Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

katie279 said:
Perfect - ok, will have a fiddle tomorrow!

Not sure how long it'll be before I can actually check it's working given current weather!
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I mean you can check the immersion heater is working by "boosting" via the controller just to make sure it's responding to commands.

I guess you'll just have to wait for a time for lots of solar. I know mine definitely has done something as I can see the energy usage on it and the fact I've turned my hot water off via gas yet we still have hot water! Joys of being 20 miles from the south coast!



Not too bad today.
 
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gpuerrilla said:
You mean its not so sunny Scotland now? :confused:
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Heheheh, yes I set myself up there! Although I just got a train back from London to Edinburgh today, so the whole country was grey and miserable! (Although I did see several miles of solar panels about halfway up, so I was thinking that must be Ron-ski 's new build .... )
 
Freefaller said:
I mean you can check the immersion heater is working by "boosting" via the controller just to make sure it's responding to commands.

I guess you'll just have to wait for a time for lots of solar. I know mine definitely has done something as I can see the energy usage on it and the fact I've turned my hot water off via gas yet we still have hot water! Joys of being 20 miles from the south coast!



Not too bad today.
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Very impressive, Mr!

Yes I've pressed the boost button, it's more I'm needing to play as I have two CT clamps (other sends excess to charge the cars), so just need to work out how to balance/prioritise this (ie heat water Vs charge cars).

Obviously to test, I need a sunny day with lots of excess!
 
One thing you could do is force your batteries to charge so they're full. Then when the sun's out the excess must therefore go to your Eddi (making sure your cars aren't plugged in) as your batteries won't need any solar. The screen will tell you that it's diverting solar to the Eddi.
 
katie279 said:
4.52kwh... pathetic!

Hey, I signed up to pv-output.org which automatically tracks my output - it says you can set up 'teams' too, so you can see how much different people you pick are generating.

I think we should all sign up and we can compare each day!
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I've just signed up, but seems to require a manual upload. Once my Victron system is up and running there's an online portal that can be shared like this for example https://vrm.victronenergy.com/installation/100328/dashboard
 
Freefaller said:
One thing you could do is force your batteries to charge so they're full. Then when the sun's out the excess must therefore go to your Eddi (making sure your cars aren't plugged in) as your batteries won't need any solar. The screen will tell you that it's diverting solar to the Eddi.
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Is that not it does by default anyway? (Sorry if I'm being stupid?)
 
Ron-ski said:
I've just signed up, but seems to require a manual upload. Once my Victron system is up and running there's an online portal that can be shared like this for example https://vrm.victronenergy.com/installation/100328/dashboard
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Yeah, I'm using home assistant to automatically upload it every 15 mins - you REALLY need home assistant Ron-ski, changes your life.....

PS any opinions on victron Vs Givenergy? Really pleased with Givenergy - great app, great API etc - just have half an eye on these endless delays for my second inverter. Victron seem to have pretty large capacity inverters, I just don't know if any downsides?
 
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katie279 said:
Ooh, just had our Eddi fitted by surprise today - is there anything I need to do/should do to optimise or just leave it as is?
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Can you use the myenergi app on your phone to monitor usage?

I've set an offset of 50W or something so that my batteries charge first before heating up the hot water which works fine.

What myenergi products do you have out of the following:
Eddi (heats up the hot water)
Harvi (wireless comms between your CT clamp and the eddi - optional depending on if you can cable directly to the eddi)
Hub (you may not need this if you eddi is the latest release) - used for remote monitoring.
zappi - I don't have one of these.

This video explains it really well - the menus may be slightly different on your software version but it the video I used to setup mine properly: https://youtu.be/GRPVCidL9oA
 
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gpuerrilla said:
Yeah but I think you need one of the other units for either the car charger or the harvi.
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I have a new Zappi (v2.1) which I'm really pleased with. The v2s have the hub built in so you don't need to buy one as well provided you can get a cable to the CT clamp at the incoming supply. I believe that the new Harvis are the same, you just select whether its the hub device or not but I don't have one so not certain.
The 2.1s also have an on-board ethernet socket and screwless connection terminals. Top install tip: its only fast ethernet (100mb) so there are four spare cores out of the eight in the cat5 cable so you can use them for the CT clamp(s) connection.
 
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OldKitMan said:
Can you use the myenergi app on your phone to monitor usage?

I've set an offset of 50W or something so that my batteries charge first before heating up the hot water which works fine.

What myenergi products do you have out of the following:
Eddi (heats up the hot water)
Harvi (wireless comms between your CT clamp and the eddi - optional depending on if you can cable directly to the eddi)
Hub (you may not need this if you eddi is the latest release) - used for remote monitoring.
zappi - I don't have one of these.

This video explains it really well - the menus may be slightly different on your software version but it the video I used to setup mine properly: https://youtu.be/GRPVCidL9oA
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I believe so, although I intend to just use Home Assistant so everything's in one place and I can add my own features/data views!

I've just got the Eddi I believe - haven't actually checked whether they've wired or used a Harvi, so will need to double check!

Thanks for video, will have a mosey!
 
katie279 said:
I believe so, although I intend to just use Home Assistant so everything's in one place and I can add my own features/data views!

I've just got the Eddi I believe - haven't actually checked whether they've wired or used a Harvi, so will need to double check!

Thanks for video, will have a mosey!
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By the way there is a Raspberry Pi pop-up on Oxford St, London, today and tomorrow. https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/th...ops-up-for-the-last-time-this-year-in-london/

I'm planning to go and buy one rather than getting scalped on ebay/Amazon as keen to try Home Assistant.
 
katie279 said:
Yeah, I'm using home assistant to automatically upload it every 15 mins - you REALLY need home assistant Ron-ski, changes your life.....

PS any opinions on victron Vs Givenergy? Really pleased with Givenergy - great app, great API etc - just have half an eye on these endless delays for my second inverter. Victron seem to have pretty large capacity inverters, I just don't know if any downsides?
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No doubt one day I will setup home assistant, but time is short, and too much on the go at once fries my brain.

Downsides to Victron is cost, and the MPPT charge controllers can get fried rather easily (due to either being wired incorrectly or overloaded), or more to the point there's a fuse than can blow, but it's sealed inside and you have to cut the case open to replace, which is rather poor design.
 
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