Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM 24V - Power saving mode - Has anyone had any success getting it to work reliably?

[Johnnysunrise]

At the title states, I have a Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM 24V system. Currently the inverter is always on, mainly because I have a fridge running all the time, but I am looking at hooking up a 24vdc fridge instead, and the rest of my loads would be intermittent (water pump, lights). Ideally if I could get the power saving mode (setting 04 in the Growatt) working, the inverter would turn off most of the time and save me a signficant amount of power drain from my batteries (around 50W for inverter).

Has anyone had any success with the Growatt power saving mode to work in a similar situation? Or alternatively is there a way to set a timer on the Growatt inverter, so that I can have it running during the day, but off overnight?

 

[ChrisG]

Power Saving mode doesn’t work as you’d expect. You could buy two Raspberry Pi’s (one for Solar Assistant and one for Home Assistant) and power those to do some automation but probably cheaper to pay fie the 50w idle consumption.

 

[Johnnysunrise]

Power Saving mode doesn’t work as you’d expect. You could buy two Raspberry Pi’s (one for Solar Assistant and one for Home Assistant) and power those to do some automation but probably cheaper to pay fie the 50w idle consumption.

I hadn't thought about that. I have been running HA for years at home, and will take a stab at figuring it out. There is no reliable Internet, so it wouldn't be able to use the Growatt integration, but MQTT triggers look like they are the way to go with Solar-Assistant so it would be setting up the right triggers. Thanks.

 

[ChrisG]

I hadn't thought about that. I have been running HA for years at home, and will take a stab at figuring it out. There is no reliable Internet, so it wouldn't be able to use the Growatt integration, but MQTT triggers look like they are the way to go with Solar-Assistant so it would be setting up the right triggers. Thanks.

Yes MQTT all day long!, setting up triggers based on some input like time, sunrise/set, etc. Can do a lot in HA as you know. Assume you’re limited to very localized triggers since no internet. Has to about two dozen Growatt items you can change via Home Assistant and SA MQTT

 

[ChrisG]

Yes MQTT all day long!, setting up triggers based on some input like time, sunrise/set, etc. Can do a lot in HA as you know. Assume you’re limited to very localized triggers since no internet. Has to about two dozen Growatt items you can change via Home Assistant and SA MQTT

I just looked and don’t see a trigger action for the sleep settings, might need to update system and see if they are there.

 

[Johnnysunrise]

I just looked and don’t see a trigger action for the sleep settings, might need to update system and see if they are there.

My limitting factor might be getting my hands on a Raspberry Pi!

It will take some work, with most stuff I do in HA being a bit of trial and error, I will probably have to get it all configured at home then bring it on-site to test, and then repeat until I get it working, but there is potential. Overall draw from two Pi will be much lower than the power to continuously run the inverter.

 

[Rednecktek]

I tried it out for a very short time at the cabin but the 50w draw requirement for it to turn back on was too low. If I turned on every light in the cabin I still didn't hit 50w until the fridge cycled which made it pretty useless to go pee in the middle of the night.

Another thing that bothered the hell out of me is that I had a couple appliances that would beep real loud when they were first plugged in. Every so often the Growatt would kick on the inverter (to check for load?) and I'd hear 2 BEEEP!! echo through the cabin. That and my coffee pot and clocks constantly resetting to 12:00 12:00 12:00 12:00...

Needless to say that setting didn't last long.

 

[Johnnysunrise]

I tried it out for a very short time at the cabin but the 50w draw requirement for it to turn back on was too low. If I turned on every light in the cabin I still didn't hit 50w until the fridge cycled which made it pretty useless to go pee in the middle of the night.

Yeah, in my playing around with it the switch to LED lights meant that the lights pretty much could never trip the inverter on, but we are all pretty much campers by nature and tend to use oil lamps and flashlights at night. Habits are hard to break.

It would probably make my lights kind of useless at the cabin, but in theory the little water pump would be enough to trip the power on, but the more I think about it a timer or some kind of automation is probably a better option since all our power draw except the water pump is probably too low to trip on the inverter.