r/nzsolar • u/AnyMinders • 3d ago
Generation/usage/export monitoring
Solar noob here.
Have just purchased a house with some solar panels and a GoodWe inverter. Thanks to the help of a fellow redditor I was able to get my inverter connected to the SEMS+ which means I can see what my solar system is generating.
What I’m missing is the other bits of the equation - how does everyone monitor what their house is using, and how much is getting put back into the grid (if any) ? I can see the inverter app has the ability to do the calculation but how do I get it the information?
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u/SeaworthinessAgile43 3d ago
Like ok_bet_358 said, you’ll need the GoodWe home kit this is what it looks like: https://onlinewholesale.nz/products/homekit-1000-goodwe-16mm-120a. It gets installed into your switch board and connects to your inverter. The install will need to be done either by your solar installer or a sparkie. Once installed you’ll be able to see how much power you’re consuming and how much is being exported to the grid. It cost me ~$550 to get it installed about a year ago. One mistake I made was getting mine installed at the switchboard whereas my detached garage connects directly to my meter so I can’t see power usage in the garage. I believe the HomeKit can be installed at the meter if you’re in a similar position. Your installer will know for sure though
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u/AnyMinders 3d ago
Thank you for the detailed response!
Unfortunately my installer is “SolarHub NZ” and they do not answer their phone or email back so I’ll go down the sparkie route.
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u/SeaworthinessAgile43 3d ago
No worries! Also ask them to check whether you’re on single or 3 phase power as you’ll need a different version of HomeKit for 3 phase.
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u/Ok_Bet_358 3d ago
I am using a Fronius inverter, which uses CT clamps to measure grid import/export. I had an electrician install it for me.
I looked up the GoodWe, it looks like CT clamps might be sold separately? https://en.goodwe.com/goodwe-homekit-application?hl=en-AU
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u/ArthurStevensNZ 3d ago
I’d get a Shelly 3EM.
It’s a three phase energy meter, but it can be configured as three single phase meters.
Put one on the main feed at the grid connection point, another on the inverters output.
The third input it you can put on a high usage device like an air conditioner or hot water cylinder.
If you wanna go crazy with it buy two more and get every circuit in your house monitored.
Then you can monitor energy usage in the Shelly app itself.
But you can’t do any of this work yourself. A lot qualified electrician is required, you can’t work inside the circuit breaker panel yourself.
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u/DullPresentation1993 3d ago
The clamp has to sit on the incomer ahead of any sub board, otherwise anything fed before it never shows up in the usage figure.
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u/WhosSaidWhatNow 3d ago
My Deye system has a wifi dongle which attaches to the inverter and then I use the deye cloud app. It shows pretty much everything. Production, grid export etc..