solo PV - geo/Green Energy Options

[JR]

When my system was installed they provided me with a solo PV which indicates if I am generating enough electricity to use some of my appliances. It also gives out further information but mainly I just use it as an indicator to get the washing machine on etc. It is on the blink and I want to replace it with another gadget that will do the same thing. Can anyone point me in the right direction please as to where I can get something similar. The company who manufactured my current gadget no longer make them. I don't want an all singing all dancing gadget, just something simple. Any help would very much appreciated and thanks in advance.

[John_S]

Do you have a smart meter?

My in house display shows a negative amount for usage now which would show you when you could use additional appliances.

[JR]

Thank you for your reply - I do not have a smart meter.

[kla456]

I also had the inconvenience of owning a Solo3 when GEO of Cambridge unilaterally discontinued service.The display issued with smart meters is similar, but I never found an equal replacement for the Solo. I really don't know why GEO dumped it (unilaterally breaking faith with their customers who had bought it). I posted a similar question as you and I take liberty to quote a reply from 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./I]

[robl]

We’ve had an eco eye smartPV monitor for about 8 years, it works great still. 2 clip on current clamps, a clip on voltage phase monitor, and a separate display. All battery operated - the best bit is the batteries last ages - well over a year. Local monitoring, local sd card card logging (if you care).
So much better than our rubbishy smart meter display - laughably takes batts but lasts an hour literally and runs hot on mains adapter.

[kla456]

Yes, I think thats the idea, but all of their products are 'out of stock' by their web site.