I don't know if we can give a definitive answer to that @crashuk

What you can do to 'control' an Indevolt battery depends on

• what communications are available from your existing solar inverter, of which we know nothing
• the legal/contract side of the scheme by which a 3rd party has installed solar panels on your roof
• your own skill-set with electronics and programming

There's no RS485 communications port on any existing Indevolt Powerflex products.

But Indevolt have an online document which provides the API to access their firmware via Bluetooth or WiFi.

This contains a section on integrating an existing 3rd-party solar inverter into a system based on Indevolt storage. Only inverters from certain manufacturers are listed as being 'supported'

Just remember that any plug-in solar or plug-in storage device may not be legally sold in GB at the time of writing (mid-June '26).

We don't yet know what constraints might be imposed by the Government.

Posted by: @transparent

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I don't know if we can give a definitive answer to that @crashuk

What you can do to 'control' an Indevolt battery depends on

• what communications are available from your existing solar inverter, of which we know nothing
• the legal/contract side of the scheme by which a 3rd party has installed solar panels on your roof
• your own skill-set with electronics and programming

 

There's no RS485 communications port on any existing Indevolt Powerflex products.

But Indevolt have an online document which provides the API to access their firmware via Bluetooth or WiFi.

This contains a section on integrating an existing 3rd-party solar inverter into a system based on Indevolt storage. Only inverters from certain manufacturers are listed as being 'supported'

 

Just remember that any plug-in solar or plug-in storage device may not be legally sold in GB at the time of writing (mid-June '26).

We don't yet know what constraints might be imposed by the Government.

I’m looking at adding an Indevolt battery to my setup and wondered if anyone has done something similar.

I have a rent-a-roof solar system, so I’m not allowed to modify the existing solar installation, I can’t claim export payments, and I shouldn’t be exporting electricity back to the grid.

My thinking is to install an AC-coupled Indevolt battery on my side of the consumer unit so it can capture excess solar generation during the day.

I’m also on a time-of-use tariff that gives me electricity at 6.5p/kWh between midnight and 6am. Ideally, I’d like the battery to charge from the grid during that cheap-rate period and then make use of solar generation during the day.

The bit I’m struggling to understand is how Indevolt handles import/export monitoring in the UK. From what I’ve read, the system relies heavily on a P1 connection, but our SMETS2 meters don’t provide that functionality. I currently pull smart meter data into Home Assistant, but the updates are several minutes apart, which seems far too slow for any sort of real-time export control.

For anyone running an Indevolt system in the UK, how is this handled in practice?

Would something like a Shelly Pro 3EM with CT clamps on the incoming supply give Indevolt the real-time data it needs to prevent export, while still allowing scheduled overnight charging from the grid?

Also, does anyone know whether Indevolt plans to add native support for UK smart meters in the future?

Interested to hear from anyone who’s already gone down this route.

Posted by: @transparent

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Just remember that any plug-in solar or plug-in storage device may not be legally sold in GB at the time of writing (mid-June '26).

We don't yet know what constraints might be imposed by the Government.

It's worth adding that the (established) industry is campaigning to 'delay' (without a timescale) making plug in legal, raising safety concerns with, what seems to me to be, a scattergun approach. 

It's legal in Germany (well known for lax safety regulations - not), and indeed several other EU countries, and nothing that has been reported singles out what the material differences are between those countries and the UK, in order to justify a different approach.  Given that we largely harmonised electrical regulations when we were in the EU, the genuine differentiator remains a mystery.

Unfortunately I can imagine that it's very difficult, possibly impossible, for government quickly to override the industry objections given that they purport to be based on consumer safety.

I would observe that the established industry has a lot to loose should plug in be legalised.

Make of this what you will!

As a quick update to this thread, I wanted to let everyone know that Indevolt now has a dedicated technical representative on the forums, @indevolt-tech, who will be helping to answer technical questions and provide support where appropriate.

I think it's great to see manufacturers engaging directly with homeowners, so if you have any technical queries relating to Indevolt products, please feel free to ask them here.

@indevolt-tech Further to the discussion above do you know anything about when plug in might become legal in the UK.  It feels to me like the established industry are running scared and trying to prevent it happening. 

Can you give us any reassurance that the Government has the robust evidence it needs to dismiss their arguments, without material risk of downstream criticism..   This robust evidence presumably has to come from the likes of Indevolt, because nobody else has an interest in supplying it.

Posted by: @jamespa

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@indevolt-tech Further to the discussion above do you know anything about when plug in might become legal in the UK.  It feels to me like the established industry are running scared and trying to prevent it happening.  Can you give us any reassurance that the Government has the information and evidence it needs to overrule them (which, presumably, has to come from the likes of Indevolt because nobody else has an interest in supplying it) without undue risk of downstream criticism.

BS7671 is only relevant through Building Regulations Part P. If the government uses secondary legislation to amend Part P, or to clarify that part P does not apply to plug in devices then they can do so. It's pretty easy for them to change the regulations. Likewise they can create and pass a regulation for plug in solar/battery systems at which point it would be the express will of parliament so that would trump the implied will of parliament from BS7671. That might be the clever way to do it because it'll be a new law that doesn't take away from BS7671 or the IET, just gives people the right to install stuff.

In the UK there is pretty much nothing that stops the current government choosing to make something illegal or legal. We have no equivalent of the US constitutional processes and no equivalent of their supreme court to go with it. For UK courts if parliament has expressly said that it is so then it is so.

As it stands today as far as a bunch of us can figure out it's also completely legal to have a supply fitted to your shed and then just plug solar into that. Part P doesn't apply to most sheds, so BS7671 does not apply so what regulation does it break assuming you have a G98

Posted by: @etchedpixels

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BS7671 is only relevant through Building Regulations Part P. If the government uses secondary legislation to amend Part P, or to clarify that part P does not apply to plug in devices then they can do so. It's pretty easy for them to change the regulations. Likewise they can create and pass a regulation for plug in solar/battery systems at which point it would be the express will of parliament so that would trump the implied will of parliament from BS7671. That might be the clever way to do it because it'll be a new law that doesn't take away from BS7671 or the IET, just gives people the right to install stuff.

In the UK there is pretty much nothing that stops the current government choosing to make something illegal or legal. We have no equivalent of the US constitutional processes and no equivalent of their supreme court to go with it. For UK courts if parliament has expressly said that it is so then it is so.

Yes it can but the established industry appears to be mounting a campaign to stop plug in on the grounds of consumer safety.  For reasons that are surely obvious Government is most unlikely to make a change unless it has robust evidence to counter this, hence my question to @indevolt-tech.

Posted by: @etchedpixels

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As it stands today as far as a bunch of us can figure out it's also completely legal to have a supply fitted to your shed and then just plug solar into that. Part P doesn't apply to most sheds, so BS7671 does not apply so what regulation does it break assuming you have a G9

My understanding is that its unlawful to sell plug in solar, although I cant quote a regulation so dont know that this is definitely the case.  Something is clearly holding back the likes of B&Q, Lidl, and IKEA from selling it in this country when they already offer it in the EU.

PS This website suggests that the hold up is a BSI which is the certification for the products.  This may suggest that its lawful as long as the product is certified, which is currently impossible.  Again perhaps @indevolt-tech can advise.  If so it suggests that the established industry is making a last-ditch effort to halt it, hopefully with little chance of success.

Posted by: @etchedpixels

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...

In the UK there is pretty much nothing that stops the current government choosing to make something illegal or legal. We have no equivalent of the US constitutional processes and no equivalent of their supreme court to go with it. For UK courts if parliament has expressly said that it is so then it is so.

...

In fairness, that makes it sound rather more arbitrary than it actually is. I would say instead that "In the UK there is pretty much nothing that stops the current government choosing to put something forward for a vote". I don't like political machinations any more than anyone else but the current government whoever they may be don't always get what they want and that's as good a demonstration as any that there is some considering going on.

Posted by: @majordennisbloodnok

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In fairness, that makes it sound rather more arbitrary than it actually is. I would say instead that "In the UK there is pretty much nothing that stops the current government choosing to put something forward for a vote". I don't like political machinations any more than anyone else but the current government whoever they may be don't always get what they want and that's as good a demonstration as any that there is some considering going on.

Technically the vote (and thus the "will of parliament") is the decider but the number of votes a ruling party in the UK has lost in the last 50 years is miniscule except for the comedy around the final bits of brexit. We don't generally get minority governments and we don't generally get large scale rebellions.

Milliband is not going to lose a vote making plug in solar legal by taking it outside of building regulations. In fact that's actually the same approach mostly being used to fight the incumbent self interested trade bodies in the USA as well ironically.

Posted by: @etchedpixels

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Milliband is not going to lose a vote making plug in solar legal by taking it outside of building regulations. In fact that's actually the same approach mostly being used to fight the incumbent self interested trade bodies in the USA as well ironically.

No of course not.  But if the established industry is campaigning against it on the grounds of public safety (which it appears is the case), he is rightly going to want fairly robust evidence that the public safety concerns are unfounded before he puts it to the vote.

Hi @hanno - good question.

The range of hybrid inverters from SunSynk have a mode which can be configured to take input from a wind turbine.

Whilst the power would be input to the inverter using the same physical terminals as those usually accepting output from PV solar panels, the algorithm is very different.

SunSynk have allowed the user to configure the power/wind-speed curve within the Advanced Settings configuration menu. But information in the manuals is scant. Earlier editions of the instructions actually contained more detail.

The issue with wind-turbines is that they can't simply be turned off if the storage battery becomes full.

The turbine must always be presented with a load. Even if you understand the concept of a dump-load, you still require a fail-safe mechanism to switch it into circuit in the event of the inverter failing as well as the battery being at max capacity.

Users with domestic wind turbines invariably have very large energy stores... well beyond anything you'd consider implementing with Indevolt's technology. For that reason alone, I can't see them wanting to spend R&D time to design a wind-turbine option.

See this existing topic which discusses a proposed 2.5kW domestic wind turbine

and buy yourself a copy of  "A Wind Turbine Recipe Book" by Hugh Piggott. He builds wooden turbines (incl the PMG) on the Scottish island of Scoraig.

If you'd still like to develop these ideas further, then please do so in the Wind Turbine section of this forum. No one else is likely to find comments on wind turbine generation in a topic about Indevolt Powerflex batteries. The two technologies are at opposite ends on the domestic energy field. Attracting helpful input from others is an important part of your ideas-development process!

Hello JamesPa,

Thank you for the useful information. When I have questions re wind turbines I will most certainly log into that thread. For now I am keen to hear what @indevolt-tech can tell me about the PowerFlex 3000. I will not feed back into the Grid -period-.  And even have a separate ring in my house for my current Solar PV. I would like to think I thus would have no legal problems in buying the box & extra battery or testing it before it even is totally approved. I'm a Dutchman and could potentially even drive back to the Netherlands and buy it there! I will also check out that SunSyke you mentioned. To me user-friendliness, tech support and only then price are important. As reported, the App might be somewhat tricky but in my regular work I have tested a lot of different software so that does not phase me.

Anyway, thanks again, I'll see what @indevolt-tech has to say!

Regards,

Hanno