Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

It looks like you can set an amout that it will continually feed in to cover your base load. But, yes - any time you want it to ramp up to cover a device, you'd need a smart plug attached to sense that demand.

I do like the system, and I can see scenarios where it would be handy. If only it wasn't so damn expensive.
 
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Bug One said:
It looks like you can set an amout that it will continually feed in to cover your base load. But, yes - any time you want it to ramp up to cover a device, you'd need a smart plug attached to sense that demand.

I do like the system, and I can see scenarios where it would be handy. If only it wasn't so damn expensive.
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yup, i mean 10 smart plugs will knock you back over 300 bucks, the inverter is 350 bucks, battery system just over 1k......then you need the panels and cabling.
 
Armageus said:
From the little time I've spend looking at this so far, below 800w doesn't require you to notify the DNO.

The inverter turns off during an outage, to prevent backfeeding and the potential risk to the DNO if they aren't expecting power to be there e.g. when doing maintenance.
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Ah 800 I knew it was something like that.

And yes all UK inverters as part of type approval have to have a grid sensing mechanism and if its missing shut down. I assume those that can function fully off grid all have either a setting for offgrid mode, or like mine an internal switch that isolates from the grid.

Bug One said:
It looks like you can set an amout that it will continually feed in to cover your base load. But, yes - any time you want it to ramp up to cover a device, you'd need a smart plug attached to sense that demand.

I do like the system, and I can see scenarios where it would be handy. If only it wasn't so damn expensive.
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It does seem quite excessive for a fairly small amount of generation / storage. But I guess its basically portable and if you had a South facing balcony for example you could probably see a reasonable ROI at current electricity prices.
 
Possibly a silly question but when we get solar installed will the exports be handled by the existing SMETS 2 meter or will there be a separate meter specifically for exports? The EV installer a few months back put a small consumer unit in the meter box so we are tight on space :-/
 
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Actually, I'm going to rescind that last statement. Just looking through their site - the powerflow unit isn't all "that" expensive. It only really starts to get expensive when you factor in their batteries.

If you've already got one of their batteries, it's a pretty good bit of kit - considering it looks like a fairly well polished system + app.
 
Required said:
Possibly a silly question but when we get solar installed will the exports be handled by the existing SMETS 2 meter or will there be a separate meter specifically for exports? The EV installer a few months back put a small consumer unit in the meter box so we are tight on space :-/
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Smart meter should be used for exports but there is a generation meter installed as well but I don't think those are required for export usage with a smart meter but are a legacy piece of kit these days - someone who knows more may come along and correct me. So very likely you'll need a generation meter installed.
 
Talking to my neighbours yesterday who are due to have an extension on the side of their house closest to ours, and advised that the gable of their roof is actually moving back with the extension. This is the tip of the roof that affects me in winter so hopefully the shading of my panels will come into affect later in the year now!
 
Welshman said:
I would just question why it needs smart plugs and what smart plugs it requires
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Welshman said:
its also pretty expensive as you would need a smart plug on every appliance it would seem....form the video, but i maybe wrong
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Surely that's just to enable the app to measure device power draw?
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Armageus said:
Surely that's just to enable the app to measure device power draw?
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It also tells the battery to draw additional power to what ever device your using. Look at the video were the guy uses a coffee machine, he plugs it into a smart plug and it tells the battery to provide additional power for the machine.
it also says it recommends the ecoflow smart plugs and they are 34 bucks a pop…..
 
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Welshman said:
It also tells the battery to draw additional power to what ever device your using. Look at the video were the guy uses a coffee machine, he plugs it into a smart plug and it tells the battery to provide additional power for the machine.
it also says it recommends the ecoflow smart plugs and they are 34 bucks a pop…..
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But if the only connection between the battery/microinverter and the appliance/smart plug is the socket/ring main it's plugged into, what stops any other devices on that ring main from "stealing" the electricity?

It's all a bit hocus pocus and needs someone to do a proper review
 
Bug One said:
I wonder how many devices you could add to an extension cable plugged into one of those smart plugs.
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At 800w pretty much as many as you wanted.

I have around 40 devices plugged into a single smart switch, it goes into a server rack spec 12 way then into various small extension leads. Its pulling under 300w total, but can peak at 600w on boot (its a pc with many external HDDs)

You could basically do the same here,
 
Armageus said:
But if the only connection between the battery/microinverter and the appliance/smart plug is the socket/ring main it's plugged into, what stops any other devices on that ring main from "stealing" the electricity?

It's all a bit hocus pocus and needs someone to do a proper review
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Not a clue and tbh, i dont care…….theres just not enough information available on the system as yet
 
Its obvious what its doing (well to my non technical mind)
A proper system has a main tail clamp so it can monitor incoming / outgoing and adjust battery storage / usage to either charge / discharge the battery depending on settings.

This hasn't got that, so in order to try to not discharge excess (which would go straight out to grid) it needs to have any higher usage devices monitored by the smart sockets, and work out how much energy to release from the battery based on that.

Anyone with more technical knowledge can now shoot me down, but thats my logic :)
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Its obvious what its doing (well to my non technical mind)
A proper system has a main tail clamp so it can monitor incoming / outgoing and adjust battery storage / usage to either charge / discharge the battery depending on settings.

This hasn't got that, so in order to try to not discharge excess (which would go straight out to grid) it needs to have any higher usage devices monitored by the smart sockets, and work out how much energy to release from the battery based on that.

Anyone with more technical knowledge can now shoot me down, but thats my logic :)
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So that item I found and posted is quite complicated to digest to see if it's any good?
 
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