits in both the near and long term. WE ( our weather station data) is the product. Yes we pay for the weather stations, but the data they mine from our weather stations is the product they profit from.
I stand by my assertion that aggregate data is already there. The platform is already designed to serve the data to others, itâs is a matter of whether they want to expose it at the consumer level.
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FWIW, I take offense at being called naive.
Also, nobodyâs arguing. You stated a position. Several of us stated the contrary position.
I also note youâre a new WF user, so perhaps youâre not aware of the long history some of the folks here have. Thereâs a lot of background tribal knowledge behind the answers you are discounting.
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actually it kind of is the same as rain. if you integrate the rain rate in mm/h, you will get the accumulated rain in mm. Just like that you can integrate the solar radiation, and you get Energy per m2 expressed in kWh/m2.
Great! So we have a difference of opinion, which is fair.
I understand your background with WF through your profile. In fact, I read it before my last post assuming that you might have some role within the company and were (perhaps) speaking in an official capacity.
Similarly, maybe you donât understand my background and history as a 15 year veteran in SaaS platform management and support and an additional 20 years in large on-prem platforms (specifically in design,implementation and support for some very large platforms)?
The point is, it doesnât matter what our history is. My Feature request is to provide history/date-range reporting on data already in the platform. I should have been more to the point in the first place. What I use the data for is not relevant. Itâs a valid FR and doesnât require all users to âneed itâ or to âagree with the way it is justifiedâ.
@kietzmanbc, donât forget to vote for your own FR! Creating the topic doesnât register the first vote automaticallyâŚ