Questions about monitoring my electricity

mattinthebrad

Hi,

I want to start by explaining my situation so hopefully this my questions will make sense.
I have a smart meter but in home displays have never worked- I've been told the position of the meter on the outside wall and the material the meter box is made from is preventing this.
I've had solar panels since 2022 and a battery since late May and switched suppliers to Octopus at the same time. Each of these - the panels, battery, power company has it's own app that is not always understandable.

The first thing I'd like to know is there any way to see on one screen the following information.
-How much I am generating
-How much of what I generate am I using at the time
-How much of what I generate am I saving and using later
-How much am I importing from the grid
-Am I exporting to the grid and if so how much
-What is the financial value of all the above?

I would like to be able minimise what I take from the grid, and so my bills, but without this information I don't really know where to start and the existing apps show different parts of this information in different formats, and combined with jargon I struggle with.

Any suggestions for an app or other option that could show me this information in a user friendly format.

tim_p

Take a look at Solar Assistant. Should cover all bases except perhaps the last one. You can buy it prebuilt or install / run on a RaspberryPi - just need to check your inverter is supported. You need to be a bit techie initially but once up and running needs no fettling. 

FreeBear

tim_p said:

Take a look at Solar Assistant. Should cover all bases except perhaps the last one. You can buy it prebuilt or install / run on a RaspberryPi - just need to check your inverter is supported. You need to be a bit techie initially but once up and running needs no fettling. 

A couple of problems with Solar Assistant - It is a single user licence product, and you don't get the source code. You get to transfer the software to a new Pi or SD card for free.. In my experience, SD cards do not last long when recording a lot of data (I was destroying one in around 3 months with Home Assistant). The online shop appears to be USA based, and refuses to accept my registration details....

OpenEnergyMonitor is UK based, open source, and also do "off the shelf" kits. Being local, they are more likely to respond quickly to any queries.

Reed_Richards

My inverter has an app that will tell me all the information you want to know on one or two screens.  What model of inverter do you have?

mmmmikey

Reed_Richards said:

My inverter has an app that will tell me all the information you want to know on one or two screens.  What model of inverter do you have?

IMHO this is likely to be your best bet - focus on whichever app comes closest to giving you the information you want and spend some time getting to fully understand that. If you have questions about the jargon, just ask. @Reed_Richards has a good inverter app - in my case the battery app is better (the age of my system is such that I have multiple inverters). What's best for you depends on what you've got.

As far as I know there isn't a single, non-technical app you can use that meets all your requirements including price information, but by combining whatever you have with Octopus Watch or something like that you can get close.

I'm using Home Assistant with other software to do what you're asking, but it's more of a hobby than a practical money saving approach. Your post and the wet weather have prompted me to install a new monitor for my solar generation and I shall spend this evening having fun with soldering iron and a few bits of electronics before doing the necessary computer programming to make it all work. Definitely a hobby for geeks rather than simple solution

nologo

Octopus mini (free from octopus) although longish wait to get one shows on the app, live use, generation, export, consumption,  approx cost/earnings,, needs a smartphone  or tablet  though,& needs a young offspring to set up..(well I did)

regards nologo

FreeBear

nologo said:

Octopus mini (free from octopus) although longish wait to get one shows on the app, live use, generation, export, consumption,  approx cost/earnings,, needs a smartphone  or tablet  though,& needs a young offspring to set up..(well I did)

Not that impressed with the Home Mini myself. Was a real struggle to set the darned thing up without Geolocation enabled in Android (don't have GPS on that device, so had to fake it - There's an app for that). Gas consumption is often 4-8 hours behind actual usage, and I get gaps in electrical consumption. Would be much better if the Home Mini would spit the data out via MQTT rather than having to rely on the Octopus server.

If/when I get time, I might try to hack the device (there are a couple of JTAG ports on the board). If it goes bang, I'll buy a Hildebrand Glow.

tim_p

FreeBear said:

Not that impressed with the Home Mini myself.

Same here, totally underwhelmed. All it seems to have added is a ‘Live’ field. 

mmmmikey

FreeBear said:

nologo said:

Octopus mini (free from octopus) although longish wait to get one shows on the app, live use, generation, export, consumption,  approx cost/earnings,, needs a smartphone  or tablet  though,& needs a young offspring to set up..(well I did)

Not that impressed with the Home Mini myself. Was a real struggle to set the darned thing up without Geolocation enabled in Android (don't have GPS on that device, so had to fake it - There's an app for that). Gas consumption is often 4-8 hours behind actual usage, and I get gaps in electrical consumption. Would be much better if the Home Mini would spit the data out via MQTT rather than having to rely on the Octopus server.

If/when I get time, I might try to hack the device (there are a couple of JTAG ports on the board). If it goes bang, I'll buy a Hildebrand Glow.

I went the Hildebrand Glow route and it has proved easy to set up and reliable. I'd certainly recommend it. The technical documentation and support are both good. I use MQTT to get the data where I want it.

Qyburn

nologo said:

Octopus mini (free from octopus) although longish wait to get one shows on the app, live use, generation, export, consumption,  approx cost/earnings,, needs a smartphone  or tablet  though,& needs a young offspring to set up..(well I did)

regards nologo

My Mini doesn't show export. We're currently exporting at over 2kW ..

Qyburn

I actually think the battery management should give more information, assuming an AC coupled battery.  It's the battery that needs to understand import, export and generation so that it can maintain it's balancing act. In contrast the solar inverter just whacks the power out, it doesn't need to know whether the power's being used, exported or stored.