I am considering getting a Doc Wattson meter. Being able to tell how many Ah were either generated or consumed would be great. Also, I'd love to be able to just glance and see my system voltage without flipping on my DMM.
I'm wondering if the meter will run backward or count down if appropriate.
Right now I have -50/+50 Ammeter hooked up between the Negative battery terminal and my system bus. EVERYTHING is hooked up to that copper bus on the other side of the meter - wind, solar, grid battery charger, and all my loads. If I run an appliance, the meter dips into the red (negative). If I power up the battery charger to my bus, the meter tips to the green (positive). If I am using as much as I'm generating, even those amounts are zero, of course it sits in the middle.
If I hooked up that Doc Wattson meter in the same location, would the Ah count go up AND down? I figured a mechanical meter of some kind would give me a net result. For example, we all talk about "spinning the meter backward" on grid-tie applications. But would this meter also accomplish the same task?
Anyone have any knowledge or experience with this?
I guess if you are making more than you use, and dumping on a daily basis, you'd always read right around zero. But those of us who go days between dumps, would I be able to see a negative number?