Suzuki assigns a year letter code to the end of each model name. Perhaps you’ve noticed this letter designation in your Suzuki repair manual or owners manual but weren’t sure what it meant.

Here’s how it works: If you own a 1999 Suzuki TL1000S X or a TL1000R X or a GSXR600X etc the X at the end tells us it was sold as a 1999 model year. The year of manufacture is not necessarily the model year. Usually around October the new models are released, so it’s possible to have a built date of say 10/98 and have an X (1999) model even though it was built in 1998.

You might notice that “I”, “O”, “Q”, “U” and “Z” are missing from the codes. The letters I, O & U cannot be used in a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) at all. The digit / number 0 and letters U & Z are not used in the year model code.

There is more VIN information here on a Wikipedia – Vehicle Identification Number page.

The following charts contain information about spark plugs and their selection. You can use them to cross reference different numbers by different manufacturers. The TLS uses CR8EK or CR9EK plugs as standard. My GSXR1000K3 uses CR9E as standard.

1) I generated my 1st MWh of energy. (1,000kWh)

2) My the solar export register value overtook and became greater than my import register value on my electricity meter. (Export 639.5kWh vs. Import 629.8kWh the import register (the import register is the total of the peak and off peak consumption. The smart meter is so smart, it can’t show me what I use in peak and off peak separately).

I could have simply bought the power posts and mounted them directly onto the power supply cover the same as the many examples that can be found with a Google search but I liked the idea of the fuses and the fact it is a plug in job in case the power supply dies and I need to use another one.

I’m happy with the kit, it came with everything needed including a power on LED. A switch to turn the power supply off and on (via the light green wire to ground) would be a nice touch, but it’s not to difficult for me to switch the power supply on and off at the power point as needed.

Sparkfun bench top power board kit components.

Here is the pinout for an ATX computer power supply. The one I’m using is an older 20 pin type that has -5V on the white wire (unused in this kit).

1st up I assembled the kit (and used the standard wire colours for their respective voltage).

I removed the cover from the ATX power supply and drilled four holes in it to mount the board. The kit came with 4 stand offs included. Once the board was mounted I put the cover back on and plugged the ATX plug into it. I fired the power supply up and tested all the voltages and everything was fine.

I now have a bench top power supply with some decent power available and it didn’t cost much at all. The fuses supplied with the kit are 5 Amp ones. The power supply I had lying around waiting to be used can supply a maximum of 20A on the +5V rail, 10A on the +12V rail and 14A on the +3.3V rail. The -12V is only good for 0.5A, but I doubt I’ll be using that rail much anyway.

The other advantage I have is; I have my Electricity and Gas with the same retailer so I can ring up and request that my electricity credit be put onto my gas bill. (Plus I get a discount on my Gas bill by having both accounts with the same retailer).

Now I am on a Time of use tariff (TOU):

1 week = 7 days of 24 hours = 168 hours. With my standard time of use tariffs the times are peak at 7am – 11pm week days and all other times are off peak.

So to break it down into long numbers:

PEAK TIME =
Mon: 7am – 11pm = 16 hours
Tue: 7am – 11pm = 16 hours
Wed = 7am – 11pm = 16 hours
Thu = 7am – 11pm = 16 hours
Fri = 7am – 11pm = 16 hours

5 days X 16 hours = 80 hours (need to find another 88 hours for a week)

OFF PEAK TIME =
Mon: 11pm – Tue 7am = 8hours
Tue: 11pm – Wed 7am = 8 hours
Wed: 11pm – Thu 7am = 8 hours
Thu: 11pm – Fri 7am = 8 hours
Fri: 11pm – Mon 7am = 56 hours

OFF PEAK = (4 X 8 ) = 32 + (1 X 56) = 88 hours

PEAK: 80 hours + OFF PEAK 88 hours = 168 hours = 1 week

As long as I keep my consumption below 333kWh / month, I pay the lower Peak rate. >333kWh / month is normal for me.

I pay a massive 29.7110c/kWh peak
I pay a massive 10.8400c/kWh off peak

If I were to consume 1kWh every hour for a week it would work out to be:

PEAK: 1kWh X 80 hours X 29.7110c/kWh = $23.7688
OFF PEAK: 1kWh X 88 hours X 10.8400c/kWh = $9.5392
Total for the week = $33.308

So the $33.308 / 168 hours will give me my average cost per kWh.

$0.198262 / kWh (or 19.8262c / kWh)

During Summer time, my solar system will offset a lot of the 7am – 7pm consumption and leave me to pay for the 7pm – 11pm period, sort of makes me glad I don’t have to pay for a more expensive shoulder period that would be hard for me to minimise or offset.

I highlighted the term “apparent power” as that is all it is when using a basic clamp on device such as a Current Cost EnviR and the likes to measure the solar PV system generation.

On my EnviR my EverSolar inverters show a power consumption of 37W each when they are shut down, but in reality it is only 0.4W

The apparent power consumed by the inverter when it is dark and the PV panels are not producing power is not the full story and is not what the consumer is being charged for.

I’ll try and keep the first part of this post simple.

A basic clamp-on power measuring device is really only measuring the current of the load (or generator) in Amps. It is displayed as Watts /Kilowatts and Kilowatt-hours (kWh). It is only one third of the story. There is the actual voltage (that is not really a fixed value, but the devices use a fixed value) and there is power factor (more on power factor later).

The EnviR is showing “Apparent Power”. We, as residential / domestic customers currently don’t get charged for Apparent Power (kVAh). The VA that the basic clamp meter devices display is VA and not Watts even though the display might say it’s Watts & kWh

My EverSolar TL1500AS inverters show 37W each on the EnviR when shut down / off line (for a total of 74VA (not Watts as the EnviR would have me believe)).

The schematic for the TL1500AS inverter shows that the EMC filter is after the anti islanding disconnect contactor.

I used some test equipment I have at my disposal and got some real readings to help clarify the numbers observed.

Measured Volts = 251.4VAC
Measured Amps = 0.154A
Measured Power factor = Leading 0.01
Measured Watts = 0.4W

So VA = V * A = 251.4 * 0.154 = 38.7VA

The EnviR doesn’t quite get the VA right as it uses a fixed value for the voltage i.e. 240V (So EnviR 240V * 0.154A = 36.96VA that the EnviR displays as 37W).

Now for the Real Power / True power (i.e. NOT EnviR / Clamp device Apparent Power is displays as True Power).

Watts = V * A * p.f
Watts = 251.4V * 0.154A * 0.01p.f = 0.38W

My inverter consumes 0.38W when shut down of a night, my Watt meter showed it as 0.4W and the EnviR shows it as 37W.

Ignore your basic clamp meter devices when looking at your inverter consumption of a night.

I’m sure there are a few out there that don’t know the difference between Apparent power (VA) and true power (W) or know of Power Factor. I know about it because I’m an Electrician and have to deal with both. The Current Cost devices do not measure or display true power which is probably acceptable to most, it’s only when you get into the nitty gritty that you need to be aware of the difference.

I’m no teacher. I understand Power Factor, but I’m not sure if I can teach others about it.

Put any inductor or capacitor (or a combination of both i.e EMC filter) on an AC supply and it will draw current / amps and will show up on a basic device like the EnviR. But the power factor is terrible, the current is way out of phase with the voltage.

If you put an actual real Watt meter on it, the Wattage is minimal. I’ll try a basic example: A capacitor, it charges and draws current from the supply as the AC sine wave voltage is increasing. As the voltage decreases on the sine wave the capacitor returns the energy back. Net value of Wattage used = zero (apart from some small unavoidable losses, like resistance as there is no perfect conductor, so a little heat is generated). You can measure the current with a clamp meter, and the EnviR will incorrectly display it as Watts. But no Watts are being consumed.

The same goes for an inductor, as current flows through the windings it creates a magnetic field, as the voltage falls, the magnetic field collapses and returns the energising energy back into the lines. Net value of Wattage used = zero (apart from some small unavoidable losses, like resistance as there is no perfect conductor, so a little heat is generated). You can measure the current with a clamp meter, and the EnviR will incorrectly display it as Watts. But no Watts are being consumed.

Anyone that is really concerned about the inverter wattage consumption when it is shut down should NOT be using a basic device like a Current Cost device. Get a REAL watt meter installed on it. You can get cheap ones for a couple of hundred dollars that will display, Volts, Amps, Power Factor, True Power and Apparent power as minimum.

Currently, as far as I’m aware, no domestic premises are charged for kVAh, only for kWh. Some industrial premises are and they run power correction centres to try and keep their power factor as high as possible. So if you hooked up a large capacitor to a 3 pin plug at home and the EnviR etc showed you using 1kW, you’d actually pay $0.00 as the EnviR is actually showing kVA that you aren’t charged for.

Here is decent description of power factor on WikiPedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor

I have a Fisher & Paykel Excellence 7.5 Smart Drive electronic washing machine. I used a Clipsal EZAudit meter to monitor its consumption for 3 different loads.

When the washing machine is plugged in and the power point is turned on the machine consumes 9.7 Watts just sitting there in stand-by mode. Pressing the power button to wake it up causes it to draw 14 Watts. If I were to leave that power point switched on 24/7 the consumption per year = 85kWh

That 9.7 Watts is at a powerfactor of 0.43 so might appear as ~22W on a basic clamp device like a Current Cost EnviR etc that really display VA and not Watts.

(24 hours * 365 days = 8760 hours. 9.7 Watts * 8760 hours = 84972Wh / 1000 = 84.972kWh).

I washed every load using the same settings:

• Cycle = Heavy Duty
• Water temperature = Cold Warm
• Water Level = Auto
• Spin Speed = Fast

6 bath towels + 1 tea towel = 0.080kWh ~43 minutes
Extra full load of dark clothes (work pants, tops & windcheaters etc) = 0.095kWh ~45:30 minutes
Medium load of coloured (socks, jocks, t-shirts etc) = 0.077kWh ~ 40:00 minutes

If I used a figure of 0.085kWh per load and divide that into the 85kWh / year it equals 1000 heavy duty wash cycles wasted. Or 2.7 loads / day.

Tip: Turn your electronic washing machine off at the power point when it is not in use.

EDIT:

Or 123 wasted wash cycles / year. I guess it’s still 2.3 loads / weeks. Not much $$$ wise, but free loads all the same.

The post is mainly to do with having all the data stored in the PMU available for AS Control to display. Especially when a PC isn’t connected to the PMU 24/7 or when accessing the data remotely (off site). If you want to do a file import / export or look at graphs of past history AS Control uses the databases on the computer AS_Control is running on. If it hasn’t been logging live data for a while then there is not much data to look at, the only data stored on the PC is data collected while connected to the PMU when the PV System is running and the inverter is on.

I run a batch file that automatically connects to the PMU and downloads all the databases to the PC, then when I open AC Control to view my data, I have the most up to date data that the PMU has recorded.

Basically I copy these files:

\HistLog\*.dat
\HistLog\*.ini
\HistLog\Daily\*.*

\Histlog\Monthly\*.*
\Histlog\Weekly\*.*
\Histlog\Yearly\*.*


A little more about that file called ever.log in the /HistLog/Log/ directory.

That file uses more of the 1GB of onboard storage available than the other log files. From memory mine grew by one or two MB per day. The batch file I wrote to copy the log files to my PC renames the ever.log file to old_ever.log and the PMU then just creates a new one. I have not noticed anything going wrong by doing this. The log file size now depends on how often I run the batch file that renames it.

The ever.log file grows by a megabyte or two per day as it is written to every 10 seconds while the PMU is powered up. The rest of my data from the 6th May to the 6th of Jun only uses 1.17MB. (I have the daily log updated every 30 seconds while the inverter is running).

PMU Memory Usage

PMU FTP

PMU FTP HistLog Folder

If you click on Setting > Record > Set and adjust the values, it only affects the rate at which the data is recorded to the local database on the local computer while actually connected to the PMU. That’s OK if you have PC connected to the PMU 24/7. For me, I download the PMU database daily and use that. It doesn’t necessarily have the same resolution as PMU > Set > Sample Interval Time. (Mine does, as I adjusted them both to be the same).

EverSolar Inverter Record Setting

The PMU database is updated according to the settings in PMU > Set > Sample Interval Time > {enter password} and change the settings then restart the PMU. (Spot the typo Sencond? I have fixed that by editing the language file (as well as a few other typo’s) C:\Program Files\AS Control\language\lang_eng.ini)

EverSolar PMU Record Settings

The other thing is if you click on any of these sub-menu’s they display the settings last entered on the local PC. i.e. If you change the PMU settings on one PC and reset the PMU and then check them on another PC, the other PC will display the default or last used settings, NOT the current PMU settings. Clicking on PMU > Set > Sample Interval Time, does not show the current values, just the last or default values on the machine used.

Connecting off site using AS Control

I set up a free account with a Dynamic DNS server company and entered the details into my ADSL wireless router, gave the PMU a static IP address in the router and then put the PMU in the DMZ of the router.

I then entered the DDNS domain into the Setting > Communication > Configure, screen.

EverSolar PMU network settings

This allows me to watch the system anywhere I have internet access and AS_Control running. I can also FTP into the PMU remotely as well.

But there is a quirk when accessing the PMU via a DDNS server. AS_Control does not totally treat the address as being dynamic at all. When you enter the DDNS domain details AS Control fetches the current IP address and puts it into its INI file and uses it, all is good until my ISP diconnects me at midnight for a few seconds and issues me with a new dynamic IP address. The next time I open AS Control (or if it is still open and running) it can’t connect to the PMU as it is using the old IP address.

I have to go to the Setting > Communication > Configure, screen, hit “Remove” on the DDNS setting and then hit “Add” and it will then go and fetch the new address and write that into the INI file and all is good again until I get a new IP address. At least I don’t have to re-type the DDNS domain each time as the details are still in the “Domain” entry box. Just hit “Remove” the hit “Add”. Perhaps it would be better if AS Control tried to fetch the Dynamic IP address each time it is started up rather than each time the DDNS domain is entered into the DDNS box.

This time I fitted 9 X NESL DJ-190 D/A 190 Watt mono panels. I can now monitor the performance differences between the original Trunsun Solar TSM190 /MONO using the EverSolar PMU and AS Control software.

It is definitely not an economical way to do it. Consumers should always install the absolute maximum system size they can fit and afford in the first place. 2 X 1.5kW inverters cost more than 1 X 3kW inverter. The resubmission of paperwork, the re-inspection fees etc all add up. But it does have at least one advantage, it gives me redundancy, if something goes wrong with one of the systems instead of losing all of my generating capacity, I only lose half of it.

From this to this:

(Click any of the images for a larger view)

One row of 9 X Trunsun Solar TSM190 / Mono PV panels (top) and one row of 9 X NESL DJ-190 D/A PV panels (bottom):

I’ve had a 600VA UPS forever. Surge protection for my modem / router (I’ve had to replace one after a lightning storm even though the whole estate is on underground phone and power). Surge protection for whatever I plug into it.

As a bonus, when power fails, my router keeps working, so does my laptop under its own battery power, hours of internet fun in darkness. My energy monitors are plugged into it too. ( When power fails my usage is zero, but a lot of zero’s look better than nothing, i.e. A gap in the data). The original battery in the UPS was getting past its use-by date and the back-up time was getting shorter and I didn’t want to have to pay for another cheap UPS (or battery) so I used a perfectly good battery I had at my disposal.

But the battery I had was 17Ah, a little larger than the 7Ah battery that is included with the UPS. So I removed the OEM battery, extended the leads and hooked them up to an external battery. (Did I mention I hope the charging circuit doesn’t melt when it has to recharge the higher capacity battery? Floating is OK and running it down to 50% is ok, I’ve not tried more than that. If it fails, I’ll buy another cheap 600VA UPS (<$70AUD)).

Supercharged UPS