Monitoring a home solar array with New Relic One
Blog post from New Relic
In 2020, the author installed an 8 kW Tesla solar system with a 27 kWh battery backup and decided to monitor the system using New Relic One, an observability platform traditionally used for web applications. The system comprises solar panels, an inverter, a gateway, and batteries, which allow the house to use solar power, store excess energy, and potentially return power to the grid. By leveraging the unofficial API of the Tesla system, the author was able to pull real-time data and send it to New Relic One using the Metric API, thereby creating custom dashboards for monitoring energy usage and efficiency. The process involved aggregating data from various sources, including weather information, to provide a comprehensive overview of the solar system's performance. The author appreciated the ease of use and flexibility that New Relic One offered, enabling them to visualize data without the need for complex coding or local server management. The author envisions further integration of IoT devices into New Relic One for a holistic home monitoring system and encourages others to try New Relic for infrastructure monitoring, highlighting the benefits of its free account offerings.