Solar PV Monitoring/Automation Thread

Hi guys - buddy of mine (also a software engineer) recently got a Solid Hybrid installed. What's the best route to getting this into HA. He was saying that the android phone app is 5 min update frequency. I've a GivEnergy solution myself and there's a REST Api for it - I'm hoping that there's a similar story for Solis?

Do you need any hardware, or is it just open a ticket with Solis to enable your account and get a API token?

Thanks folks.

For anyone with an upcoming install, consider asking your installer specifically for the Solis S6 (which replaces the S5). It looks like a rebadged Deye, which therefore allows local access to data from the inverter

also check the battery Voltage range + charge/discharge amps or even better read the datasheet in detail.

(EDIT) Reason: They have a lot of different spec inverters. I think the one being referred to is S6-EH1P(3-8)K-L-PLUS. The specs look very similar to the Sunsynk/Deye equivalents.

I've been tracking my electricity costs in home assistant for a few years now, and it was easy enough when I was on a 24hour flat rate.

template:
  - sensor:
      - name: "Daily electricity cost"
        unit_of_measurement: "€"
        device_class: monetary
        default_entity_id: sensor.daily_cost
        availability: "{{ true }}"
        state: >
          {% set PSOLEVY = 0.1157 %}
          {% set STANDINGCHARGE = 0.723 %}
          {% set export = states('sensor.daily_electricity_export') | float(0) * -0.195 %}
          {% set yield = states('sensor.daily_electricity_import') | float(0) * 0.23812 %}
          {{ (export + yield + STANDINGCHARGE + PSOLEVY) | round(2) }}

Now I've just moved to a 'smart' plan and have absolutely no idea how to implement different unit rates based on the time of day. Has anybody worked out a solution?

Thanks for the offer. I found this YouTube video showing how it's done. you need to run an automation to switch to the different tariffs at different times.

I've followed his steps so I'll see if it actually works over the next day.

If anyone else is doing the same as me, moving from a 24hr rate to a smart rate, the method in this video is definitely the way to go. Much easier than I expected. I've lost the last two years of import data but that's my fault because I was pulling the data directly from my inverter instead of through a utility meter helper.

Now in the sources I have one for each different tariff.

Hi,

About 3 months into my new Victron 15 kVA Quattro and Dyness Powerbox (30kWh) system and managing it with NodeRED and its working great. Decided to share

NodeRED is supported by Victron and can be installed directly onto the CerboGX which is their controller. Decided to keep it on the Cerbo and not on my Home Assistant Rpi4 as it was going to add some complexity. Having it on the CerboGX the latency is instant and the CerboGX is designed to be stable. On my HA I read all the entities available but there is no control on my HA.

I used Gemini AI to programme all the NodeRED code in JSON and then just copied it into the CerboGX. I think I have it sorted now but I’m always thinking of adding some other features.

Basically I have 4 default strategies that I can select

• Export Maximiser – Charges between 2-5am then discharges down to 10% by 2am. I have a slider to set the SOC limit, for winter Im setting this at 20% because I wasn’t getting back to 100% SOC due to HP space heating demands.
• Summer Mode – Charges at 2-5am but I have a slider where if the battery is over for example 60% it won’t charge the battery from excess solar it will go straight to grid to save on inverting losses.
• Self Sufficiency – wont charge from grid just uses PV to charge battery…cant see myself using this but I put it in.
• Balanced Import – This charges at 2-5am but doesn’t force discharge, this is to minimise my grid import (cant see myself using this much)

I then have a couple of buttons and functions I can select for other needs

• Emergency Prep – Starts charging the battery to 100% immediately and then holds, this is for if I get short notice of a power outage or something.
• Storm Mode – This is for if I notice a storm coming tomorrow, it will charge to 100% at the next 2-5am slot and will hold that charge in anticipation of a power outage.
• Normal Mode – This just resets back to the default strategy selected
• Hold Charge – Stops discharging the battery, this again is for short notice of an outage and I have sufficient battery and no need to charge form the grid.
• Force Export Max – Discharges to the grid at 6kW (I have the old NC6) – I actually use this a few times, primarily to help charge my car. My EV charger is on the grid side so if I have to charge the car outside of the 2-5am slot I dump to the grid and this will take 6kW off the 7kW the car is taking so net I’m only importing 1kW… I’ve used this good bit.
• Planned Outage - I then have a facility and I’ve used it once, where I got a notice from ESBN that they were doing maintenance on the grid in two weeks. I can enter the date of the outage and the night before it will charge as normal but will hold the charge. Great just in case you forget it’s happening.
• Balancing – It records the last time the battery was at 100% and if it’s not done within 14 days it will charge and balance the battery after the 2-5am slot.
• Predictive Storm – I use an API for weather data and if it gusts over 80kmph it will go into storm mode. Sends an email also letting you know its doing it.

Really happy with my force discharging logic, at 10pm it calculates how much it needs to discharge to get to the set SOC by 2am. It then recalculates this every minute, so as you can see from yesterday it starts off discharging around 3kW but this slowly decreases to be at zero grid export by 2am…..then boom! 18kW

Anyway a bit of a long post but I’m very happy with what I’ve done, any suggestions comments,

The next thing is to think about dynamic electricity pricing coming in the summer, but Victron have a very good system already for dynamic energy pricing but that wont stop me from trying to do something in NodeRED.