My Victron Cerbo GX Home Assistant Integration

[ricardocello]

OK, I've had Home Assistant running on a RaspPi5 for a few months talking to some Shelly light switches,
and talking to my UniFi Protect cameras, also bridged to Apple Home. It works reasonably well.

Today I decided to integrate with the Victron Cerbo GX so I can have a local data repo in addition to VRM.
Do I need this? No, I'm just tinkering and having fun.

I followed this guy's video to setup Mosquitto bridge to the Cerbo. It was exceptionally well done.

This allows both monitoring and control in parallel with the normal Victron Console and VRM.
Change a setting in one place, and it is reflected in everything else within a second.
Also, my older command line MODbus tools also work in parallel. Everything works together, very impressive.

One thing I really liked was using MQTT Explorer to show the tree view of what is available on the Cerbo (see mqtt-explorer.com).
I was already familiar with the extensive list Victron provides on MODbus and dbus, and the MQTT view is very similar.

Right now, I've setup some basic gauges.
Anyone else done this? Any cool things you've discovered?

 

[ricardocello]

 

[1201]

Very nice. Will you be doing any automations based on the new entities?

 

[ricardocello]

Very nice. Will you be doing any automations based on the new entities?

Probably. I'm new to HA.
The only automation I've setup so far is the MQTT keep alive every 30 seconds.

It occurs to me that I can do cross entity automations, though I haven't dreamed up anything yet.

I suspect life will go on as normal until the light bulb comes on that I can create an automation!

 

[1201]

Probably. I'm new to HA.
The only automation I've setup so far is the MQTT keep alive every 30 seconds.

It occurs to me that I can do cross entity automations, though I haven't dreamed up anything yet.

I suspect life will go on as normal until the light bulb comes on that I can create an automation!

Are there any notifications you would like? You can for example set up a notification automation to ping your phone if the grid goes down, or if battery voltage is above a certain level etc etc

My inverter doesn't have a fan and it gets hot so I set up an automation that turns on an external fan when the inverter temperature is above 100 degrees

 

[ricardocello]

Are there any notifications you would like? You can for example set up a notification automation to ping your phone if the grid goes down, or if battery voltage is above a certain level etc etc

My inverter doesn't have a fan and it gets hot so I set up an automation that turns on an external fan when the inverter temperature is above 100 degrees

Those are both useful. I may need a ventilation fan in the utility room during the summer.

 

[Madcodger]

Thanks for sharing this, @ricardocello . I need to see if I can get info from my Rpi 3B running Venus OS out in the office building, into HA. I don't need to control anything on the Victron side but would be nice to pull the info into HA (have been using my EG4 data from the house system and love it).

 

[dmsims]

I use a modbus integration (although these are in a state of flux ATM due to changes in HA)

I have a Shelly EM which provides whole house load to the Cerbo and a reading from a dedicated EV charger circuit

When the latter is triggered I switch the (solar) batteries to charge via the Victron integration

 

[ricardocello]

Added some grid gauges and cleaned up.
The ESS is currently pushing most of that PV back into the house for consumption.

 

[1201]

Added some grid gauges and cleaned up.
The ESS is currently pushing most of that PV back into the house for consumption.

View attachment 286680

Quattro input power is battery charging rate?

 

[ricardocello]

Quattro input power is battery charging rate?

No.
Since ESS is installed, inverted power runs to AC Outputs and to AC Input to backfeed the rest of the house not on the critical loads panel.
When charging battery, the quattro input power is the battery charging power + critical loads.

In fact, it is discharging the battery at 241W. I dynamically control the inverter limit to make it this way.
That isn’t standard behavior.

 

[Brucey]

So you have a minimum grid use in place to avoid possible backfeed?

 

[ricardocello]

So you have a minimum grid use in place to avoid possible backfeed?

100 W grid setpoint currently. It does not prevent possible backfeed.
Backfeed happens every time a big load shuts off it is exceeds what grid I'm using.

Fortunately, old spinning wheel meter just goes backwards for a second or two.
The 1990s vintage AMR reporting to PoCo does not detect this.
The PoCo "Coming Soon: Meter Upgrade Program" will put an end to this.

 

[ricardocello]

And then I really really need to have more batteries.
Right now I can use the PV on self-consumption.

 

[fwunder]

Ya know I was kinda tinkering today and thinking I could use a Shelly relay, generator start/ignore AC, Homebridge plugin , Siri shortcut(s) and FordPass API to monitor battery bank SOC and start my 2023 Ford 150 w/7.2 kW on board generator and recharge batteries. Long way around two wire generator start, but would be fun if it worked. Stupid Ford removed generator monitor and control from their remote FordPass app a couple of years ago. You think home assistant could trigger script/shortcut based on relay?

 

[fwunder]

On a diferent tangent...

Any clues? "In the coming weeks, we are rolling out some very big changes to VRM, so definitely stay tuned"

VRM release notes 19-03-2025

I am happy to inform you of what we added to stable VRM yesterday: Security enhancements When you update your account email, we now send a notification to your old email address. This ensures you’re always aware of changes to your account for added security. When you have not set up 2FA for...

community.victronenergy.com

 

[ricardocello]

Ya know I was kinda tinkering today and thinking I could use a Shelly relay, generator start/ignore AC, Homebridge plugin , Siri shortcut(s) and FordPass API to monitor battery bank SOC and start my 2023 Ford 150 w/7.2 kW on board generator and recharge batteries. Long way around two wire generator start, but would be fun if it worked. Stupid Ford removed generator monitor and control from their remote FordPass app a couple of years ago. You think home assistant could trigger script/shortcut based on relay?

Shelly stuff is extremely communicative and well integrated into HA.
I assume you can do an automation to do all that, but it's a long way around (as you said).

The weakest link will likely be the home bridge plugin and Siri.

 

[ricardocello]

On a diferent tangent...

Any clues? "In the coming weeks, we are rolling out some very big changes to VRM, so definitely stay tuned"

VRM release notes 19-03-2025

I am happy to inform you of what we added to stable VRM yesterday: Security enhancements When you update your account email, we now send a notification to your old email address. This ensures you’re always aware of changes to your account for added security. When you have not set up 2FA for...

community.victronenergy.com

Although I am a moderator over there, I have no inside information

 

[1201]

No.
Since ESS is installed, inverted power runs to AC Outputs and to AC Input to backfeed the rest of the house not on the critical loads panel.
When charging battery, the quattro input power is the battery charging power + critical loads.

In fact, it is discharging the battery at 241W. I dynamically control the inverter limit to make it this way.
That isn’t standard behavior.

I think I understand now. PV is 6672w, battery is 241w, and that's supporting 679w on ac out and 5370w on ac in?

Edit: I don't think that's right because that would be like 87% efficiency. I'll wait for clarification

 

[fwunder]

Shelly stuff is extremely communicative and well integrated into HA.
I assume you can do an automation to do all that, but it's a long way around (as you said).

The weakest link will likely be the home bridge plugin and Siri.

I have Hombridge plugin/Shelly/Homekit working flawlessly. I use it with Eufy camera (motion sensor) for outside floods. The automation should be simple to check relay state and trigger automation. Just wondering iif there might be a cheap low voltage ( USB ) “smart” relay that could be used. Wish Victron had better “smart stuff” integration. Kinda surprised not to find a Homebridge plugin. I should dig into home assistant.

 

[Brucey]

Looks like some interesting stuff coming to the vrm watch apps, generator and relay control:

VRM watch apps just got an update

Hi all, Since we launched the VRM app for watches end of last year, many of your requested even more of VRM to be possible from your watch. I am happy to announce that we just launched an update of the VRM app, to add these functionalities to your smart watch on IOS, Android or Garmin: VRM...

community.victronenergy.com

I did read something about a virtual keyboard for remote gui. Oh and then smartphone lockscreen vrm info coming next.

 

[ricardocello]

I think I understand now. PV is 6672w, battery is 241w, and that's supporting 679w on ac out and 5370w on ac in?

Edit: I don't think that's right because that would be like 87% efficiency. I'll wait for clarification

6672 W PV Power + 241 W Battery Power = 6913 W of DC Power
5370 W Quattro Input + 679 W Quattro Output = 6049 W of AC Power
Inverter Efficiency = 6049 / 6913 = 87.5 % efficiency

A little low, but the measurements are made at all different times by the nature of the sampling.
I normally see 89-90% efficiency at those power levels.
Peak efficiency of 92% is a lighter load. I did a scatter plot on that in a thread somewhere.

 

[ricardocello]

Looks like some interesting stuff coming to the vrm watch apps, generator and relay control:

VRM watch apps just got an update

Hi all, Since we launched the VRM app for watches end of last year, many of your requested even more of VRM to be possible from your watch. I am happy to announce that we just launched an update of the VRM app, to add these functionalities to your smart watch on IOS, Android or Garmin: VRM...

community.victronenergy.com

I did read something about a virtual keyboard for remote gui. Oh and then smartphone lockscreen vrm info coming next.

I view the current crop of VRM improvements as suggested improvements, like the little arrow in the advanced page to quickly jump down to the chart you've just enabled. I've got a whole list of things I would like to see.

 

[1201]

6672 W PV Power + 241 W Battery Power = 6913 W of DC Power
5370 W Quattro Input + 679 W Quattro Output = 6049 W of AC Power
Inverter Efficiency = 6049 / 6913 = 87.5 % efficiency

A little low, but the measurements are made at all different times by the nature of the sampling.
I normally see 89-90% efficiency at those power levels.
Peak efficiency of 92% is a lighter load. I did a scatter plot on that in a thread somewhere.

Ok I'm tracking.

So grid power is the net amount coming from the grid to satisfy house and addition loads.

How are you measuring this? It would be nice to also show how much the house and addition are actually consuming.

 

[ricardocello]

Ok I'm tracking.

So grid power is the net amount coming from the grid to satisfy house and addition loads.

If the house isn't doing much, the Grid Power will be hovering around 100 W, which is the ESS Grid Setpoint.
In the case above, the house was using lots of power (probably for hot water or HVAC).

Since I limit the inverter power dynamically based on PV, the grid has to take up the slack, 1596 W in this case.

How are you measuring this? It would be nice to also show how much the house and addition are actually consuming.

Hold on to your head for this explanation.

I have a complicated situation here where the House is on one 200A panel, and the Addition is on another 200A panel.
I have 400A service. They meet in the utility meter.
I have my own Carlo Gavazzi EM530 energy meters ($$) on the feeds to both 200A panels.

The total consumption is the sum of those two meters.
However, a Grid Meter can only be a single device instance on the Cerbo GX (Victron limitation).
I accomplish that by creating an emulated meter which talks to both physical meters, and creates a composite meter in software
that the Cerbo thinks is a normal meter. This was very nontrivial software to write.

The confusing thing is that the ESS is on the House side.
I regularly see negative power on the House meter because the ESS is pushing back to the Addition side of the house.
So I know exactly how much power the Addition is using.
And when ESS isn't running, I know how much the House is using.
But in general, the House energy meter is the consumption in the house - Quattro Input power being pushed back.