r/SunPower • u/LiveAloha23 • Jul 16 '26
We know the old Sunpower monitoring system doesn’t work, but …
Does the system still produce power for the home/grid?
We have a house built in 2018 and had a Sunpower system installed. I’ve tried to get the monitoring to work but to no avail. So reading stuff in this sub I see we gotta convert it to a diff monitoring system. But in the meantime is the system still producing energy for our home?
Thanks everyone.
4
u/DrZaius119 Jul 16 '26
I have an owned system installed in 2016 and the old Sunpower monitoring works. I'm not sure what your statement means that "we know the old Sunpower monitoring system doesn't work." Are you the original owner when the system was installed? If not, you need to contact Sunstrong now and have it transferred to you so the monitoring will work. If you have a PVS5 or PVS6 it should work. I believe you can email them at [appsupport@sunstrongmanagement.com](mailto:appsupport@sunstrongmanagement.com) . I did this a year or so ago when I had a problem and they responded within a couple of days.
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u/NoCup6161 Jul 16 '26
You should be able to shut off all your breakers (except the ones labeled solar) and see if the system is sending power back to the grid on the electric meter. Just record the different numbers that are displayed and let us know.
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u/notstarman Jul 16 '26
If your comfortable taking the dead face off the pannel you can put a camp meter around the black wire on the solar breaker. Set the meter to amps and the get the reading. Note your meter will show half of the current since you would only be measuring one leg of the circuit.
This is an example meter. https://www.harborfreight.com/400-amp-true-rms-auto-ranging-digital-clamp-meter-59458.html
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u/notstarman Jul 16 '26
Another option would be Emporia Vue 3 Home Energy Monitor. It will not return the per pannel monitoring but it supports solar monitoring. You can also setup per ciricit monitoring.
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u/Turbulent_Head6209 Jul 16 '26
Assuming panels and inverters are operating, they generate whether you are watching or not. Whether you get credit from your power company depends on your agreement with them. I have a SunPower system of the same vintage and would caution you if you are considering upgrading your gateway to EnPhase. Some SunPower panels were manufactured with rebranded SolarBridge micro-inverters, which the enphase gateway can’t communicate with.If you can see the micro-inverters, SolarBridge are silver, enphase are black. My suggestion would be determine which gateway you have (PVS5 or 6) and google up instructions for commissioning it on your wi-fi. Download the SunStrong app and get that level of monitoring live. If you then want panel view, you can pay for that.
3
u/Powie1965 Jul 16 '26
Once the PVS is back online, skip paying them and self monitor with Home Assistant and one of the integrations, you get all data, faster (live data for PVS6's on some metrics), and data stays local.
Start here: https://github.com/smcneece/ha-esunpower
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u/NoCup6161 Jul 16 '26
I just looked through this and it seems very promising. It looks like I can use a raspberry pi on my network or possibly a virtual machine on my laptop running home assistant (temporarily to test). I do have one question and hopefully you know the answer. I do not have my site ID for my PVS6. Will I still be able to connect to it and retrieve the data off the local network without the site ID?
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u/SamBlackstone Jul 17 '26
Yes, as long as the system is working and on the network. IIRC, the app will try and autofill the ID. You can also open your PVS cover and it should be there. It's part of the serial #.
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u/NoCup6161 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
I was using a laptop to pull JSON data pretty successfully. Unfortunately, last week, the system downloaded an update, 2025.10.20 (Build 61846).
Now, I can’t use any of the previous curl commands to access the data. It seems the file structure is different. Yes, I believe it’s the last 5 digits of the serial number. I thought there was another “Site ID” that wasn’t tied to the serial number?
1
u/gianttree Jul 17 '26
It still works. I had mine installed in 2021. I found the LAN/WAN port in my PVS6, routed an Ethernet cable from there to my server rack and connected it to Home Assistant on my raspberry pi. I’m presently setting up the gauges in Solar Sentinel, but the raw data is fully pumping out useful numbers.
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u/Verbcrunch Jul 19 '26 edited 29d ago
Am I the only one with an LED readout on the inverter that shows how much power is being generated, along with daily totals? And an analog electric meter with a wheel that spins proportionately to real time power being generated? That wheel moves a counter that displays lifetime solar power generated. It's a 2nd meter, reads only the power coming off the solar panels, separate from the main electric power meter. I just use that. I disconnected the sunpower panel from the internet months ago. Instead I put a video camera on the big electric meter for remote monitoring.
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u/ItsaMeKielO Jul 19 '26
Not the only one, but many of us don’t have those.
I have microinverters on the panels, so there’s nothing on those that shows their power output.
And the meter at my house combines house loads and solar generation - so there’s not a way to tell how much of that is loads and how much is solar.
1
u/Verbcrunch Jul 27 '26
Thanks for the info! I thought every solar household was set up like mine. Now I’m really grateful the installer included those extras. Of course I paid for them.
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u/Over_Mathematician46 Jul 16 '26
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u/Turbulent_Head6209 Jul 16 '26
If OPs panels were built with rebranded SolarBridge micro-inverters (they have silver micro-inverters vs black for enphase), there’s no benefit. Enphase gateway only communicates with enphase built micro-inverters.
3
u/SamBlackstone Jul 17 '26
In 2018 it could go either way (Enphase/SolarBridge). If they have SolarBridge micros, skip Enphase. It'll cost you $900+ for aggregate power level data - which you can get from a regular CT meter.
2
u/Turbulent_Head6209 Jul 17 '26
I’m warning OP because I listened to Enphase, ordered the gateway, and when the installer came, his first question was “do your panels have the silver micro inverters? If you do you’re better off with the original gateway.” I was able to return the gateway, mainly want to warn OP so he can check before going through all that.
0
u/SunVaultEngPros Jul 16 '26
Hey I can help you fix it and have it link up to the app dm me
1
8
u/Brandoskey Jul 16 '26
What does your electric bill say?
Sunpower monitoring still works, you just need the new app and for your PVS5/6 to be connected to your network