@bash Thanks I completely agree and had already reduced it to 130A to reduce stress and I now have further reduced to 110A. As I say I am not completely happy I have all the best settings.
Daikin 6Kw ASHP. MG4 EV, Solis 8KW inverter, 32KWh battery 1926 Semi with loft and wall cavity insulation, all radiator.
The good thing is there isn't too many settings to worry about, I have the AC Coupled version of this inverter.
I didn't need to tweak mine much, the main one was the charge/discharge rates and timers.
The batteries BMS's were a different matter though!
There is a setting to allow the inverter to discharge upto 110% of the rated power, which was a bonus, as it gives a bit more headroom if the house demand is high.
I get around this by plugging in the car but not unlocking the Zappi till late evening.
I leave the zappi in eco+ so it doesn't allow the car to charge and have a boost timer set from 23.30 to 5.30 and the ready by time on Octopus set for 5.30. This means I can unlock the zappi when I plug in and don't have to go back outside again without octopus starting a charge and draining the battery.
I haven't had the battery and inverter long so don't know if Octopus will consider this OK or not but the car car is still charging when Octopus tell it too as long as it is within the normal window. I did email them to ask a way round the battery discharging to the car as the Octopus website suggested I switch to Intelligent Go. The suggestion was to set up Home Assistant, not something I want to spend time exploring at the moment, or move the CT clamps for the inverter so it can't read the zappi charging, something that's not possible to do with my complex wiring set-up.
I did email them to ask a way round the battery discharging to the car as the Octopus website suggested I switch to Intelligent Go. The suggestion was to set up Home Assistant, not something I want to spend time exploring at the moment, or move the CT clamps for the inverter so it can't read the zappi charging, something that's not possible to do with my complex wiring set-up.
We are using Intelligent Go for import. Octopus connect to the BMW, it really does not bother us. When I wanted to charge the car during the day, I realised that the car charging is now controlled both via the Octopus app and the Ev charger one. And as @bash mentioned, the utilities expect the EV overnight tariffs to be used beyond the EV and some even make them available to people without an EV. There´s probably plenty of windpower that can be routed overnight..
The simple flat overnight rate made it very simple, we just need to make sure we avoid the 3* day rate. My plan is to eventually use things like Solis AI or HA batpred to maximise use of any Agile rate. Let the systems keep track of all the details and optimise import and export!
HA can become time consuming to manage, depending on how much you try to keep connected to it.
Some folk here run simple python scripts for various purposes.
On a similar wavelength, I recently came across an app someone wrote and shared via github to control the Solis, when using Octopus Agile rates.
I too have no idea why the Wifi connection won't work with the password.
I came across this info about the datalogger firmware from a github repository (that describes how to install ESPHome firmware on the Solis S3 stick) that may help...
The web interface is protected by HTTP simple auth with fixed username admin and password 123456789. After connecting the stick to your home WiFi the web password changes without notice to your WiFi password. So you need to login to the web admin interface with admin and your WiFi password. This somewhat wierd behaviour again shows the immature state of the firmware.
8kW Solis S6-EH1P8K-L-PLUS hybrid inverter; G99: 8kw export; 16kWh Seplos Fogstar battery; Ohme Home Pro EV charger; 100Amp head, HA lab on mini PC
After connecting the stick to your home WiFi the web password changes without notice to your WiFi password. So you need to login to the web admin interface with admin and your WiFi password
I need to get my head around this. It would appear to be a security risk.
Your (secret) WiFi password is being replicated so as to act as the password to a website. Have I understood this correctly?
Thus your WiFi password has been sent to a server outside of your home. Correct?
After connecting the stick to your home WiFi the web password changes without notice to your WiFi password. So you need to login to the web admin interface with admin and your WiFi password
I need to get my head around this. It would appear to be a security risk.
Your (secret) WiFi password is being replicated so as to act as the password to a website. Have I understood this correctly?
Thus your WiFi password has been sent to a server outside of your home. Correct?
This is/was essentially to access the inverter admin via http and modbus protocol, I think. The wifi access to the inverter is via a USB dongle that can be optionally connected to the inverter (that they call the datalogger). Solis has a long list of datalogger models, I am not sure if this default password is for the latest model, etc.
The way it read to me (and I cannot even confirm if it is still working like this), does not indicate best practice.
You can connect to the dongle that they supply via ethernet or wifi and I am using ethernet. I suspect most Uk homes will not use several wifi networks like we do. But if this risk is still present on the latest firmware of the dongle you are planning to use, configuring a dedicated wlan could be a simple compensating measure..
Solis provided me with some information on hardening security and it did not seem careless. Of course that the dongle that they do not even advertise that they supply (and is for optional use) is far from "military grade"...
Or alternatively, forget the need to get entrenched with compatibility lists, and instead get acquainted with the Open Modbus Standards and certification from the SunSpec Alliance.
Even if I also wish that Solis would apply common sense consistently, that is just our wish.
So I feel I should to reiterate to readers that the Solis "compatibility list" may grow but if your installer ignores it, some of what you had paid for may have to be ignored.
8kW Solis S6-EH1P8K-L-PLUS hybrid inverter; G99: 8kw export; 16kWh Seplos Fogstar battery; Ohme Home Pro EV charger; 100Amp head, HA lab on mini PC
My current niggle is whether setting a time slot for discharging the battery for export should really limit the battery being used to serve internal loads during that time slot (maybe even prevent it).
Like what can be seen below.
Eventually I had confirmation that, when setting an export session on the inverter (via a timed discharge), the limits set for he period (max battery amp and min soc) apply to any loads from the house. So if you set a period that is too long, the inverter may finish the export earlier and not serve the house loads from the battery (it will use the grid) for the rest of the period. Solis suggested using Solis AI may handle this better, but did not explain how (as this just automatically programs similar timed periods).
8kW Solis S6-EH1P8K-L-PLUS hybrid inverter; G99: 8kw export; 16kWh Seplos Fogstar battery; Ohme Home Pro EV charger; 100Amp head, HA lab on mini PC
@bash Thanks I completely agree and had already reduced it to 130A to reduce stress and I now have further reduced to 110A. As I say I am not completely happy I have all the best settings.
I also double checked the maximum charge rates possible with the cells in my battery (they also vary with temperature) and manually adjusted them.
For some odd reason the temperature readings are different via the BMS and via Solis modbus, the ones below are via Seplos bluetooth.
8kW Solis S6-EH1P8K-L-PLUS hybrid inverter; G99: 8kw export; 16kWh Seplos Fogstar battery; Ohme Home Pro EV charger; 100Amp head, HA lab on mini PC
I have been trying to get my head around what this all means for the battery life? Like others I want to get the best out of my system (Solis 8Kw and Fogstar 2* 16 KWH with Pace BMS on the Intelligent octopus go). Are there battery charge settings in the Solis box I could check? I have reduced the charge to 80A as that easily charges ( according to the Solis) the batteries in the cheap period and allows a time for them to sit before discharging to the house.
This query is best answered here @jancold , as it seems many people purchased Solis inverters to use with Seplos batteries.
I merely used timed discharge periods.
These are set in the "inverter control" menu, you set the start and stop period + the amp level and soc level that will limit the discharging during the time.
My current niggle is whether setting a time slot for discharging the battery for export should really limit the battery being used to serve internal loads during that time slot (maybe even prevent it).
Like what can be seen below.
Eventually I had confirmation that, when setting an export session on the inverter (via a timed discharge), the limits set for he period (max battery amp and min soc) apply to any loads from the house. So if you set a period that is too long, the inverter may finish the export earlier and not serve the house loads from the battery (it will use the grid) for the rest of the period. Solis suggested using Solis AI may handle this better, but did not explain how (as this just automatically programs similar timed periods).
Another option may be to try Solis AI. I posted my findings in a previous post above. It seems to set registers similar to the timed discharge ones.
One big limitation of Solis AI it that it is not auditable, so nobody can query what it does.
And given Solis support kept raising concerns about use of modbus (even for monitoring), I will leave it at that!
But let us know what you find!
8kW Solis S6-EH1P8K-L-PLUS hybrid inverter; G99: 8kw export; 16kWh Seplos Fogstar battery; Ohme Home Pro EV charger; 100Amp head, HA lab on mini PC
