Not addicted to solar, just the data and monitoring

[1201]

The solar part seems boring . The panels are just sitting there in the sun and inverters are just sitting there in the shed inverting.

The real addiction is the data! Let's see, I have:

Ac energy monitoring:

• IotaWatt measuring 14 circuits across 2 subpanels.
• Emporia vue utility connect that talks directly to my main meter
• Growatt energy monitor for ac export monitoring

DC energy monitoring:

1. Victron smart shunt
2. Jk bms app(hardly use this since it's only bluetooth)
3. Victron Venus device for charge controller data

Pv plant monitoring:

• SMA webbox for sunny islands
• Shinephone for growatt inverter
• Victron vrm for charge controller and shunt
• Solar assistant cos it's awesome

Peripheral:

• Govee temp sensor for logging and checking the temp in the solar shed
• Della wifi app to turn on and off the mini split for the solar shed. Also tells me the temp in the shed
• Kasa app for remotely turning off/on the fan that keeps the growatt cool
• Looking to get a single tuya based CT just for the mini split

If I got paid for the amount of time I spend looking at all this data I wouldn't need the solar in the first place

 

[45North]

Do you have a heads-up display to a central control panel, or do you make the rounds reading them individually?
Pic?
Graphs?
Historical analysis?

 

[1201]

Do you have a heads-up display to a central control panel, or do you make the rounds reading them individually?

I wish I had a heads-up display. I just use my phone or PC opening different apps as needed

Pic?
Graphs?
Historical analysis?

All of the above

 

[thepartyhound]

I'm pretty new to all of this. I have recently installed a small 12v Victron system in my camper with a couple of SOK batteries all monitored via bluetooth. I'm pretty sure my wife must think I'm up to something no good as I spend a fair amount of time in there. When she asks what I'm doing I'm completely honest with her and tell her I'm watching the batteries charge...which I am! I'm trying to get an idea of how well they are coming into balance. I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm full of it!

 

[kommando]

I use a Solar-log data logger which captures most of the data but I still have :-

Sunny Data Control to see Sunny Island data.

For the JK BMS I have a HiFlying EW11 connected to the RS485-2 port and then transmit that via the LAN to a virtual port on a PC and run the JK Windows app for the cell voltages and battery data to be displayed.

Some Raspberry Pi's including one that monitors the SI frequency and then turns on/off a 3kw immersion heater via a Wifi Shelly 16A switch so the PV inverters are never curtailed and I get hot water.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

The solar part seems boring . The panels are just sitting there in the sun and inverters are just sitting there in the shed inverting.

The real addiction is the data! Let's see, I have:

Ac energy monitoring:

• IotaWatt measuring 14 circuits across 2 subpanels.
• Emporia vue utility connect that talks directly to my main meter
• Growatt energy monitor for ac export monitoring

DC energy monitoring:

1. Victron smart shunt
2. Jk bms app(hardly use this since it's only bluetooth)
3. Victron Venus device for charge controller data

Pv plant monitoring:

• SMA webbox for sunny islands
• Shinephone for growatt inverter
• Victron vrm for charge controller and shunt
• Solar assistant cos it's awesome

Peripheral:

• Govee temp sensor for logging and checking the temp in the solar shed
• Della wifi app to turn on and off the mini split for the solar shed. Also tells me the temp in the shed
• Kasa app for remotely turning off/on the fan that keeps the growatt cool
• Looking to get a single tuya based CT just for the mini split

If I got paid for the amount of time I spend looking at all this data I wouldn't need the solar in the first place

With all this why don't you just feed it all into home assistant have one app and not need to rely on someone else's server.

 

[robby]

@1201 You have taken the brave first step.
One in a hundred Solar Owners become a Data Junkie.
At S.A.D.S our counseling sessions and group meetings can eventually cure you of the underlying conditions and you will soon be a productive member of society again.

 

[1201]

With all this why don't you just feed it all into home assistant have one app and not need to rely on someone else's server.

That's something I'll have to look into. I've never used ha. It looks difficult

 

[1201]

@1201 You have taken the brave first step.
One in hundred Solar Owners become a Data Junkie.
At S.A.D.S our counciling sessions and group meetings can eventually cure you of the underlying conditions and you will soon be a productive member of society again.

That's possibly impossible

 

[Anx2k]

hahaha, your system sounds much like my home system:

Tesla Powerwall's plus solar
SolarEdge for monitoring inverter
Circuit Setup's CT monitoring system, for every breaker and mains
Ecobee for 2x HVAC
Tasmota for 2x ERV
EVSE for my EV charger
Ambient Weather for my local weather
Custom hardware for 2x Voltronic AIO's
Custom hardware for 2x JBD BMS's
6x custom environmental sensors (temp/particulate/co2) for each room
Tons of other things, not really related to power/solar

The biggest difference is that I have all of that routed into Home Assistant, which makes it super easy to get a sense of what everything is doing. You should *REALLY* look into setting one up at your place, it's game changer. I then have it execute logic, like if my Powerwall's drop below 20%, they turn off AC's, and turn them back on once it crosses 80%. It monitors the CO2 levels in each room, and turns on the ERV's so I'm able to maintain ~600ppm throughout the house - and if the outside temperature goes above 100f, then I bump up that limit to 800ppm. Best of all, it all runs locally (so no cloud dependencies) and it's all in one app - and when I'm gone, I just have a VPN setup to my house, so I can access it remotely via that. And to be clear, these dashboards aren't amazing or anything, I'm not HA pro, they're more just the easiest things I could get working and was happy with. But there is a learning curve...

 

[ThaiTaffy]

That's something I'll have to look into. I've never used ha. It looks difficult

It's becoming more and more simple and the internet is full of communities, guides, YouTube videos on the subject it will take time to set up but that time would be saved in the long run by the fact you wouldn't have to keep switching apps, the above post by anx2k is literally the beginning of what you can see.

I'm not HA pro, they're more just the easiest things I could get working and was happy with. But there is a learning curve...

Get rid of speed test intergration it hogs bandwidth and will cause lots of issues for you as your dB grows.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

My main energy dashboard for PV I have alot more data in other tabs but this one is reasonably pretty


Lots more power monitoring coming next week.

 

[1201]

hahaha, your system sounds much like my home system:

Tesla Powerwall's plus solar
SolarEdge for monitoring inverter
Circuit Setup's CT monitoring system, for every breaker and mains
Ecobee for 2x HVAC
Tasmota for 2x ERV
EVSE for my EV charger
Ambient Weather for my local weather
Custom hardware for 2x Voltronic AIO's
Custom hardware for 2x JBD BMS's
6x custom environmental sensors (temp/particulate/co2) for each room
Tons of other things, not really related to power/solar

The biggest difference is that I have all of that routed into Home Assistant, which makes it super easy to get a sense of what everything is doing. You should *REALLY* look into setting one up at your place, it's game changer. I then have it execute logic, like if my Powerwall's drop below 20%, they turn off AC's, and turn them back on once it crosses 80%. It monitors the CO2 levels in each room, and turns on the ERV's so I'm able to maintain ~600ppm throughout the house - and if the outside temperature goes above 100f, then I bump up that limit to 800ppm. Best of all, it all runs locally (so no cloud dependencies) and it's all in one app - and when I'm gone, I just have a VPN setup to my house, so I can access it remotely via that. And to be clear, these dashboards aren't amazing or anything, I'm not HA pro, they're more just the easiest things I could get working and was happy with. But there is a learning curve...

this message has been reported to @robby . he is trying to cure me and y'all are trying to make me go off the deep end :D

thats looks good though. I like that its all local . can HA run on a raspberry pi?

lets see. I believe it works with
Solar assistant
victron vrm
iotawatt
can flash the emporia utility connect for HA
kasa
govee??

I think im going to give this a more serious look! thanks

 

[ThaiTaffy]

this message has been reported to @robby . he is trying to cure me and y'all are trying to make me go off the deep end :D

thats looks good though. I like that its all local . can HA run on a raspberry pi?

Yep totally local I can pull some data from the cloud for solar forecasting so I can discharge my batteries before good days and pull in weather forecasts but everything else I use is local I even tend to write my own firmware anything I can't flash myself gets put on the naughty side of my network so it can't talk to the Chinese.

It would run on a raspberry pi but you would need a separately powered SSD enclosure for all the data by the looks of your needs.

Edit: it eats SD cards for breakfast and long term the lack of dedicated power for a SSD enclosure corrupts data

lets see. I believe it works with
Solar assistant
victron vrm
iotawatt
can flash the emporia utility connect for HA
kasa
govee??

Pretty sure it works with everything above

I think im going to give this a more serious look! thanks

Any questions I might be able to help or at least point you in the right direction.

 

[Anx2k]

It's becoming more and more simple and the internet is full of communities, guides, YouTube videos on the subject it will take time to set up but that time would be saved in the long run by the fact you wouldn't have to keep switching apps, the above post by anx2k is literally the beginning of what you can see.

Get rid of speed test intergration it hogs bandwidth and will cause lots of issues for you as your dB grows.

I actually just call it Speed Test, it's actually just the data reported from StarLink integration, and my DB is already massive from all the other things I track, especially power as I like 1s resolution on it.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

I actually just call it Speed Test, it's actually just the data reported from StarLink integration

Good good speed test is a nightmare don't know why it's officially supported

, and my DB is already massive from all the other things I track, especially power as I like 1s resolution on it.

Im upto 16gb every 12 months on influx, which I store but I run mine on a commercial server so data isn't that big an issue.

Home assistant is literally the reason I got solar to begin with, I wanted a hardcore UPS and I was eating over 2kwh a day just running my server Rack.

 

[Anx2k]

thats looks good though. I like that its all local . can HA run on a raspberry pi?

FWIW, I originally started on a RPi (this was before the latest gen of Pi's though, which are far more capable), but ended up switching to a AMD 5800U Mini PC (TDP of like 15w) running ProxMox so I could also run other VM's on it... But I also have all my house cameras, etc integrated as well. Personally if you're comfortable using ProxMox or some other virtualization, you'll find that something like the above box will be much more pleasurable to work on - and with my box I'm able to run OpnSense (firewall), HA, Plex, Ubuntu w/ Docker, and a Windows VM and use only about 10% load most of the time. I even have a dedicated 5800U for OpenWebUI and Llama3 70B, because I love playing around and having a local LLM that's usable (but dog slow). But as I also like to have tons of data and as much running local as possible, and not have to care if my DB gets to be hundreds of GB's (this for having run HA for 4 or 5 years now).

 

[ThaiTaffy]

Ditto the above.
opnsense router, home assistant, Ubuntu server, WiFi controller, private DNS, turnkey Nas all running on proxmox. Takes care of CCTV, power monitoring, AC units, air quality and so on.
Even made it so when I sat down on the sofa in my offic the TV, AC unit, lights would come on curtains would close and loads of other lazy stuff but I kept finding one of the dogs burning electricity in there so had to disable the automation.

 

[Anx2k]

Ditto the above.
opnsense router, home assistant, Ubuntu server, WiFi controller, private DNS, turnkey Nas all running on proxmox. Takes care of CCTV, power monitoring, AC units, air quality and so on.
Even made it so when I sat down on the sofa in my offic the TV, AC unit, lights would come on curtains would close and loads of other lazy stuff but I kept finding one of the dogs burning electricity in there so had to disable the automation.

Our systems are basically clones! I left off Unifi from my list, but it's running in the Docker, so I don't count all the containers (there's like 20+). I have to say, I did my curtains as just a kind of 'why not' automation, and it's probably one of my favorite ones. I have them set to close/open when the tv turns on/off, and they also close at sunset and open at sunrise or when my alarm is set.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

Our systems are basically clones! I left off Unifi from my list, but it's running in the Docker, so I don't count all the containers (there's like 20+). I have to say, I did my curtains as just a kind of 'why not' automation, and it's probably one of my favorite ones. I have them set to close/open when the tv turns on/off, and they also close at sunset and open at sunrise or when my alarm is set.

Best thing in my mind is bed load sensors, when me and my wife goto sleep everything turns off it's the true pinnacle of smart home.

 

[wattmatters]

This is before we get to Grafana....

 

[45North]

Bingo!
There's your HUD!

 

[wattmatters]

Then there are the phone dashboards, like for the car.

and the power flow card:

https://imgur.com/IJg8nmU

 

[wattmatters]

 

[wattmatters]

It does not stop. I need help.