Not really an event, but I installed a small trial solar setup (800W with 1 kWh battery) this past autumn that I am quite pleased with (despite the utter lack of sun since November).
In the spring, I’m planning to expand that to something like a ~7 KW solar array, 10 KW inverter/charger, and hopefully around 16 kWh of battery.
Screw you, AEP and my rate nearly doubling year over year
Where did you buy the equipment? In my local area theres a ton of scammers for solar. But the tech is VERY good and outside my local area, I know it works. Still looking for a good supplier.
Locally, there’s nothing (not even scammers). I got 4x200 watt panels from Amazon and am using those with an Anker Solix C1000.
For the expansion in the spring, I’m probably going to order more of the same PV panels. For the combo inverter/charger, I’m looking at the ones from SungoldPower currently as well as a few others. Battery is still in the research phase, but the inverter can auto switch between solar and utility without the battery.
The wiring I can handle but will probably have an electrician do the wiring from my main breaker to the subpanel that’s fed from the solar inverter (grid tie is too caught up in expensive red tape to bother with here).
The product page says a smart phone is required. Is that accurate, or is it easy to use without it.
Does that mean it needs internet in order to work? How has your experience been when the internet is out?
Smartphone is not necessarily required, but if you want to change any of the settings (AC charge rate, maximum discharge depth, etc), you’ll need to use the app. You can use the app to connect to it via bluetooth directly. That said, it’s possible to use it without any app at all with the default settings and it works fine.
The app tries to steer you toward making an Anker account and connecting the unit to wifi (some features like WeatherGuard, time of use charging, etc require that) but you can use it without an account and connect locally via bluetooth. That’s how I do it, so no issues with a cloud connection as it’s not even using it. Though I did complain to support about how the app treats that use case as a second-class citizen. (When you open the app, it always lands you on the signup/login page and you have to click “Skip” in tiny text at the bottom to use the app locally via BT). The app also nags you that Google Play Services is required but it works fine without it.
I do use the app for remote monitoring and once to set the max discharge depth from 1% to 15% but otherwise it works fine standalone. The only thing making me slightly consider setting up the cloud connection is the HomeAssistant integration; there’s a module to tie it into HA, but it uses the cloud API rather than connecting over bluetooth :(
Thanks that gives me a ton of info. Appreciate it.
I forget where I heard, but the only issue ive heard about with one of those all in one inverter/battery units is that the modern ones are heavily app focused, locking features out without using an app. And one of the reasons you would use a battery in the first place is if power or other essential services are out. In the case I remember the individual was frustrated because without the app, you couldn’t modify anything on the device…which seems very bad.
I may look into this further, again appreciate it! Ive been looking for something for my shed for close to a year, but I dont want to drop $500+ on something only designed to work for a couple of years.
I remember the individual was frustrated because without the app, you couldn’t modify anything on the device…which seems very bad.
Sadly, that’s how this one is but the defaults are sane enough that you could get by without it. I didn’t buy it for the features that need the cloud service, so if those are unavailable, that was fine for my use case. The consolation is that configuring it can all be done with just the app over Bluetooth.
I’m hoping someone reverse engineers the Bluetooth protocol. I did a HCI dump while it was connecting and streaming data, but I can’t make the slightest bit of sense of it.
Not really an event, but I installed a small trial solar setup (800W with 1 kWh battery) this past autumn that I am quite pleased with (despite the utter lack of sun since November).
In the spring, I’m planning to expand that to something like a ~7 KW solar array, 10 KW inverter/charger, and hopefully around 16 kWh of battery.
Screw you, AEP and my rate nearly doubling year over year
Where did you buy the equipment? In my local area theres a ton of scammers for solar. But the tech is VERY good and outside my local area, I know it works. Still looking for a good supplier.
Locally, there’s nothing (not even scammers). I got 4x200 watt panels from Amazon and am using those with an Anker Solix C1000.
For the expansion in the spring, I’m probably going to order more of the same PV panels. For the combo inverter/charger, I’m looking at the ones from SungoldPower currently as well as a few others. Battery is still in the research phase, but the inverter can auto switch between solar and utility without the battery.
The wiring I can handle but will probably have an electrician do the wiring from my main breaker to the subpanel that’s fed from the solar inverter (grid tie is too caught up in expensive red tape to bother with here).
awesome thanks.
So one of these? https://www.ankersolix.com/products/c1000?variant=49702371524938
The product page says a smart phone is required. Is that accurate, or is it easy to use without it. Does that mean it needs internet in order to work? How has your experience been when the internet is out?
Literally that one, but I have the Gen 2 version.
Smartphone is not necessarily required, but if you want to change any of the settings (AC charge rate, maximum discharge depth, etc), you’ll need to use the app. You can use the app to connect to it via bluetooth directly. That said, it’s possible to use it without any app at all with the default settings and it works fine.
The app tries to steer you toward making an Anker account and connecting the unit to wifi (some features like WeatherGuard, time of use charging, etc require that) but you can use it without an account and connect locally via bluetooth. That’s how I do it, so no issues with a cloud connection as it’s not even using it. Though I did complain to support about how the app treats that use case as a second-class citizen. (When you open the app, it always lands you on the signup/login page and you have to click “Skip” in tiny text at the bottom to use the app locally via BT). The app also nags you that Google Play Services is required but it works fine without it.
I do use the app for remote monitoring and once to set the max discharge depth from 1% to 15% but otherwise it works fine standalone. The only thing making me slightly consider setting up the cloud connection is the HomeAssistant integration; there’s a module to tie it into HA, but it uses the cloud API rather than connecting over bluetooth :(
Thanks that gives me a ton of info. Appreciate it.
I forget where I heard, but the only issue ive heard about with one of those all in one inverter/battery units is that the modern ones are heavily app focused, locking features out without using an app. And one of the reasons you would use a battery in the first place is if power or other essential services are out. In the case I remember the individual was frustrated because without the app, you couldn’t modify anything on the device…which seems very bad.
I may look into this further, again appreciate it! Ive been looking for something for my shed for close to a year, but I dont want to drop $500+ on something only designed to work for a couple of years.
Sadly, that’s how this one is but the defaults are sane enough that you could get by without it. I didn’t buy it for the features that need the cloud service, so if those are unavailable, that was fine for my use case. The consolation is that configuring it can all be done with just the app over Bluetooth.
I’m hoping someone reverse engineers the Bluetooth protocol. I did a HCI dump while it was connecting and streaming data, but I can’t make the slightest bit of sense of it.