Solis App - not fit for purpose

[Forty_Two]

2pm today - sunny - there's coloured dots going in every direction, from everywhere to somehere else, does any of it make any sense to anyone?

 

[Forty_Two]

The 'leaf' circle has disappeared and the 'lightning bolt' circle has moved from mid right to bottom right. All makes perfect sense . . . not!!

 

[rpdom]

The 'leaf' circle has disappeared and the 'lightning bolt' circle has moved from mid right to bottom right. All makes perfect sense . . . not!!

That looks like the normal layout. Top left is your panels generating juice. Top right is the grid. Bottom left is your batteries. Bottom right is your household usage.

Your panels are producing 3.45 kW. Your batteries are charging at 1.39 kW. Your house is using 0.145 kW and you are sending 1.915 kW to the grid. That all adds up. I would have expected the batteries to charge faster, that's around 28 A, it depends on the temperature of the batteries and which ones and how many you have. It is just a snapshot though. See what it shows next time it updates.

 

[spoder]

Hi - I am a new user too. Find the app odd in some respects - direction of flow to the grid, for example seems the wrong way round. However, I get this "green spike" that i see on your image. I assumed that the system is drawing a bit of electricity from the mains in order to keep the battery around 20% over a longer-term period. Is that right? Lately, with longer days, more sunshine, I have not had what I assume is the "charging spike".

 

[bugone]

Hi - I am a new user too. Find the app odd in some respects - direction of flow to the grid, for example seems the wrong way round. However, I get this "green spike" that i see on your image. I assumed that the system is drawing a bit of electricity from the mains in order to keep the battery around 20% over a longer-term period. Is that right? Lately, with longer days, more sunshine, I have not had what I assume is the "charging spike".

The battery will charge from the grid if the charge level gets below a set level. This is to protect your battery from damage.

 

[rpdom]

Just for fun, Solis look like they have done some more changes overnight. The most annoying of these is the "Battery Power" figures on the App/Website. They are showing at 100x what they should be. My overnight battery charge from grid jumped (allegedly) from 310W to 31kW! Obviously it was not charging at that rate. I hope they fix this and all the other issues soon.

 

[Do It Yourself]

I am facing similar issues with my Solis hybrid. For me the display on the inverter shows all the correct values - battery, pv, grid, backup circuits all correctly displaying what's going where and in near real time - can't fault it. Solis Cloud on the other hand is confused, the overview graphic is often wrong, as are the graphs below it. It's as if the data values it's pulling from the data logger are all mapped incorrectly for the formulas it's applying. The main culprit that appears wrongly for me is PV, it seems to be confused about where the power is coming from. For example here:


At no point today have we pulled anything near 1kW. Total yield top left is correct, 3.1 is about right for today so far. But then if you look at Generation it says 7.7kWh?? Huh whats going on? It's like it thinks the battery is generation or something - I can't figure it out.

On a site note - I wonder if my data logger's damaged because the green port on the underside of the inverter swivels and pretty sure it's not meant to.

 

[rpdom]

At no point today have we pulled anything near 1kW. Total yield top left is correct, 3.1 is about right for today so far. But then if you look at Generation it says 7.7kWh?? Huh whats going on? It's like it thinks the battery is generation or something - I can't figure it out.

Yeah, the figures are all over the place. It seems to be adding my import on top of the actual consumption.

On a site note - I wonder if my data logger's damaged because the green port on the underside of the inverter swivels and pretty sure it's not meant to.

Your datalogger is fine, but the fixing for the socket it plugs into has come loose inside. You'd probably need to open the inverter to fix it, which could be dangerous. Best just leave it alone and be very careful if you unplug the datalogger. Don't let it twist too much or it could break the wires.

 

[bugone]

Agreed, your datalogger appears fine. But what your PV CT is reading seems way off. You should see something more like this.



I'd start with a visual inspection of where your CT is located and it's direction. Note, the CT from the Solis should be located between your panels/inverter and your load/grid - with the arrow pointing towards the grid.

Check in settings that the CT is set as PV. If the CT has been installed the wrong way, there is an option to reverse it in the settings.

 

[Do It Yourself]

Agreed, your datalogger appears fine. But what your PV CT is reading seems way off. You should see something more like this.



I'd start with a visual inspection of where your CT is located and it's direction. Note, the CT from the Solis should be located between your panels/inverter and your load/grid - with the arrow pointing towards the grid.

Check in settings that the CT is set as PV. If the CT has been installed the wrong way, there is an option to reverse it in the settings.

Edit* I put a ticket in to solis and they fixed it very quickly on their end. Happy days

 

[Forty_Two]

Here's my latest . . . .
The app (screenshot) suggests that I have imported ZERO Kwh from the grid and that 100% of my use today has come from the panels (which on the cloudy day is unbelievable). And, my smart meter tells me that I have incurred usage today costing £1.72 which taking of the standing charge of 47p means I have used 3.47kwh today (£1.25).
Clearly the app is not fit for purpose, this is simply ridiculous – how can you justify selling me stuff that doesn’t work? I have raised multiple tickets and their agent agrees that the info shown on the app is WRONG but that's where it ends. Where do I go, who do I complain to the get this sorted?

 

[bugone]

All of those total values are 0 for me. I think there's an outstanding ticket for this issue and they're currently working on it.

In the meantime they're just showing 0 values.

 

[Do It Yourself]

Most of mine are now populated and showing accurate numbers. The only one that's doesn't appear to work is Self-Use.

 

[bugone]

I've just checked. I seem to have no total data from 14/02/23 onwards.

Got data in the chart below, but the totals is just empty.

 

[Forty_Two]

I have emailed all of the below complaining about this app and they are not replying:
europesales@solisinverters.com (Sales)
euservice@solisinverters.com (Service)
sandy@solisinverters.com
monitor@ginlong.com
Does anyone have the email address of Travis Snyder (Europe product manager) or any other email addresses?

 

[Sparksfly30]

morning i have an issue with the solis inverter which i think this is connected on this thread my import yesterday said 23Gwh and export 3Gwh but that isnt correct ps i have no battrery yet and solar is enphase micro inverters and today it says we've imports Mwh instead of Kwh I changed the data stick yesterday morning from a Wifi unit to LAN but that doesn't effect anything does it

 

[bugone]

Not sure what you're expecting to see. I'd wait till it's all wired up and working properly.

 

[Sparksfly30]

Would having no battery connected yet make a. Difference to the import and export from the battery inverter

 

[bazza14]

I could not agree more with the statement that the app and solis cloud are not fit for use for live monitoring, might be ok for historical stuff, I'm too new to tell. As well as the aforementoined nonsense readings following a recent update by solis I have no backup loads everything is grid side which is the opposite of the actual situation, see pic. These inacurracies have been a real hinderance to me as a new user with trying to tell if things are in fact working as they should be, I'll be asking for advise and opinions on that in another post.

 

[DOS]

I have had this (small) system (8 panels x 1 battery) for 3 weeks. The Solis app – is simply not fit for purpose.
The ‘app’ does not show correct information and they admit it is not correct, they are telling me that what I see on the app is not what is happening. 2. The user manual for the app does not look like what I see on the app screen. I ‘raised a ticket’ with Solis and the agent is unable to explain to me what is going on possibly (?) because his English (reading/writing) is not adequate.

How can they sell a system knowing that the app to control the system is not fit for purpose?

Solis sales/service etc., Bootle, Liverpool don't answer the phone ever, every day, never!!

Disgraceful service

Reposted my reply as an independent comment below, deleting from here...