Growatt SPH5000 settings tweak

[mitchyk]

Hi all, firstly thanks for having me on board this forum, we had solar installation late last year which was fitted when I wasn't home so I wasn't able to get any technical help on things like switching wifi etc, so I had to figure it all out on my own with some lucky google searching and my own tech experience. I certainly wasn't sure about the battery first settings etc, but thanks to this forum I was able to make tweaks to the server settings to maximise our battery storage, up until this week the weather has been quite hit and miss and I have been taking advantage of the octopus go package to fill up our single battery between 00:30 - 04:30. Recently I have been tweaking the end time to around 2 hours, but at the moment the sun is out and looks set for a while so i am wondering whether I need to keep on the battery first setting and go back to the default (is the default power harverset mode or do i simply just set AC charge to off in the battery first section ?? sorry the interface is very confusing still, i don't understand why the interface has radio buttons as i feel i am selecting a mode) because in my mind i should be able to manage without drawing from the grid at all at the moment (obviously the octopus go rate is about 12p between 00:30 - 04:30) but it all adds up in my opinion, by about 9am the battery is back up to 100% dropping to around 60% overnight (I also managed to switch us onto Octopus export tarrif (which isn't as much as i was led to believe but because I am on the oct go package I can't have everything lol), sorry for long post and hi

 

[johnb2713]

Hi, Welcome to the forum.
I have a similar setup and have achieved what youre aiming to do, zero import on peak rate.

A few pointers -
1) Your inverter when running on battery has a max output of 3kW, switch on the kettle and toaster or oven and hob you will be importing energy.
2) Have a look at Home Assistant, it's able to link into the Growatt Inverter and you can adjust parameters based on weather forecast so if sun is forecast for example, only charge to 50% etc.
3) Assuming you have an EV, have a look at Octopus Intelligent, thats only 7.5p kWh for 6 hours.

J

 

[mitchyk]

Hi, Welcome to the forum.
I have a similar setup and have achieved what youre aiming to do, zero import on peak rate.

A few pointers -
1) Your inverter when running on battery has a max output of 3kW, switch on the kettle and toaster or oven and hob you will be importing energy.
2) Have a look at Home Assistant, it's able to link into the Growatt Inverter and you can adjust parameters based on weather forecast so if sun is forecast for example, only charge to 50% etc.
3) Assuming you have an EV, have a look at Octopus Intelligent, thats only 7.5p kWh for 6 hours.

J

Hi John, Thanks very much for taking the time to respond, no EV yet but will look further into Octopus Intelligent though, thanks again

 

[johnb2713]

Hi John, Thanks very much for taking the time to respond, no EV yet but will look further into Octopus Intelligent though, thanks again

You wont be able to go onto intelligent without an EV, they have to do a test charge before youre accepted.

 

[mitchyk]

Hi, Welcome to the forum.
I have a similar setup and have achieved what youre aiming to do, zero import on peak rate.

A few pointers -
1) Your inverter when running on battery has a max output of 3kW, switch on the kettle and toaster or oven and hob you will be importing energy.
2) Have a look at Home Assistant, it's able to link into the Growatt Inverter and you can adjust parameters based on weather forecast so if sun is forecast for example, only charge to 50% etc.
3) Assuming you have an EV, have a look at Octopus Intelligent, thats only 7.5p kWh for 6 hours.

J

I am back again - Since we last spoke I have installed Home Assistant and have done a days of automation - It's great, I installed it on my PC for now using a VM but when I can afford it will be looking into getting a HA Yellow or similar.. so anyway.. What integration / device are you using to be able to edit the paramaters ? - and also what weather api are you getting your forecast data from ? - I have setup accuweather that seems to give me what I need, I guess I will have to do some scripting at some point here.. I am not afraid to do scripting here as I used to be a web dev but new to python but some more pointers like you have already given will be really appreciated, I have read some of your other posts and might try and get myself a octopus mini if i can, but there is now a waiting list

 

[johnb2713]

I am back again -

Welcome back!

Since we last spoke I have installed Home Assistant and have done a days of automation - It's great, I installed it on my PC for now using a VM but when I can afford it will be looking into getting a HA Yellow or similar.. so anyway..

I'm using one of the real small form factor Dell PC's to run HA, I have this machine solely for energy and house related things.

What integration / device are you using to be able to edit the paramaters ? - and also what weather api are you getting your forecast data from ? - I have setup accuweather that seems to give me what I need, I guess I will have to do some scripting at some point here..

We have used 'windy' for the weather info using software developed by my son. We adjust the charge parameters on the Victron Multiplus II to increase / decrease the % charge from the grid. The last few days we havent charged from the grid at all into my DIY battery due to this setup. It does still need some fine tuning but we are making changes so it can learn from the weather data the yeild the next day etc.

I am not afraid to do scripting here as I used to be a web dev but new to python but some more pointers like you have already given will be really appreciated, I have read some of your other posts and might try and get myself a octopus mini if i can, but there is now a waiting list

I requested the mini a couple of months ago, it has been a refreshing change, easy to setup, dead easy to integrate to HA via HACS.

 

[mitchyk]

Welcome back!


I'm using one of the real small form factor Dell PC's to run HA, I have this machine solely for energy and house related things.


We have used 'windy' for the weather info using software developed by my son. We adjust the charge parameters on the Victron Multiplus II to increase / decrease the % charge from the grid. The last few days we havent charged from the grid at all into my DIY battery due to this setup. It does still need some fine tuning but we are making changes so it can learn from the weather data the yeild the next day etc.


I requested the mini a couple of months ago, it has been a refreshing change, easy to setup, dead easy to integrate to HA via HACS.

thanks so much for a quick reply, i have the growatt integration but i can't see a way of changing anything (yet) - from what i can see i can only read values - and none of the growatt server settings are exposed to me, any ideas ? don't worry if not, thanks again for all your help

 

[johnb2713]

thanks so much for a quick reply, i have the growatt integration but i can't see a way of changing anything (yet) - from what i can see i can only read values - and none of the growatt server settings are exposed to me, any ideas ? don't worry if not, thanks again for all your help

I'm sure in the early days we were adjusting the charging parameters but we abandoned the Growatt and made the adjustments to the Victron which has more parameters to play with and is easily accessible.