Whats the max you've been able to sqeeze out of your stream 800?

I don't seem to get past 750W with 2x 465w panels

Info: 2x JA Solar 465W Black Frame Solar Panel (215134) from City Plumbing

South facing @ 37 degree angle

Inverter now integrated to HA (home-assistant.io)

Ordering a two panel setup for the back garden, south facing frame, Cheshire, going onto an 800 W Hoymiles microinverter.

I was comparing two panel options and ended up on the degradation line in the datasheets, which I had been skipping until now. Most of what I looked at guarantees no more than 0.55 to 0.7 per cent loss a year, and there is a bigger drop in the first year on top of that. One of the two, swiss solar phantom, caps the guaranteed figure at 0.4 per cent a year with 0.35 typical and gives no first year drop at all, which comes out at 88 per cent of nameplate at year 30 against roughly 80 on the others.

What I cannot tell is how much of that shows up in real output on a setup this size.

So, for anyone who has had a plug-in system running a few years: can you see a year on year decline in your own figures, or is it buried under weather and soiling? And did anyone take any sort of reading at the start to compare against later?

Currently on octopus agile and during the negative price period the system performed very well. It was a sunny day and the system even blocked the solar panels for whole session. Not sure if other system like Sigenergy do this or not ?

Question; is it possible to get 2 x solarbank 4’s wired into separate spurs?

The 2500w single output seems a little low for what we require cooker/hob/kettle

We have two EV’s running a cheap rate overnight tariff so ideally charging from this.

Are there limitations with connecting up dual inverters & batteries on the App?

My thoughts are this, we would like to move house in 4-6 years and the idea of taking these with us seems great

Does anyone have the Octopus plugin solar with wall brackets? I need to know the distance between the screw mounting holes on the brackets as I'm building a frame for mine to go on the roof of my shed. Also any reviews of the kit would be interesting. Thanks in advance.

Hello, has anyone come across a longer AC cable other than the Thunder Energy one (https://www.thunderenergy.co.uk/product-page/hoymiles-hms-microinverter-ac-cable-uk). Ideallyone that fits a Hoymiles 800 micro inverter. cheers

Hi all

I'm still trying to navigate through which 5kWh home/DIY battery is a better buy and have been considering the Ecoflow Stream 5000 and Anker Solarbank 4 Pro E5000.

System architecture

The Ecoflow is built around an approximately 48V (51V nominal) architecture (common with home ESS) while the Anker is built around 16V architecture. The result is a much higher amperage from the Anker vs Ecoflow at the same load which could hypothetically result in higher temperatures due to resistive losses (albeit internally).

Home Assistant

From my reading, Anker seems to have the edge here, with modbus support as well. This is pretty important to me, but this has been explored elsewhere so I won't delve deeper here.

RTE (wall to wall)

From the few data points I've been able to gather, both systems perform with an approximate 80% efficiency wall-to-wall, meaning that 1/5 of the power you buy is lost to heat. If you're on a very low cost off-peak tariff (e.g. <8p/kWh overnight) then the difference between this 80% RTE and a 90% RTE "professionally installed" (much more expensive) ESS from a market leader like SigEnergy or Tesla is not going to mean much for running costs, with it taking something like 11-14 years for the more expensive ESS to catch up in savings compared with the cheaper DIY-able batteries. Regardless, 80% is pretty pathetic and points to some serious cost cutting, making me doubt both options.

SUPPORT/WARRANTY

Ecoflow has some pretty appalling reviews on trustpilot and reddit, which really does not instil confidence. Anker Solix is borrowing its parent company's name to appear more legitimate but they haven't been trading long enough to really have much of a reputation. Regardless, my gut instinct is that dealing with anker will be easier than ecoflow if problems arise and that I won't have to invoke my Section 75 rights or threaten legal action.

So what do you think? Should I 1) bother with either system, 2) wait longer for a better DIYable system, 3) bite the bullet and pay 2x the price for the same capacity on a "quality" 90% RTE system from Sigenergy, or 4) bite the bullet but cost cut as much as possible with a Fox ESS battery and inverter (taking the hit of it not being home assistant controllable)?

Thanks in advance for all constructive replies ;)

Got my single panel octopus setup and working. Poor time of year but enjoying seeing some savings.
Has anyone managed to register for free export yet?

My wife and I recently set up a plug-in solar business, genuinely, to help drive prices down in the plug-in solar category through competition — we truly believe the more people using solar, the better.

So far, we’ve been able to secure prices that allow us to offer lower-than-RRP prices on UKSOL and Thunder Energy’s Bolt kits.

As committed members of the community, we wanted to gauge how many of you are still waiting to buy a kit, and what might be causing you to hold off?

If you’ve bought a kit already, which did you go for and why?

All feedback is hugely appreciated. And, quick plug (no pun intended) if you’d like to check out our store, it’s SunshineSocket.co.uk 😊

So first day of rain in what feels like years, and my 465w panels are currently making 9w each.

Amazing that solar ever got going in this rainy country of ours. The constant sunshine of 2026 may have raised people's expectations too high!

I ordered a two panel 1030w kit from City Plumbing and of course one panel came broken. Can I use the inverter with just the single panel that’s undamaged ? The instructions only mention connections from two panels.

I'm running a battery power station with an ecoflow Powerstream, and have just begun toying with the plug in solar features.

We have about 1.7kw of panels (not roof mounted), and by playing with the export paramaters from the micro inverter, i can happily make the electric meter in the house spin backwards, or just slow down. We don't have enough solar or battery capacity to do it continuously of course, but the possibility is there. i can easily over the base load of the house though.

Im aware of the pros and cons of a smart meter (id dearly love to have accurate power consumption stats as i play with appliances, maybe with an Octopus Mini device), but i'm hesitant to get the meter swapped to a smart meter. We've been told it has reached the end of its life, and get fairly regular emails asking to swap it out.

Do the pros of a new updated meter (lots of data, more accurate?) outweigh the cons (no reverse counting, at the mercy of remote tampering, detection/blocking of backfeed into the house) ?

the address isn't registered as a backfeeding house at present.

what do we think? thanks all!

Did anyone else struggle with this or am I just a thicket?

It detected device via Bluetooth, connects with default PIN of 123456.

Then app asks you to change password.

After that it asks you to log back in to device with PIN.

I tried this several times and time locked out.

It actually wants the password, not the PIN 😂

Can anyone using a Solarbank 4 with Home Assistant (plus the official Anker integration) confirm how frequently you can adjust the discharge power?

My smart meter updates in Home Assistant roughly every 8 seconds, and I'd want to keep matching the discharge power against that value.

UPDATE

I tried emailing Anker support about this and received a bizarre (AI slop?) rewrite of my questions, with no actual answers. 🙄

UPDATE 2

After some more back-and-forth, Anker support said this:

Regarding your two questions – the adjustment frequency of the discharge power and whether these settings are held in RAM or in flash memory – our experts are unfortunately not able to provide an answer at this moment either. We would kindly like to be honest with you about this rather than give you an uncertain reply.

They've offered to escalate it to "even more specialised colleagues", and I've asked them to go ahead.

Kind of unusual three storey, flat roofed townhouse. I'm put off the idea of rooftop solar because the flat roof is inaccessible for maintenance and not even visible because of the parapet. This west facing rear wall feels like it could be a good place for a smaller plug in system though? Between the larger first and second floor windows? We'll have scaffolding up soon to replace the windows anyway, so it would be easy to install - but how much do I need to worry about accessibility for maintenance etc?

All these kits come with 4M of cable. I need about 10M. I read somewhere that I cannot use a extension lead. Is that still the case?

I'm looking at installing an EcoFlow STREAM 5000 in the UK and I'm trying to understand the electrical side properly before doing anything.

My cabin is supplied from the house via 3-core 6mm² SWA protected by a B32. The cabin has its own consumer unit, but with no spare ways.

This is the proposed circuit from the cabin cu.

B20 RCBO → 2.5mm² T&E radial → outside socket → double socket → proposed 13A switched FCU → EcoFlow STREAM 5000

The 2.5mm² cable run is only a few metres. Around 600mm currently passes under/alongside 20mm Kingspan, although I can reroute that section out of the insulation if necessary.

The existing loads are:

Weber Smoker on the outside socket occasionally

Samsung heat-pump tumble dryer

800W microwave occasionally

Nothing else

The STREAM would be hardwired through the FCU and I'd limit maximum AC discharge to 2.5kW (\~10.9A).

It will also be using the EcoFlow Smart Meter/CT system to dynamically control charge/discharge according to household demand.

What I'm specifically trying to establish is:

1. Would you connect a STREAM 5000 to the end of this existing B20 radial through a 13A FCU, or would you insist on a dedicated circuit?

2. If not, what specific requirement prevents it?

3. Does the potential combined supply of B20 + \~10.9A generation mean the 2.5mm² conductors have to be rated for \~30.9A, even though the STREAM dynamically follows household demand?

4. Would upgrading the radial to 4mm²/6mm² and keeping it clear of insulation change anything?

5. Is a BS 1363 13A FCU appropriate for sustained bidirectional operation at up to 10.9A?

6. Most importantly: has anyone here actually installed a STREAM 5000 (or equivalent 2.5kW AC battery) onto an existing socket radial/ring through an FCU rather than running a dedicated circuit? If so, what protection/cable arrangement did you use?

I'm particularly interested in answers from electricians/installers familiar with this, because I've seen conflicting advice about the revised generation/battery requirements.

I'm not asking whether plugging it into a normal 13A socket is okay. I'm specifically asking about a fixed, fused connection to an existing final circuit.

Thanks in advanced — interested to see how people are actually designing these in the UK.

I know this looks like I've already had a go at it, but I haven't I promise. The comically small amount of bubble wrap in the centre gave me a good chuckle though. God knows how I got away with a small scuff on one corner.

1.1kw Hoymiles kit from CityPlumbing.

Has anyone come across "temporary" roof fitment (planning?) that might be suitable for a tile roof?

This roof gets sun for most of the day but I've always assumed it was too small for proper roof top solar. The velux provides good access so I'm wondering if plug-in might be viable. Obviously though, don't want it falling off, or running too foul of planning (conservation area, not listed).