Spare Solar - SOLiC 200 or Solar iboost - Thoughts?

shinydoc

QrizB said:

Magnitio said:

I purchased a 1.5kw immersion heater which is controlled using a TP-Link smart plug.

Good to see some love for smart devices!

I went with Zigbee since it lets me mix & match devices in one place, with one app. However Zigbee devices do seem to be slightly more expensive, and slightly less common, than their wifi equivalents.

What I need now is a cheap Zigbee current sensor so I can tell my immersion to switch on when export exceeds eg. 1kW and turn off if it changes to import

Have you managed to find anything that solves this, as I’ve just got solar and am looking for something cost effective to heat the water intelligently. I currently have a thyristor controlled voltage regulator on the immersion, but it’s very manual and Like you I would love it to be automated more, without spending £300 on a commercial solution.

QrizB

shinydoc said:

QrizB said:

Magnitio said:

I purchased a 1.5kw immersion heater which is controlled using a TP-Link smart plug.

Good to see some love for smart devices!

I went with Zigbee since it lets me mix & match devices in one place, with one app. However Zigbee devices do seem to be slightly more expensive, and slightly less common, than their wifi equivalents.

What I need now is a cheap Zigbee current sensor so I can tell my immersion to switch on when export exceeds eg. 1kW and turn off if it changes to import

Have you managed to find anything that solves this, as I’ve just got solar and am looking for something cost effective to heat the water intelligently. I currently have a thyristor controlled voltage regulator on the immersion, but it’s very manual and Like you I would love it to be automated more, without spending £300 on a commercial solution.

I haven't yet, no, sorry.
In my particular case the part of my HW tank heated by my immersion is quite small, and it will only usually take 3-4kWh from the immersion. If I'm not at home and it's forecast to be a mostly-sunny day I set the immersion to turn on from 12 noon (BST) when I know my slightly-west-facing panels will make 2+kW.

paul991

https://solarimmersion.co.uk/ does the  job well

Waywardmike

There's a lot of mentions on here over the lack of a reporting function with the iBoost. 

This is only slightly true, there no connectivity via Wifi (or even Blutooth) so you can't use an app, but you can just push the buttons on the front and it tells you how much you've saved that day (in kWh).  It also tells you how much you saved yesterday, and from memory I think it also tells you that week and since install too...

I check it regularly when the dear Wife decides to have a bath and I need to figure out if enough solar went into it to see whether I can also have a shower that evening.

I can also tell, indirectly, that it's diverting to the immersion from my other reporting software.  Once the battery is full there's a much larger household load which directly follows solar production (offset by 200w, I had to raise it to 200w to stop it competing with the battery).

*Edit* - I should probably say that I love having the iBoost because I got it before having a battery.  My battery isn't particularly large (6.5kWh), and the last couple of weeks with the patchy sunshine there's been several days where it hasn't heated the water fully, and today I'm not sure it will at all.  Not sure how much they are now, I paid ~£250, but I think I'd struggle to get that back before it broke, I've already had one changed under warranty.

Merlin139

Waywardmike said:

There's a lot of mentions on here over the lack of a reporting function with the iBoost. 

This is only slightly true, there no connectivity via Wifi (or even Blutooth) so you can't use an app, but you can just push the buttons on the front and it tells you how much you've saved that day (in kWh).  It also tells you how much you saved yesterday, and from memory I think it also tells you that week and since install too...

Had my i-Boost for 8 years on the 21st. By walking upstairs and pressing the buttons I can see:

Today,
Yesterday,
Last 7 days,
Last 28 days,
Since install.

Trouble is that I need to remember, glasses and a torch. Thankfully I can still remember the figure when I've walked back down the stairs.

JKenH

Merlin139 said:

Waywardmike said:

There's a lot of mentions on here over the lack of a reporting function with the iBoost. 

This is only slightly true, there no connectivity via Wifi (or even Blutooth) so you can't use an app, but you can just push the buttons on the front and it tells you how much you've saved that day (in kWh).  It also tells you how much you saved yesterday, and from memory I think it also tells you that week and since install too...

Had my i-Boost for 8 years on the 21st. By walking upstairs and pressing the buttons I can see:

Today,
Yesterday,
Last 7 days,
Last 28 days,
Since install.

Trouble is that I need to remember, glasses and a torch. Thankfully I can still remember the figure when I've walked back down the stairs.

You need an iBoost Buddy to save your legs and stair carpet.😊

Solarchaser

I had a zappi installed a couple of months ago and have been very impressed by the myenergi stuff, the app is very good, as is the zappi response to sun and no sun.

So I've decided to go with two Eddi's and optional relay boards to heat my water.
It can heat sequential Heaters as I believe  the iboost does also.
The optional relay board means you can have two temperature sensors and two relays for various things, enabling another immersion,  running a destrat pump etc etc

It also has the option of putting on a ct clamp to your battery feed and then you can decide which to prioritise for charging / heating, so I think its worth the ~£390 price tag for the multifunctionallity of it.