Low cost solar diverter.

propnut

If you are in the market for one of these take a look at this. Although I already have a myEnergi Eddi I was curious so ordered one of these off Aliexpress to try. They are sold under different names on eBay with the typical stupid profit driven mark up but as you are unlikely to get any support from the eBay sellers I figured why not go straight to the source. I tested it for a week and it certainly does what it says on the tin.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004829132599.html?

Reed_Richards

I wonder if it can cope with a battery?  It needs to cope with the battery briefly discharging to the grid after some power device like a kettle switches off and not see that as surplus export power.

propnut

Reed_Richards said:

I wonder if it can cope with a battery?  It needs to cope with the battery briefly discharging to the grid after some power device like a kettle switches off and not see that as surplus export power.

The export margin is 200w so it needs to see at least this going out before kicking in. In my case this provided enough breathing room for my battery inverter to kick out before the diverter kicked in.

propnut

[Deleted User] said:

Seems expensive to me - build yer own 

See https://picaxeforum.co.uk/threads/photo-voltaic-immersion-heater-power-diverter-safety-warning.24286/

or 

https://docs.openenergymonitor.org/pv-diversion/introduction/choosing-an-energy-diverter.html

Nice....wish I knew about this previously. Great idea for those of us with an electronics background but I suspect the vast majority would like something off the shelf. The one I posted is considerably cheaper than the ones currently on the market. I wish I had found it before buying the Eddi. Don't get me wrong the Eddi is a great piece of kit and being able to monitor and control it via the app is head and shoulders above this one BUT this.

1. Does the job it claims
2. You can program boost periods to take advantage of cheap tarrifs to heat your tank on those long sunless winter days.

The £124 will pay for itself relatively quickly. After all It is far cheaper to heat water using free solar than using gas.

Meatballs

propnut said:

[Deleted User] said:

Seems expensive to me - build yer own 

See https://picaxeforum.co.uk/threads/photo-voltaic-immersion-heater-power-diverter-safety-warning.24286/

or 

https://docs.openenergymonitor.org/pv-diversion/introduction/choosing-an-energy-diverter.html

Nice....wish I knew about this previously. Great idea for those of us with an electronics background but I suspect the vast majority would like something off the shelf. The one I posted is considerably cheaper than the ones currently on the market. I wish I had found it before buying the Eddi. Don't get me wrong the Eddi is a great piece of kit and being able to monitor and control it via the app is head and shoulders above this one BUT this.

1. Does the job it claims
2. You can program boost periods to take advantage of cheap tarrifs to heat your tank on those long sunless winter days.

The £124 will pay for itself relatively quickly. After all It is far cheaper to heat water using free solar than using gas.

These are a good price point but don't tell someone on SEG their solar is free!

With gas at 10.2p and say 80% efficiency it costs 12.75p/kWh, which is less than you can get SEG export for (15p Octopus Outgoing).

Alternatively with an EV you could be on Octopus Go offpeak (12p) or IO (10p) and Scottish Power SEG at 12p and break even.

Diverters are great for FIT but not so much on SEG. Consider a battery with most new solar install takes up the first bulk of excess and the payback time (if it exists) gets extended even further.

Give it 6 months and these numbers may have all changed around though.

michaels

WE have an original iBoost in the loft, would love the flexibility if it were controllable/monitor-able via an app - would also have been helpful for saving sessions.....

In the loft as well as the iBoost we also have a tv aerial signal booster, a network switch and a wifi range extender - it does worry me having electronics up there in a space that gets very hot in summer and has no fire alarms....

paul991

why not stick a wifi smoke detector up there.I have a samil inverter in my loft but in the unlikely event anything went wrong i doubt any fire could escape the thick metal casing

propnut

I use the second output of my Eddi to run a convection heater once the water tank is full. Yesterday, 2nd March, I used almost no gas. Not only was my hot water satisfied but the house was kept warm for the best part of the day from a single 2KW convection heater sitting at the foot of the stairs. Not all diverters support this. I initially had an iBoost that uses a modified DC output. It worked fine with the immersion heater but didn't want to know about the convection heater. The Eddi AND this cheap one work fine with both. As with most things, you just have to think outside the box rather than just taking things at face value.

Solarchaser

propnut said:

[Deleted User] said:

Seems expensive to me - build yer own 

See https://picaxeforum.co.uk/threads/photo-voltaic-immersion-heater-power-diverter-safety-warning.24286/

or 

https://docs.openenergymonitor.org/pv-diversion/introduction/choosing-an-energy-diverter.html

Nice....wish I knew about this previously. Great idea for those of us with an electronics background but I suspect the vast majority would like something off the shelf. The one I posted is considerably cheaper than the ones currently on the market. I wish I had found it before buying the Eddi. Don't get me wrong the Eddi is a great piece of kit and being able to monitor and control it via the app is head and shoulders above this one BUT this.

1. Does the job it claims
2. You can program boost periods to take advantage of cheap tarrifs to heat your tank on those long sunless winter days.

The £124 will pay for itself relatively quickly. After all It is far cheaper to heat water using free solar than using gas.

I'd suggest you should buy another one of these, and sell me your eddi for £250 meaning you would have 2 of them for free.

If you are even semi serious about buyers regret with the Eddi, I'm 100% serious about buying it off you.

propnut

Solarchaser said:

propnut said:

[Deleted User] said:

Seems expensive to me - build yer own 

See https://picaxeforum.co.uk/threads/photo-voltaic-immersion-heater-power-diverter-safety-warning.24286/

or 

https://docs.openenergymonitor.org/pv-diversion/introduction/choosing-an-energy-diverter.html

Nice....wish I knew about this previously. Great idea for those of us with an electronics background but I suspect the vast majority would like something off the shelf. The one I posted is considerably cheaper than the ones currently on the market. I wish I had found it before buying the Eddi. Don't get me wrong the Eddi is a great piece of kit and being able to monitor and control it via the app is head and shoulders above this one BUT this.

1. Does the job it claims
2. You can program boost periods to take advantage of cheap tarrifs to heat your tank on those long sunless winter days.

The £124 will pay for itself relatively quickly. After all It is far cheaper to heat water using free solar than using gas.

I'd suggest you should buy another one of these, and sell me your eddi for £250 meaning you would have 2 of them for free.

If you are even semi serious about buyers regret with the Eddi, I'm 100% serious about buying it off you.

Haha....Nice try.  My Eddi is fantastic. At no point in this thread have I suggested that this unit is superior to an Eddi. My title was "low cost". Eddi = £500 with the Harvi, this one is £124 all in. But no remote monitoring. For a good many people this unit is more than they need but there is no suggestion that it is on an equal footing with an Eddi.

Solarchaser

I never suggested you said it was superior.
It's clearly not.
But you did say you wish you had found it before the eddi, so assumed you may want to swap out.
FYI my eddi was £396 with the relay board.
It's a lovely bit of kit, but I waited months for it and I originally wanted two.