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Greetings from down under. I live in a home near the small town of Bellingen, in northern NSW, Australia. Glorious country: That's our home at left centre, and obscured by the tree and slightly off the left of the image is a secondary dwelling where my Mum lives. 12 acres, behind our home (to...

In no specific order of importance: I'd like better documentation on how the Home Assistant inverter controls work. I have SA integrated in HA but see nothing about being able to control anything from HA. I'd like to be able to export data from the totals tab, and for some control on what the...

Tried to make a GIF of the power flow card:

When browsing the forum I use the "New Posts" button regularly. I find it a time efficient way to quickly check the forum for topics of interest to me. But I would very much prefer for the resulting list to exclude anything from the Off-Topic sections of the forum. This stuff just clutters...

Solar Assistant combines the data from my EASun 8kW inverter and Victron Smart Shunt. Integrated via MQTT with Home Assistant (and Node Red). Automations manage the Output Source priority, the Charge Source Priority and the Maximal Grid Charge Current settings. There is also a Storm Mode which...

You're allowed to have a fuse and a breaker. Breakers are very handy for taking a battery offline if required.

lol yeah was trying to be brief but can see it gets lost in translation. Let me expand. RPi was my shorthand for a Raspberry Pi computer - same type of computer as Solar Assistant (SA) runs on. I have a spare one, an RPi 4. I used to use it to run Home Assistant but I moved Home Assistant...

Scope of the off-grid backup system: The primary function of the system is to be a very easy to use backup power supply. Flip one switch and that’s it. Wife friendly and idiot proof for me. It needs to provide about 6 hours of backup, which will cover 95% of outages we typically get. Generator...

This is my daily production from my 11 kW grid-tied array, showing the solstice days with red and orange lines. The red are Winter Solstice, the orange Summer Solstice. The deeper these lines are, the lower the production was on that day. I've had two Summer Solstice days with lower...

How did everyone's home energy systems perform in 2023? This is our system's summary for the year (Northern NSW, Australia): Legend top chart: Teal = battery discharge Pink = battery charge Orange = self-consumed solar PV Blue = Imports from grid Purple = Exports to grid Lower chart shows...

Getting back to the original question, to me the cons of going off-grid are: 1. Capital costs. Many don't have the upfront $ required. Paying a smaller regular amount to have a service is often easier. 2. You are now solely responsible for the upkeep, maintenance and operational performance of...

Does anyone else record their outage stats? I have since our grid tied system went live with data Q4 in 2018. Here's a summary of our outage data: OUTAGE STATS TOTAL # OF OUTAGES 73 DAYS 1749 YEARS 4.8 PER YEAR 15.2 OUTAGE...

After 15 years I expect our Fronius grid tied system to have generated close to 200 MWh. It cost AUD 12.8k (USD 8.9k) in 2018. That's a bit under USD 4.5c/kWh. 3 years 10 months in and it has generated 50.65 kWh. It will have paid for itself in bill reductions at about 4.5 years after...

I presume Police decided not to charge him. Which is good, as it sounds like he has potential.

I love how EV discussions often devolve into those who've never owned an EV telling people who do what it's like.

Pumped hydro energy storage has been a thing for over a century. But gravity storage for electrical energy only makes sense at grid scale. You need a LOT of mass and a LOT of height differential. e.g. 1,000 kg raised 10 metres ~= 100 kJ ~= 0.028 kWh A single plug-in 4 Ah 18 V power tool...

My mate David has his ID stolen.

Yes: 1. It has covered us well during many grid outages. Being in a rural area our transmission infrastructure is more vulnerable to power line damage, usually weather/tree related. We get about a dozen longer outages per year. Two weekends ago we had 12 hours of outage. I used to use a...

Victron is nice kit and I would be very happy to have it but I get what I need for 1/3rd of the cost. As for plug 'n' play, honestly can it be any easier than an AIO? I have full remote monitoring and automation control. I have solar forecasting (e.g. my automations use it to assess what sort...

He said social science, not liberal arts but the distinction isn't all that important given liberal arts involves history, literature, writing, philosophy, psychology, sociology, creative arts and so on. Surely a deeper understanding of the human condition and our collective histories is vital...

Have had it running for over two years (August 2021). It turned a cheap AIO inverter into a far more capable unit, not just for monitoring but particularly through the inverter control automations I have set up with Home Assistant (and Node Red). My automation controls when it switches between...

My beef is people milking a joke for all it's worth.

Previously with my Solar Assistant I had to choose between monitoring my entire hybrid battery (Sealed Lead Acid + LiFePO4) with the Victron Smart shunt or just monitoring the server rack units. I have for a long time just monitored the Victron shunt. However... I've now finally tried out...

Update. Had a sparky in yesterday to do some circuit board mods, so now the cutover to back up power is idiot proof for me and super easy for the wife. No thinking required, just flip one switch and we have backup. Can also now use the all-in-one inverter's UPS mode if we want. Two main...

Just like any profession or complex task it takes years of training to learn how to read and interpret research, and to be able to understand what is and is not valid on the basis of the data presented and the methodologies used. This is a skill requiring a career-like focus, including relevant...

If we are going to talk ethics, then one also needs to consider the ethics of the fossil fuel industry.

Because not all batteries operate/supply the same voltage. 100 Ah tells me nothing about a battery's storage capacity. I also need to know the voltage of the system, and there are a multitude of battery voltages in use. 2.0 kWh tells me how much energy storage capacity a battery actually has...

A priest stands at the church pulpit to tell his congregation that after today he is leaving his flock behind to follow another calling. He's embarking on a journey to visit every US state. The shocked church goers ask him why, what was this calling? He responds,

Set up a youtube channel to review the reviewers.

I note in recent days California's grid batteries have been discharging at 6+GW during the peak period and covering 25% or more of the power demand for 60-90 minutes. In those peak periods they were the single largest source of grid electrical energy, that light green blob on the right is...