Interface Solar Power with Smart Home

[Not Aerosmith]

The Luxpower 12K, EG2 18KWPV, Sol-Ark 15K and possibly other inverters have a "smart load" function provided to control a generator. I am wanting to use this "smart load" function as a sensor for a smart home.

I have the Luxpower 12K and the diagram below is from the user manual. You can use either NC or NO functions with the inverter software programmable parameters for SOC to use as a sensor for a smart home. For instance if the batteries SOC=90% automatically turnoff AC or other appliances and announce, system on battery power with low solar production.

If the solar production is enough to keep the batteries charged above 90%, no reason to turn off anything.

I intend to buy a hubitat that can work without the internet or the cloud and can make announcements and control devices. Any suggestions on how to interface the NC NO connections for the generator port to a smart device? This seems to be the same principle used for contracts to sense, if a window or door is open or close.

 

[BentleyJ]

It depends on the smart device or smart system you choose with regard to having available I/O modules. I'm using the Insteon system which relies on Power Line Modulation and Wireless (so they say). In that case you could use a door sensor module connected to the inverter Aux relay instead of the typical magnetic window or door switch.
I'm not necessarily recommending Insteon since they went bankrupt once already and reliability is not 100% but overall the system does work well enough most of the time.

 

[Not Aerosmith]

It depends on the smart device or smart system you choose with regard to having available I/O modules. I'm using the Insteon system which relies on Power Line Modulation and Wireless (so they say). In that case you could use a door sensor module connected to the inverter Aux relay instead of the typical magnetic window or door switch.
I'm not necessarily recommending Insteon since they went bankrupt once already and reliability is not 100% but overall the system does work well enough most of the time.

Appreciate the reply and the heads up about Insteon, I did not know about the bankruptcy.

I an wanting to transition my smart home from Alexa that is cloud base to Habitat. There are other choices, but Habitat can work with Alexa and might make the transition a little easier. I should probably go ahead and install a device to work with Alexa and later when I buy the Habitat figure how to change it over.

When I loss power, the Luxpower 12K hybrid inverters came on seamlessly. I would not had known that there was a power outage, if my power outage device siren had not gone off. It gave me the opportunity to manually load shed to conserve battery power.

 

[Not Aerosmith]

Anyone know a reason why this could not be connected to the generator control circuit and use to trigger smart home commands? I do have dozens of Alexa devices, so it is compatible with my existing smart home. Alexa is cloud base, so I am wanting to transition to Hubitat. There are other choices, but Hubitat supports Alexa, Z-Wave, Zigbee, etc. Hubitat might make the transition a little easier for me, since I have so many Alexa devices.

I intend to use the Luxpower software to program SOC=90% and send a signal to the device using the generator control circuits. I need it to use it as a trigger to execute Alexa commands to control other devices.

Does anyone know the voltage of the generator control circuit?

 

[Craig]

Ok so what I do is use an AC Solid state relay that is Dc controlled to turn off any circuit that I do not want running under a given circumstance. In my use case I turn off a freezer in my garage when the sun goes down so its not pulling from my batteries all night.

 

[Not Aerosmith]

Ok so what I do is use an AC Solid state relay that is Dc controlled to turn off any circuit that I do not want running under a given circumstance. In my use case I turn off a freezer in my garage when the sun goes down so its not pulling from my batteries all night.

Sorry Craig, I don't understand why my post would had offended you. It has never been my intent to offend anyone.

When the grid loses power, we seamlessly switch to hybrid. Since the whole house is on backup, you would not know that there is a power outage. I have no problem with my family running nonessential loads like AC when production exceeds consumption. Use it or lose it.

However, if consumption exceed production, I need to turn off the AC, electric water heater and other nonessential loads. I need to conserve battery power for lights, refrigerators, freezer and other essential loads.

 

[Craig]

Sorry Craig, I don't understand why my post would had offended you. It has never been my intent to offend anyone.

When the grid loses power, we seamlessly switch to hybrid. Since the whole house is on backup, you would not know that there is a power outage. I have no problem with my family running nonessential loads like AC when production exceeds consumption. Use it or lose it.

However, if consumption exceed production, I need to turn off the AC, electric water heater and other nonessential loads. I need to conserve battery power for lights, refrigerators, freezer and other essential loads.

I think I'm losing it not sure how you thought I was offended ???

 

[Craig]

Sorry Craig, I don't understand why my post would had offended you. It has never been my intent to offend anyone.

When the grid loses power, we seamlessly switch to hybrid. Since the whole house is on backup, you would not know that there is a power outage. I have no problem with my family running nonessential loads like AC when production exceeds consumption. Use it or lose it.

However, if consumption exceed production, I need to turn off the AC, electric water heater and other nonessential loads. I need to conserve battery power for lights, refrigerators, freezer and other essential loads.

Thats why I use the relays to turn off the non essential loads under a certain criteria

 

[Not Aerosmith]

Again, I am sorry. I thought you were being sarcastic. I apologize and I do appreciate all help! Steven Tyler

 

[Not Aerosmith]

I have ordered a Sonoff MiniR4, which indicates in the product description that it has dry contact input. I hope that the Sonoff will work as a sensor to report open/close of the generator circuit. The device is so small that it is made to fit into 1-gang box with a duplex receptable, which I intend to do and wire the receptable to be on/off with the generator circuit. This gives me the option to have a visual device or other device to be on/off when the battery SOC<90%. If the sensor will act as a trigger, my smart home can make announcements or automatically shed some loads.

I willing to gamble on the device to see, if it will work. I really want to know when the battery SOC=90%, so that I know solar production < consumption and we need to load shed. I live in Panama, so it will take 2-3 weeks for me to receive the item from Amazon and have it installed.
Good, bad or ugly, I will share the results.

 

[Not Aerosmith]

I bought (2) 40A smart switches that will let me execute voice commands or automatically control the dryer and the water heater or manually turn on/off with switch. I bought (4) smart outlets with energy monitoring that will let me execute voice commands or automatically control (3) CW/HW bottle water dispensers plus an extra outlet. I bought (4) smart outlets that will let me execute voice commands or automatically control clothes washer, dishwasher and to cycle my VoIP modem every night plus an extra outlet. Anyway I am taking load shedding seriously to try and maximize the time that my backup will last. Amazon prime deals for all the 2 smart switches and 8 smart plugs to load shed cost $100.26.