With energy prices going through the roof in the uk its time for a solar panel with battery install.
So looking at what integrations are avaible and working in hubitat.
Ideally i would like to know if im exporting electric, what level i have in the batterys what the predicted solar energy is for the day/ nextday.
I could then use this to decide if im got to heat my hot water with gas or electric.
Any input would be great
I saw one for the ION package. As soon as I get time I am going to test. It does not do predictive evaluations, but it reports everything in the energy app.
I could imagine an APP that looks at the weather forcast and determines nominal output for your array. But it will not be simple. Maybe there is a regional prediction site to pull a solar efficiency estimate for future days(?). With utility companies using solar, I can't imagine there is not something out there.
There's an integration for solar edge. This is what I have. I don't have a battery. I don't recall if it supports that.
There is also one for Tesla
However, I use Node-RED to connect to my Tesla Powerwalls and pull in production as well as battery charge etc.
There is one for giving solar forecast
I came across this yesterday so haven't used it but I did register at the site and was able to pull data using Node-RED, so will see what it can do.
My setup for solar monitoring build from Shelly devices:
This setup can work independently on Hub and interent connection as well (direct device to device communication). HE is used just to predict next day production volume (based on already mentioned Solarcast integration) and based on that start the discharge process day before. This setup was build just recently, so some more tweaks need to be done. But so far it works.
Question:
Here in the USA (or at least New England) our electrical is spit into two "services"
Currently our delivery costs more than the generation. So a typical bill might be 60% delivery and 40% electricity.
How is it there in the UK?
Thanks
Best seems to be 5.1p export and 28p import...
Could only dream of 60/40
What @JohnRob is referring to (I think) is that our utility bill is split into two different charges
This "averages" out to between $0.130 - $0.135/kWh depending on usage (range <500 to > 2000 kWh).
They credit me with $0.10/kWh for the amount that I export to the grid.
I live in Connecticut. We get charged for electricity & service:
This is from a "winter" bill (541 KWH), No A/C and we heat with Oil. I do not have solar.
Cost per KWH of electricity used: $0.11484
Cost per KWH of service to deliver energy (lines etc): $0.14
Fixed cost: per month for CEO's boat payment: $9.62
I would be interested in what others pay.
Best seems to be 5.1p export and 28p import...
Could only dream of 60/40
My numbers are for incoming only, I don't have solar. I think if I had solar the amount I put back on the "Grid" is the same as I pay (per KWH). I'm not sure of the service / distribution charges.
My opinion is this 1:1 reduction is artificial to entice more solar installations.
For me, I don't believe solar is justifiable from a cost standpoint. Besides we don't have a directionally suitable roof to put the panels on.
Question regarding your solar installation. When the grid goes down our solar systems cannot generate AC mains on their own. I understand the electronics would be costly.
However will the solar provide DC energy in some form?
John
We pay a daily charge for having an electric supply , the amount used in kw/h and if we export back to the electric grid
My charges are
£0.4339 a day
£0.28455 per kw/h to use
Paid £0.051kw/h to export
Im looking to have solar panels and a battery.
This allows the battery to supply electric in the evenings and night when theres no solar electric avaiable, it will also act as a whole house ups if we have a power cut, you can scale the battery packs up to about 48kw/h
Cost wise in the uk is about £8000 for 9kwp of panels and £6000 for 10kw/h of batterys.
Thats installed price.
This should allow me to be self powered for 8 months of the year and reduce my electric bill for the other 4 months by 1/3.
Thank, interesting info.
For me however that cost would pay for 10 years of my full electric bill. Not worth it here. Oh I do have a gas generator that has been able to keep our food cold and the house warm when the power is out. I guess I'll stay that way for a while.
I did read a few case studies on solar. On was from Utah, USA. The final outcome was after (what will be) 20 years, the financial cost vs 100% on grid was a wash. i.e. there was little or no cost difference.
I have 2 Tesla Powerwall batteries (13.5 kWh X 2) so the solar panels will continue to provide power to the house and re-charge the batteries. Our use case was really based on the fragility of the Texas energy grid and a hedge against crazy energy prices down the road, and was not a pure ROI based decision.
Our main draw is AC during the summer and the pool equipment. On good sunny days (like a few this month), we can be completely off grid and even supply back to the grid.
Enphase is here
NE Ohio, USA
$0.0539/KWh consumption
$0.030/KWh distribution charge (includes CEO yacht "fee")
Ohio recently had the local incumbent Elec utility bribe the politicians to pass a bogus fee to get the consumers to pay for the decommissioning of 2 nuclear plants. Its making its way through the courts.
I'll be dead before solar would be cost effective for me. Plus we have considerable cloud cover due to Great Lakes weather influence. Our area was the site of a former WWII munitions plant courtesy of the cloud cover providing protection from aerial bombing.
I looked into it 4 years ago and it looked 15+ years to repay.
But now that our energy bills have basically trebled and we are looking like another 50% in 6 months time its very attractive with a roi around 6 years
I looked into solar some years ago as well. Their "projections" of energy cost increases were wildly over blown.
My bill in Sept of 1985 for 581 KWH was $57
My most recent bill for 541 KWH is $138
37 year span; my 1985 bill in today's dollars would be 2.64 * (57 *541/581) = $140 
I have no issue with solar to reduce emissions and foreign dependency (except the solar cell are made in a foreign country). Personally I think solar cells for individual homes are not the right way to go. Ideally solar farms in perhaps a Co-op structure would be better than distributed installations.
Thanks to google:
$1 in 1985 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $2.64 today, an increase of $1.64 over 37 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 2.66% per year between 1985 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 163.68%.
Anything to read Victron data? Thinking about getting a Victron Cerbo GX which has a ethernet connection to monitor my MPPT controllers remotely using there free remote internet portal.
They have an API: VRM API v2 Documentation | Victron Energy documentation
I am about to get a Victron battery system, and Victron have released a Victron node for Code Red, couple that with the HE node…..
Should allow me to monitor rain water butts and drive a couple of pump relays too.
So interesting HA days ahead.
Maybe not fully 100% 'solar' but it's related to it.
Any integrations with home battery?
I have this beauty and I read the stats in detail with a app, even got 2 apps. But it would be great to get it connected with my smart home...
I was thinking to let hubitat manage my boiler depending on the % of the battery.
Now hubitat turns it just on at 2PM (when power is NOT cheap) and doesn't care if it's 'free' solar energy from the battery or not (when it's a cloudy day).
example of what was thinking.
If battery is <20% at 2PM don't turn on the boiler but wait after 10PM when the grid offers cheaper power.
If battery is 95% turn on the boiler once a day (so even when it's morning an the battery is full it will be drained to heat the water and make 'room' for more power.
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