svetz
Works in theory! Practice? That's something else
My battery isn't even installed yet and I already have a love/hate relationship with it. The problem is it isn't an endless supply of power, it needs to be managed. When the sun is out the panels can charge it back up and supply power to the house. But when the grid is out I should turn/off big consumers when they aren't needed to conserve battery power.
The Problem
If the circuit breakers are off for the water heater or electric car, then when there is excess solar power Enphase will throttle back the inverters causing wasted power. But, if I leave them on and there's no sun I'm wasting battery power.
The Solution
Long ago I posted this smart panel thread as way to overcome that. With monitoring software, it doesn't seem to hard (e.g., use a sensor to determine the solar radiation to calculate what the panels could be generating, determine how much is currently being consumed (including recharging the battery), then remotely flip on/off devices.
The Questions
What tech should be used for remotely turning devices off and on? For example, these are the ones I know about:
Device recommendations?
There's no end to the cheap UL listed WiFi 120V plugs at 15 amps. But what UL device should be used for those 240V 30 amp circuits?
What would be ideal would be to replace the circuit breakers with a Smart circuit breakers. You can find such breakers in HomeDepot, but they're expensive and take special load centers, not simple replacements of existing breakers AFAIK.
Related Links
The Problem
If the circuit breakers are off for the water heater or electric car, then when there is excess solar power Enphase will throttle back the inverters causing wasted power. But, if I leave them on and there's no sun I'm wasting battery power.
The Solution
Long ago I posted this smart panel thread as way to overcome that. With monitoring software, it doesn't seem to hard (e.g., use a sensor to determine the solar radiation to calculate what the panels could be generating, determine how much is currently being consumed (including recharging the battery), then remotely flip on/off devices.
The Questions
What tech should be used for remotely turning devices off and on? For example, these are the ones I know about:
- X-10 - uses the house's wiring to send signals. Might have issues as Enphase changes the frequency or interference with powerline communications to inverters. No acknowledgements.
- Z-Wave - 908.42 MHz radio frequency (U.S.), mesh network, doesn't interfere with WiFi
- Zigbee - 2.4 GHz meshed, could interfere with bluetooth and WiFi
- Bluetooth - poor range
- WiFi - increasing devices decreases overall throughput
Device recommendations?
There's no end to the cheap UL listed WiFi 120V plugs at 15 amps. But what UL device should be used for those 240V 30 amp circuits?
What would be ideal would be to replace the circuit breakers with a Smart circuit breakers. You can find such breakers in HomeDepot, but they're expensive and take special load centers, not simple replacements of existing breakers AFAIK.
Related Links
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