Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

You want to use Eco+ mode. Fast will draw the max it can whether from the grid or solar at the top rate the EV will take, generally 7kW. Eco will adjust the power but if the solar output falls below 1.4kW then it will switch to the grid and continue charger until the car is fully charged.

These are the settings I use and it has never failed to charge at the set times. (I have removed the schedule entirely as I just charge from solar at this time of year)

Switched the new array on yesterday and with it being late hadn't noticed that the grid limiting export wasn't on. Had a look at myenergi this morning and got stuck when saw this. Immediately set the export limit to 6kw and going to invest in few more thermal electric radiator panels to hear house when there is so much production. Looking forward to my battery packs hopefully making it here in foreseeable from China

ALM

Had another mess around this evening.

1. My settings are nearly the same as yours above 👍

2. So for me when I have it on eco +scheduled -- starts charging 6/7kw. It draws roughly 5 from batteries and 2 from grid.

Is yours the shame?

If this is the case for me, example - my wife wants to charge car up to 100% for the next day.

That means I will have car charge come on from 1 to 5am and also the invertor to charge batteries so they are not dead when I get up the following day..maybe I'm missing something?

Cheers for any advice.

Myenergi cannot see your batteries if they're attached to a hybrid inverter, i.e. you cannot set the priority between the zappi/battery charge/discharge without independently changing settings on both.

If you want to run your Zappi in anything other than Eco+ mode (eco, fast, scheduled boost) and not drain your battery, you need to set your inverter to not discharge the battery. I'm not sure why you'd want to do this, besides the small loss in the back and forth conversion of the energy you still end up using the same amount at the end of the day.

You can charge both your car and batteries over night if you wish.

No it is correct figure, it's just the myEnergi doesn't see the other inverter as just clamp on one of the inverters live cable.

Bill comparison time......

2021: 13th Jan - 9th March (56 days) (rates*: Day:€0.1871 - Night: €0.0924) ::: €266.32

Day usage: 613 kWh Night usage: 1,004 kWh

2022: 15th Jan - 14th March (59 days) (rates*: Day:€0.2255 - Night: €0.1113) ::: €204.03

Day usage: 124 kWh Night usage: 1,031 kWh

*pre discount rates - EI online/direct debit etc..

I was thinking about an electric hob to use during the summer when cooking, as our current hob is gas... something along the lines of this...

yeah, and without a huge increase on the night usage either.. which is my next target now to reduce, with more and more excess going into the car meaning when it does get plugged in for a night charge, it either doesn't need as much, or is night charged less frequently.

Got a couple of Russell Hobs versions of them on Amazon when on offer and find them ok for around a small office or bedroom, I keep a close eye on them when using though in case of overheating.

The ones I got are relatively quiet, there is a noise from the fan but it would be ok if not trying to sleep beside it. I got mine because they only use 500w so can use a couple in smaller rooms without wasting to much power.

Hi there, please excuse if my questions are basic, I renovated house in 2007, at the time we put 7.3sqm evacuated tubes onto the roof (2 banks side by side), and this is used to heat hot water in a circ 1000l tank, and used for DHW. This is great as from about now till Oct we have no gas bill for heating water, showers etc. but was wondering given how technology has come one and Solar PV panels nowadays can provide electricity and excess diverted to heat hot water, is if a difficult thing to do to replace the tubes with PV panels of combine the two.

The heating system is gas, with UFH downstairs and Rads upstairs, but boiler needs to be changed, and may look at a HP depending on what additional work is required v's costs v's benefits.

The roof where the tubes are is South facing, I dont know how much space there is left at the moment, but suppose wondering what peoples thoughts are on this, as an FYI our Gas for heating we use 11Kwh and Electricity circ 5000 Kwh for a 4 bed semi-D circ 1800 Sqft.

if you had this set-up, would you consider Solar PV, what to do with the existing panels, we may get an EV in the next 12mts so electricity usage could go up. I want to see what thoughts are before I contact installers, as they have an agenda to sell, which is fair enough, but want to see whats best for us given our existing set-up, usage etc.