Growatt monitoring system

garo wrote: »

As an aside, do people have experience with an open source monitoring solution that also has an app?

I have an emonpi* on order from openenergymonitor (based in wales and has an active community

(i also have the EmonEvse so have already dipped my toe in the water there, MQTT, Node Red etc, intergration with practically everything if your willing to spend the time working at it)

*its actually the EmonTX with wifi i have ordered because i already have the server part running on a pi i had lying around.

app is pretty basic just a way to view some graphs etc

garo wrote: »

Thanks. Had a look. I don't need the hardware actually as the growatt system already has a transmitter and internet connected receiver. I'm just interested in the EmonCMS or its equivalent.

I don't mind not having an app. I could rustle up a grafana dashboard on the home server and use that instead.

Yeah there's an online emoncms and then the fully fledged one that runs on the pi, if you can grab raw information automatically via a api/whatever you can do some data handling and feed that into the cms either on the pi or to the online one or both.

Node red is really powerful. There may be a plug-in for it for growatt

There is a small fee of 1 pound per feed per year, but can't blame them for trying to cover their server costs.

The pi is free from running costs.

Edit

Yep someone has made something for node red

https://github.com/johanmeijer/grott

garo wrote: »

Fantastic. Thank you. That is exactly what I wanted. I don't actually need a pi as I have a linux server that runs 24/7 but might get one to play with!

Careful.. they seem to multiply.. Let us know how you get on. Node red can control the most of the home automation stuff.

I think i have 3-4 pi 1's and 2 pi 2's originally to run xbmc but now in a drawer.

really have to get the one that can control the circ pumps on the back boiler running again, Ran like a champ with a python script using one wire temp sensors and some solid state relays... Ended up coding it direct on the pi and used a Mysql server to log temps and settings.

yeah killed the sd card... and had no copies of the code.

its back on the todo list and going to use MQTT now to publish temps and control of the device from node red... and take a backup!

Winterman1234 wrote: »

Yea currently running emonpi here, had an old pi2 doing nothing. Only 2 current clamps so divertor is seen as export, so have to subtract divertor value at end of the month to get a true export value. Interested in your previous setup for back boiler, I would like to do some similar as stove and oil don't exactly like running here at the same time. Also have condenser boiler which is obviously very much oversized, only ever in condensing mode for 15minutes, followed by 45 minutes of cycling. So often thought there is something smarter I could do. Anyway wrong forum.

Yeah Thats the reason for ordering a emontx, so i can monitor the solar gen, the grid import/export and the immersion useage.

Sorry for a continuation of off topic, (pls advise on the actual right forum, but 1 more post)

So in my Stove its big enough to heat the house, as long as its well fed! and when it really gets going the lag in the analogue pipe stats aren't responsive enough. (water can start to boil before pump reacts).

My hot water tank has 3 coils, normally its 1 for solid, 1 for oil and the third is the solar tubes. - but i have both main coils connected to the stove.

Stove has 4 water connections.

Pair 1 goes to coil 1 via convection and also a pump for the rads

Pair 2 goes to the second coil and is connected to a pump, prob would have run by convection but wanted to have more control over it.

So i have thermometers on the input and return of the two coils. then programmed the rads one to kick in at 60c (and this set the limit of the water in the tank) and the other one to kick in when the flow was 10c above the return.

the thermometers are DS18B20 i think openenergy explanination and that is natively supported on a Rpi if connected to the right place. ( appears as a file that you can just poll)

These were zip tied to the pipes with a bit of thermal pad to help heat transfer to them.

I think i had both run for a minimum of a few minutes to prevent them from kicking on and off.

during the winter, as the fire never went out, i let the hot water tank heat up quite high (90c) and in the morning i was able to pull some of that heat out of the tank and into the rads to get them started in the morning. Could easily pull it down to 30-40C as we almost never shower in the morning.

The relays are connected in parallel to the original pipe stats so there is always the mechanical failsafe to fall back on.

I think that will be todays project, to get that back running again. should be simple enough to do it in python. Its been a few years since I touched python.

Attached is a diagram of whats going on in my house

garo wrote: »

I started the thread and you are welcome to keep going!

@graememk: No backups tut tut!

Sounds like you have an interesting setup. One question. If you let the boiler get up to 90 how did you prevent people scalding themselves on the hot water taps? Thermostatic mixing valve?

PS: If you haven't come across it yet, this is a fantastic thread on boards with deezell some sort of expert in all kinds of heating systems.

Yep thermostatic mixing valve came with the solar system. Although i do have my doubts on its effectiveness. It seems to be seized. (so a side order of careful the water is really hot...)

Only the 2 of us in the house and it was only over night when the water was that hot. once the pumps kicked in, it drops pretty quickly.
Also stopped the pumps starting in the middle of the night too

5pm and ive got as far as finding a suitable sd card!

Havent seen that thread will take a look!

edit... ok im not starting in 2017... skipping to near the end!... also seeing a few familiar usernames...

edit 2: It lives! this was originally created about 2013/2014 ish and its back and i can control the relays and read the temp sensors.
, time to see if i can get it posting and reading from mqtt