question

Thanks for the new feature!

Currently the forecast works quite well for my system.

Since this is machine-learning based on past trends, how long would it takefor the system to adapt to changes in the panels themselves? I am getting a new MPPT charge controller soon to resolve a panel facing problem, and would likely in a year's time add quite a few panels. In that case the historic values should tend to lower the forecast for at least some time.

Really looking forward to this feature, but when I hover over the "Show forecast" button I'm shown a tooltip saying "Your forecast will be available up to 2 hours after you set your location".

As you can see from my screenshot, my location is set and has been for much longer than 2 hours (I last set it over 24 hours ago).

Is the tooltip message poorly worded and it's a case of waiting for longer? Or should I be seeing the forecast by now?

Thanks

Hi,

I set location 3 days ago, the forecast is not working. The button is greyed out.

Thanks for your help

forecast copy.png

Wow amazing: This functionality is very usefull. I am in the North of France and the results are bluffing.
I use this feature to estimate the rest of the power availability of the installation. manually!

Is automation planned to switch ON non-priority loads off-grid?
The efficiency of the installation should be greatly increased!
Pierre

It worked great for a few days. Since a week or so the prognosis bars in the chart disapeared. Is there any clou or hint ?

hello, very good functionality.
My station Off Grid is in the north of France and the predictions are very accurate.

I use this function to increase the efficiency of my station .And I estimate the remaining power available by hand to activate non-priority loads.

If the communication hardware is able to receive information in the Venus OS, do you plan to automate a function to switch a relay if the instantaneous power consumed locally is lower than predicted?.
Pierre

Is this feature only working for solar chargers or should it also work for PV inverters connected on the AC side?

I read all the comments but did not find this info.

hello, Good job. even in rainy weather. Forecast is overestimated by 10%

What is the next step?
Give a min, nom, max forecast power?
The forecats are correct if you manage to make the real may be just near the predicted min and max.

pierre

Hi

Really great and useful feature, which I prior to this have visualized in my NodeRed. Great to have it in one place and really well made by the design team!

But is the “weather widget” needed anymore? For me it only take up space and the forecast is much more useful.

Thank you for the great VRM app!! Really appreciated and one of the reasons I choose Victron.

BR,

Lars (Denmark)

Thanks for this great feature,
it is already pretty useful.

As it seems like the forcast is already for more than 4 days in advance (with and move in the Solar Irradiance view) , it would be great to t have information available in other views in VRM or be able to access the next day(s) with “>”. For me It would also help to have an estimated sum (per day) .

As you are already dealing with forcasts - it would also help to see the (price per kWh/hour (forecasted and history) from the ”ENTSO-E Transparency Platform”

Really Great to see yo u advancing into this direction!!!!!

Hi and thanks for the great feature!

How does the system react if I change my solar configuration eg number /orientation of panels/MPPT/connection?

Can I reset something by myself or have I to wait until the system is learning the new configuration?

Best regards,

Mario

Hi

great feature and will replace my Solcast Implementation. Node Red works well also.

Are there any plans to extend the forecast to 3 days?

KR

wohlfeil

Hello

I have setup the forecast feature 4 days ago but still shows 0 as forecast. Not sure what else to change as per the discussion this should already be working without hassle. Could you please have a look and help me to setup this correctly?

Hi, this looks like a really great feature, thanks a lot! We'll certainly use it to optimize heat pumps and more.

But I think something may be wrong with my two sites, I set locations approx. 4 days ago and still see zero forecast (0 kWh). The "Solar Irradiance" widget is present though and also showing plausible values and forecast. Did I miss some setting maybe, do I just have to wait longer?

My test of VRM forecast:

"Corrected" is corrected forecast based on average hour differents from last 28 days.

Congratualtions for your great approach! :-) This makes Victron even more valuable apart from great product quality.

Several contributors requested to see the forecast data for past hours. This seem valuable for me too but it is tricky as the forecast changes over the day. My suggestion is to generate a graph pretty similar to SOC graph. There you can show the course and variance in a very clear manner, while preventing occupation of much space inside the overall display.

Congratualtions for your great approach! :-) This makes Victron even more valuable apart from great product quality.

Several contributors requested to see the forecast data for past hours. This seem valuable for me too but it is tricky as the forecast changes over the day. My suggestion is to generate a graph pretty similar to SOC graph. There you can show the course and variance in a very clear manner, while preventing occupation of much space inside the overall display.

Using this new feature lately. Worked great until I had to replace my pv meter. Now I get double the prognosos, also the old meter is not present anymore. Someone knows hot to fix that?

Thanks a lot for this great feature! :-)

Currently I am using SolCast API in my own Perl application to integrate forecast data into home automation.

Is there already an endpoint in the VRM API to retrieve the forecast data of the own PV system? I didn't find it in the API documentation.

I would like to replace the native SolCast API with the forecast from VRM.

I have solar production forecasting configured and working on two virtually identical sites (same suite of Victron equipment and networking). On one of the sites everything is working as expected. On the other site, though solar forecasts are showing on the main VRM page, there is no ‘solar irradiance’ widget on the advanced page. None of the widgets that were introduced with the release of the solar production forecasting feature is showing on the advance page. Please what is the solution to this issue?

Very nice and interessting feature!
Would it be possible to state the estimated daily / weekly / monthly/ yearly performance in comparrisson the real performance? (due to grid feed regulations / orientation / system losses) and on a long-term basis for degradation of the installation?

Just want to say thank you to Victron for the latest update of the widget on Android to show the forecasted solar for the day. Got this on my home page on my phone, FANTASTIC!

Could you please also put in an option to add future SoC based on the last days consumtion and current SoC? That way it will be very easy to see if batteries will be full before next use of cabin, or similar.

předpověď je skvělá a pro nás i karavany velmi přínosná. Zkusil jsem změnit lokalitu, abych viděl předpověď v místě, kam jedu nebo abych se podíval na místa, která znám, abych porovnal, jak to tam teď vypadá. Změna místa však předpověď vůbec nezměnila a předpověď je stále stejná pro Malagu i Stockholm.

Why are the VRM Dashboard solar forecast and the API forecast different ?

VRM dashboard forecasts 8.5 kWh.

vrm_solar_irradiance_fc forecasts only 2369 Watts for the same interval.

Below some screenshots of forecast for 16 Oct generated on 15 Oct

Dashboard:

API query: https://vrmapi.victronenergy.com/v2/installations/xxxxxx/stats?type=custom&attributeCodes[]=vrm_solar_irradiance_fc&interval=hours&start=1697432400&end=1697475600"

Burried deep in this blog there is an answer from Peter stating that the URL is https://vrmapi.victronenergy.com/v2/installations/<instalation id>/stats?type=forecast&interval=hours&start=<start date and time>&end=<end date and time> .

Indeed, with that URL the results from the API match the data displayed in the Dashboard.

Maybe someone could update the VRM API documentation and add 'forecast' on page https://vrm-api-docs.victronenergy.com/#/operations/installations/idSite/stats

Hi @Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager)

Thanks for this awesome feature, I'm currently trying to utilize it for a lookahead in combination with cheap grid prices. However I noticed, that the forecast became pretty inaccurate recently. It worked fine during (end of) summer, but now that it gets more cloudy and the sun is lower, it is quite off most of the time. Like predicting 11kWh, but I only got 3 in the end. Other days are not so much off, but it clearly does not match properly.

As I use an external PV Inverter, Victron actually doesn't have any knowledge about my PV Installation, so I was wondering if it would be possible to specify that somewhere, so the prediction would get more accurate.

As side note: I use a MP-II as AC coupled battery charger and inverter.

Thanks

Samuel

Show forecast in the dashboard tab is not Working on my VRM installation.

I waited for more than 24 hours, but nothing happend.

The Solar Irradiance widget in the advanced tab shows enough data:

Has somebody any idea how to fix it?

Gerd

The problem is a attached GPS mouse, see here:
https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/215684/early-preview-of-new-vrm-solar-production-forecast.html?childToView=243412#answer-243412

Regards,

Gerd

Please note that forcast operates on the widget on an iphoneshowing

Preview attachment Screenshot 2023-11-19 at 08.02.52.pngScreenshot 2023-11-19 at 08.02.52.png206 KB

but VRM on both an iphone and on a Windows 10 PC gives

Note that it worked as expected for a month but has proved problematic singe I added a solar pannel to one om my 2 MPPTs giving it 2 175W Victron mono pannels in series.

I hope I can offer some of my experiences and feedback as requested for the way I’ve been using ESS to help share what is in the field with Victron. I’ve been looking at the forecasting in pre 3.2 version and in beta. Winter forecasting for me is the most important. From November to mid February I’m charging my 10.5kw batteries for 3 hours in Ocotpus Flux( half price charging from 2-5am) peak rate usage 4-7pm, sometimes exporting at very high export reward or zero use reward during peak times from energy grid operator, and using them through peak hours until 7. Daytime solar top ups are crucial and predicting sunshine an important pastime. I used to predict on iOS weather but that turned sour last last year so BBC weather is more accurate for me. I compare the forecast with Victoroms prediction for next day and I have to say VRM is wildly optimistic every time. Estimated of 3-4 kw when actual ware 1.5 or 6kw with 3-4 sometimes. I expected the gap between predicted and actual to slowly close to be more realistic over the last 6 months but not the case. I e resorted in winter to charging to 60% firing 2-5am cheap rate and hoping for good solar from bbc, or if it’s dire then going to 100% on the worst looking day ahead. I’d love to help the predictive learning process by being able to enter my 3.8kw capacity facing SSW at 32° pitch if it would help, or be able to put some feedback in to help the machine learn. My attempts at setting the charge time using the charge timers are based around setting 4 between 0.5 hours and 3 hours in half hours increases and leaving the 5th program as a wildcard. Setting the 4 timers to 90% but never getting there due to my time restrictions seems the best way for me to highly select my charge level based on next day prediction. My wild card 5 program in February is based around setting 60% charge level for 2-5 am at half price and letting it sit at 60% for those 3 hours, I use 4.5kwh daily so this works and allows the sun to contribute to the batteries with the capacity I’ve left empty to make the most of solar over ford charge.

I haven’t felt ready to jump into dynamic ESS from the reports I’ve heard from other users and my experience of the next day predictions first hand being wildly optimistic for solar input.

Also I’ve not jumped into DESS because it seems like use the wizard and set it up or not. I’ve no way of knowing what’s behind the blue button and there’s no emulator for my feel good that it’s not a one way road to DESS that I might regret for the above reasons. If I could have a random access way of dipping a toe in then I might combine my scheduled charging experience with some auto import export trials but I’m way too risk averse currently until the UI / setup a little more visible, for me that is. I run Venus also in a boat on Rpi in all the beta releases but I can’t trial DESS on shore power setup for obvious reasons.

I’d love to have an easier way to import and export using a VRM ui next to “keep batteries charged” rather than turning my iPhone sideways in a pub mid conversation and setting an alarm for 1 hour when my energy provider gives a late message that I can export for £4, £2.50 or £1.25 for an hour, but I’m sure I’ll either leap into DESS or the UI will move from console to VRM in the next few releases maki glide easier.

Thanks for listening and for your team’s relentless dedication programming the best value product range in the world. I’m grateful for every release and bug fix.

Hi

This feature was working for me, but it stopped working with the show forecast button, if I click on this it comes up with text about taking up to 28 days. But the forecast does not turn up.

?

In the past the solar forcast lukes qite good but toda is avery rainy day and the forcast on the VRM overview showed a perfect curve. Now at noon the curve is looking closer to realistic values but does not mach to the Solcast Data that are displayed as Solar Irradiance.

My thought was that there is a direct relation. But here it is not specially at the morning hours.

Hello, for me the solar forecast seems absolutely off (factor 2+ wrong)

yesterday with same weather forecast (irradiance curve looks good and the same)

This leads to charging from the grid and then delivery to the grid since batterie is full too early

I was thinking the system should be able to learn from previous days but seems not improving since weeks. Any ideas how I could influence the sun forecast? (location is set correctly)

I tried it again after a long time and I found this in settings -> location:

Your timezone setting will be updated using the new location only if you do not have it set on the GX device. Forecasts will be unavailable for up to 3 hours after the location change.

When changing the location (more than 10km), your forecast will become available in the next 3 hours.

And it´s working GPS mouse and solar forecast, thanks @Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) .

I tried it again after a long time and I found this in settings -> location:

Your timezone setting will be updated using the new location only if you do not have it set on the GX device. Forecasts will be unavailable for up to 3 hours after the location change.

When changing the location (more than 10km), your forecast will become available in the next 3 hours.

And it´s working GPS mouse and solar forecast, thanks @Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) .