A Good Energy Monitoring System

[kla456]

Hello,
I'm looking for advice on energy monitoring to cover all parts of the system:
Generation, Usage, Storage, EV Charging.
Many equipment suppliers provide monitoring as part of their service (eg. SolarEdge and Zappi) but maybe monitoring should be a separate service?
We need to know what is happening in the system, to have access to historical records, and be provided with good visual presentations.
Its an important factor to consider when buying inverters and EV chargers.
And a monitoring service can be unilaterally discontinued at any time (as happened to me when GEO stopped supporting the Solo3 monitoring system)
Thanks in advance.

[Oldgreybeard]

I think the only robust way to do this is to run something like Home Assistant locally, on something like a Raspberry Pi. Not for everyone, as it needs some technical ability to set it up, but it is pretty much independent of anything that might happen to services provided by companies that may well disappear or just stop supporting stuff after a time. It also has the advantage of not sending data to some anonymous server in China.

The set up I'm using at the moment is a Raspberry PI, in a case that includes a 250Gb hard drive, set up using the Home Assistant operating system (easy to set up - just a matter of copying it on to a µSD card). The hardest part was getting data from the Sofar inverter. That involved a few hours of building, testing and setting up a box to get data out of the thing, mainly because the inverter isn't in the house, so needed a WiFi connection. The inverter has all the data needed, as it measures the grid voltage, current and power as well as the PV system current and power, and it has data on battery state of charge, charging or discharging current and power, etc.

You can allow Home Assistant to talk to the internet as well if you wish. I have my version pretty much locked down except for local weather data pulled from the Met Office, and I trust them. What my inverter no longer does is talk to a server in China any more - by default they all do this if the WiFi stick is plugged in and set up. I don't much like the idea of having stuff connected to unknown servers that could be used for any purpose their government chooses.

[openspaceman]

What my inverter no longer does is talk to a server in China any more - by default they all do this if the WiFi stick is plugged in and set up. I don't much like the idea of having stuff connected to unknown servers that could be used for any purpose their government chooses.

You are obviously much cleverer than I because I don't know where to start but feel the same.

I could disable the wifi on my growatt inverter but when fitted it had a fault that locked it whenever the battery was full and this was fixed by a firmware update from china without my even realising it was being done.

[Oldgreybeard]

One advantage of the Sofar is that the firmware is updated via an SD card plugged in underneath, so it's not reliant on any internet connectivity. Bit of a faff to do, but probably a fairly secure system. I've not seen any evidence of harm from China, but the antics of Russia have highlighted that controlling energy supplies can be a useful military and political weapon. I'm not sure I trust anyone much, TBH, but China is definitely well down the list in terms of trustworthiness. Debatable as to whether they are likely to be worse than the likes of Facebook, Amazon or Google, though, in terms of violating personal privacy with gay abandon . . .

[kla456]

I am not confident or competent to follow OGB's footsteps but I agree with his concerns.
Is there another way?
Maybe a package similar to OGB's method, as a service?
But I bought the Solo3 monitoring system from a UK company (GEO based in Cambridge). They unilaterally discontinued supporting the product last year!
I have a Zappi on order to be fitted next Friday - I'm hopeful it will give me what I need.

[kla456]

I see that Openspaceman has a Growatt inverter. What's your experience of it and its monitoring function?
I'm in the market now for a 10kW 3-phase hybrid inverter for a system expansion. I already have single-phase SolarEdge inverters (2 x 3kW). They have been trouble-free since 2014 but the monitoring is disappointing and current delivery times are impossible. I read they are manufactured in China even though SolarEdge company is Israel-based.
I'm willing to pay a bit more for an inverter that will provide good monitoring and comes with a good warranty. (even as an extra option).
Or maybe just buy cheap and hope for the best! The market is all Chinese except maybe for Fronius?

[Burble61]

Might be worth considering the system from https://openenergymonitor.org

Hugely flexible, sometimes needs a little knowledge to get started, but has good support and an active user community.

Can use a "cloud" server if you need to monitor things remotely, but theres no requirement for that if you just need local access.

Had one running for a few years now (monitoring a couple of PV systems and a Powerwall and more recently boiler flow temps) with very rare issues.

Happy to share some screenshoots if that would be of use.

[SafetyThird]

I recently bought a unit from http://iotawatt.com that has 14 channels of CT clamps available, has it's own built in web server and will generate graphs of your data, all done on your own internal network. It will also export to things like opencms.org which I'm doing currently but will probably go with a raspberry pi and host it all myself eventually when everything is set up.

I'm also looking at home assistant to incorporate everything including the eddi, future pv charging, my heat pump if I can get monitoring for it and all the electric circuits and batteries and have everything in one place. Not sure if I could do that on the same raspberry pi or if I'd have to get a second one to run home assistant.

You can combine the options from openernergymonitor with the iotawatt which gives you some powerful monitoring options.

[openspaceman]

I see that Openspaceman has a Growatt inverter. What's your experience of it and its monitoring function?

Basically it just works but I had a lot of problems early on, see my earlier thread

https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... att#p10911

Recently the monitoring via https://server.growatt.com/login has got much better but it's quirky the way you have to re enter a username whenever you login or the connection drops.

Of course I find the control freakery of the system open to access from china constantly and cannot see a good reason why it could not be locally on a sever on the LAN or usb with just email reminders if a firmware upgrade is needed but then china does want to rule the world...

I think Nowty posted that his cells were retrieved from growatt batteries where the BMS had failed and that in itself is a worry. Whereas I gather Victron inverters and pylontech batteries are enabled with more open interfaces, even though made in china.

[kla456]

Burble61 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 19, 2022 9:57 am
Might be worth considering the system from https://openenergymonitor.org

This could be what I'm looking for. They offer pre-assembled kit and also offer guidance and learning tools.
They have an EV charging station at half the price of Zappi - unfortunately too late for me.

There is also benefit from the monitoring provided by inverters and EV chargers. They all have use to check and verify each other.

The Zappi monitoring app will be on an ipad in the kitchen so the family can learn optimal energy usage.

My contractor is offering me a Solis 3 phase hybrid inverter. I know little about inverters and nothing about Solis except they are established on the Market and offer a 20 year warranty option - which I will be taking.

I could not find a trusted reviewer of UK inverters - just loads of 'influencer' sites. Some of the better brands are currently 'sold out' and distributors are unable to offer a delivery time.