Martin's corner on the web

BYD battery automatic switchover box

BYD battery automatic switchover box

Now that the BYD battery is here, I finished the automatic switchover box. It physically disconnects the house from the grid and instructs the inverter to start in island mode. Upon grid availability again, the inverter monitors its stability and switches back to grid-tie mode. First time building such a distribution box, I realize the…

Node-RED solar power forecast plus

Node-RED solar power forecast plus

Using Node-RED's node-red-contrib-solar-power-forecast-plus contribution to plot (light blue line) the estimated max PV generation in ideal conditions for my location/panel orientation/time of year; seems pretty accurate so far. Useful to know what theoretical maximum I have.

DC side surge protection device

DC side surge protection device

Installed a DC side surge protection device to my @froniussolar GEN24 #solar inverter. It comes as retrofit option, installs in under 20 min. A lightning strike nearby can induce damaging voltages in the wires from the rooftop panels 30m away, this SPD takes care of such cases

Fronius WattPilot EV charger

Fronius WattPilot EV charger

The @froniussolar WattPilot EV charger just arrived. This is the 22kW model, we have single phase installation, so max 7.4KW would be available. Can be configured to only charge using PV surplus, and supposedly works with zero feed-in. I don’t own an EV yet,will rent one to test.

A week on solar energy

A week on solar energy

A week on #solar energy, 70% of our consumption is solar-generated. Battery (BYD HVS 7.7kW) is ordered but 6-8 months to deliver, which I am told is “the new normal” Export of energy has been set to 0%, the inverter regulates production to match consumption. It is underutilized for the moment, but things will change…