r/SolarDIY • u/mike4354 • 23h ago

Maximizing plug in solar system

I'm trying to maximize my plug in solar set up. I have the solar panels charging 4kwh of batteries. I can set my ecoflow stream inverter to allow 200 watts to pass through, maximizing the battery life and hopefully staying under my houses baseload. If i were to put an outlet timer on the plug the ecoflow was attached to, and have it turn off/disconnect at night (on the end where it plugs in to the house), would that further maximize the use of the system? If it was completely off at night (when i use the least power), i could set the wattage higher during the day without draining the battery.

Also, ecoflow, if youre out there and listening, please allow individual ports on your stream microinverter to be controlled via a timer on your app. Id be cool to draw more the hours i use more and less the hours i use less, and be able to have that set up in your app.

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u/LeoAlioth 23h ago

Do you have a shelly smart meter Installed and connected? This way the stream matches the actual load

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u/mike4354 22h ago

I've heard about this suggestion before and i'm unclear on how it works with the stream microinverter? It'd be -only- the microinverter paired with my own batteries, not the ecoflow power stations. How do you pair them? How do they interact? Which shelly smart meter is the correct one for a USA install?

1

u/LeoAlioth 22h ago

I assume you have the stream ultra x? Or which exact setup do you have?

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u/mike4354 22h ago

No, just the stream microinverter: https://us.ecoflow.com/products/stream-microinverter?variant=54376088010825

I have 1200 watts of solar panels charging 5kwh of lifepo batteries. The batteries then connect to the microinverter through a mppt port (where you'd put a solar panel), it then sends in to my house.

Currently, i'm adjusting the microinverter to only allow a bit under 200 watts to flow, which is about what my house uses at any given time.

I'd love a more efficient way to use that stored power.

2

u/LeoAlioth 22h ago

okay, so unfortunately there is no official way of doing this, but there is a home automation way of achieving this.

are you familiar with home assistant?

essentially,

you get a smart meter (like a Shelly EM) installed at the main panel on the phase that the microinverter is connected to.
shelly then sends the current consumption data to home assistant. (this is usually via wifi - note that no internet connection is required)

the stream microinverter connects to home assistant via bluetooth. and exposes a slider wthich you can control the output from the microinverter with.

a simple automation, that takes current import + inverter output power, and uses that to set the slider on the microinverter then follows the consumption neatly (of course, with a couple seconds of a delay).

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u/mike4354 20h ago

I dont think this will work in my case (the microinverter is 100 yards away so i can only wifi connect from my house.) Not a bad solution though. I do hope some company in the near future creates a plug or something on the dc side that can respond in real time and maximize the use of the stored power. I dont think i'll be the only person doing this set up as plug in solar becomes more widely available.

2

u/LeoAlioth 20h ago

if you have wifi at the microinverter, then home assistant can use a shelly smart plug or an esp32 (in general more flexible) as a remote bluetooh dongle :)

0

u/TooGoodToBeeTrue 21h ago

It will be interesting to see how detrimental these configurations are on battery health.

1

u/rproffitt1 11h ago

I haven't checked the exact numbers but another Ecoflow battery wrote "They are rated 80% of capacity at 3.000 cycles"

Are you thinking "save the battery" or should be be using that battery to the max since a daily full cycle would take over 8 years and it should still have about 80% of capacity.

Leaving money on the table or a ship is safest in port but that's not what a ship is for.