EG4 18kPV Q+A general thread
- Thread starter SignatureSolarJames
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zanydroid
Solar Wizard
It may be suboptimal though compared to giving the proper CT feedback to support optimizing for self consumption. Depends on the export compensation in place. If it is 1:1 net metering with no time of use it will not matter.
If it is very low export compensation or 1:1 with high peak prices then giving the inverter a better shot at being smart will pay off
Yea 1:1 with no TOU here...so I don't need to optimize I just would like to make sure the power company isn't screwing me over.
But now that I know the other panel is capable of using some of my "export" before it hits the meter I think 100-150kwh missing is very reasonable. At least once a week I charge my PHEV mid-day when it's sunny (15kwh battery), and my wife's car is also on the left side panel (another PHEV with a 9kwh battery).
I may ask for an Emporia for X-mas because my curiosity always wins. I bet between all of the data from the 18kpv, my POCO, and an Emporia on the other panel, I can get things pretty dialed in. Just need to see if curiosity is worth the $/effort.
Next project is converting my 120v hot tub to 240v. When it's cold at 120v, I can't "setback" the temperate of the water any and "recover" to a usable temperature in time for our 3x weekly soaks. It takes HOURS. I'm hoping at 240v I can let it stay cold, kick on the heater an hour before use, and have a nice soak without having to keep it at higher temperatures 24/7. That freaking tub is currently sucking almost 9kwh a day right now.
I'll also throw in some more insulation when I'm converting to 240v.
zanydroid
Solar Wizard
You don’t need to if you set up Home Assistant to merge it in Grafana. You’ll just maybe spend 20 hours setting it up in the beginning.
I might have to pass on that one...LOL
zanydroid
Solar Wizard
Do you get “taxed” on export? Here they dip 1 cent per kWh, which works out to about 3%.
zanydroid
Solar Wizard
I have yet to add energy monitoring to my Home Assistant. In part because lazy, in part because I look at Grafana for my day job already, I feel slightly better maybe using the shitty web app for inefficiently and jankily monitoring my solar and emporia.
There are a ton of nerds that do it though. Every inverter and energy monitor has an integration.
I do not thankfully.
We already received notice that everything will change in 2027, with no announcements on what the changes are.
I can only assume they are going to complete F the solar people and I will have to spend the time to optimize things better.
Quattrohead
Solar Wizard
Could all the super clever programming people on this forum get together and make an unofficial or official forum monitoring platform that can take input from all of the usual suspects and I put it in a glamorous display locally ?
zanydroid
Solar Wizard
That's what Home Assistant can do.
ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
Generally speaking voltage is controlled by the producer, current is controlled by the consumer. In a normal scenario the consumer (the inverter) would control the current based on the resistance it provides to the the producer. An MPPT is a little weird because it is designed to run at a range of voltage, none the less if properly engineered it should never try and pull more current that it is capable of handling. For sanity you want a breaker on the feed line that matches your expected draw/wiring capability. The rules don't change for electricity when it comes from a solar panel. If the consumer draws too much current (short or other fault, like a motor with a bad bearing) a safety should trip and break the connection.
Amp rating on an MPPT is the same as an AMP rating on a blow dryer. I may plug it into a 20a 120v outlet, but it's only going to draw 10a or so.
ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
Just put a 30A breaker on the feed line. Current draw is determined by the load, (the consumer), but it's trivial to limit it with a breaker. If the MPPT blows the breaker it was poorly engineered. AMPS are pulled from the source, Volts are pushed from the source.
ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
Nobody is using the same protocols and api. Do you have a wire-frame of some description in mind? I'm not a "pretty" kind of programmer, I'm an engineering kind of programmer... I find the EG4 pages lacking, though it is somewhat better these days. Without the EV's I could almost ignore my system at this point. Yesterday was crappy but my worst ever day was about 35KWH.
The pretty EG4 page pics are nice, but I really just want numbers. I've been slowly adding things to the chart, I'll add red/green backgrounds to the SOC charge rate numbers, and I need to average the battery SOC at the bottom. I have grafana as well, so I can embed some graphs, doubtful I will ever have animated GIF's with arrow pointing in the correct direction, but the hard part is collecting the data from a zillion sources in a sane manner. We could start a different thread if someone is interested, I have personal hosting space, and I'm generally a PHP guy, my CSS skills are not elegant. I wrote all the modbus polling for the 18/12, and the current sensors I have, along with the relay controls in 'C'. I couldn't find a reasonable modbus library that works with PHP, and I hate python. Since my stuff is customized for my environment I can get pretty creative and granular about what I want to display, but I really don't want to have to deal with fine grain control.
What I want to know is, do I have enough capacity/reserve so the little woman can run a load of laundry at 10PM on a whim, when it's going to be cloudy tomorrow, and. . . Is there a problem somewhere, A fault, production below expecation, or ... You want to manage systems by exception not rule. A lot of the sensor stuff I put in was to figure out my needs, the AC uses what it uses, I can't change that so I just have to build out to handle it. Once everything is in place I want to see trends, to manage expectations. YMMV
zanydroid
Solar Wizard
This is the power of open source… just one person needs to do it ?
I usually search for strings like “Luxpower home assistant”
Dunno if the project linked below supports 18kpv
ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
Looked into a couple of the tools out there. Nothing really stood out, HA was one of the better ones. Most of them are more about the eye candy than the function. YMMV emonpi/openenergymonitor are reasonably robust as well if you just want to watch things.
Markus_EG4
I am from Germany. Don't mean to come off rude
Let’s make a new thread. What could be better on the EG4 monitoring site. Also settings and app.
I would love to get more feedback like this from all of you. ?
I would love to get more feedback like this from all of you. ?
Quattrohead
Solar Wizard
I'll start you with a dead simple one.....increase the data rate to seconds instead of minutes ?
Maybe I'm missing it somewhere, but I would just like an easy monthly tracker. Use, export, import, production, etc. Instead of having to look at each bar and add them together.
I'd also like the option to see AC coupled production for the day on the main screen similar to how my DC coupled production is there
I'd also like the option to see AC coupled production for the day on the main screen similar to how my DC coupled production is there
I love my 18, but the interface can be a PITA at times. I just connected 6 more Lifepower4 batteries. All 12 batteries were about 53%. I wanted to do a full charge to 100%. I wanted to do it via AC, so it is a smooth, linear charge.
So I set my AC stop at 100%. I needed to set my AC start SOC. On the inverter? Nope. In the app? Nope. On the web based config? Yep.
At least make the app and web the same for God's sake.
So I set my AC stop at 100%. I needed to set my AC start SOC. On the inverter? Nope. In the app? Nope. On the web based config? Yep.
At least make the app and web the same for God's sake.
Luxpower_Gilbert
Luxpert @Luxpower USA Team
Set it to time instead soc. And set the time 00:00-23:59
ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
You can't poll it that fast. I can't get it to poll reliably faster than about 2-3 seconds. I'll work up another thread for the 18/12 around polling/modbus/UI/monitoring.
I got it working, but consistency between app and web page would be better
Quattrohead
Solar Wizard
Solar Assistant poll's them every 5 seconds, I would be happy if the web monitor could do it every 30/60 seconds. But, please at least have the inverter update the website when a settings change is made.
Quattrohead
Solar Wizard
No mine seems accurate.
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