Solar options for home in 2022.

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#3040901 23-Feb-2023 15:47

billgates:
Contact Sean at Bay Solar. I know they have done couple of jobs in Auckland in the past so they might still be happy to service that area. I can highly recommend them.

Apparently Auckland is a bit outside the BoP service area :-). However there's this older thread about going with Harrisons which I'm currently ploughing through, they subcontract so it'd be a case of finding (a) a good Harrisons guy who does Auckland (there are reports on there of not-so-good ones) and (b) a good subcontractor to ask for for the actual install.

I'll also call the SMA distributors who happen to be ten minutes from here and see if they have any approved installers. I had a look on the SEANZ web site but it seems like every company with the word "solar" in the name is already a member so it's not much help in weeding out underperformers.

billgates

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#3040969 23-Feb-2023 16:26

@neb Is the distributor YHI Energy? If so, they are very expensive distributor and most of my quotes excl Bay Solar got there SMA pricing from them. Contact AC Solar Wahrehouse as well in Auckland who have just setup operations in NZ and they also distribute SMA gear now who Bay Solar got it from, and they can also recommend some installers.

09 222 2262
https://www.acsolarwarehouse.com/contact/

Do whatever you want to do man.

neb

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#3041146 24-Feb-2023 00:06

billgates:
@neb Is the distributor YHI Energy? If so, they are very expensive distributor and most of my quotes excl Bay Solar got there SMA pricing from them. Contact AC Solar Wahrehouse as well in Auckland who have just setup operations in NZ and they also distribute SMA gear now who Bay Solar got it from, and they can also recommend some installers.

09 222 2262
https://www.acsolarwarehouse.com/contact/

It was Independent Power, I ended up on their web site because they carry both SMA and Victron. Thanks, I'll give AC Solar a call tomorrow.

neb

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#3042888 27-Feb-2023 18:52

AC Solar recommended PowerTech and Reid Technology so I'll ping them tomorrow. In the meantime here's the proposed setup for peanut-gallerying:

neb

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#3042900 27-Feb-2023 19:36

And an unrelated comment, it's a good thing we don't live in that third-world country north of Mexico with our handling of solar power.

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#3042919 27-Feb-2023 20:40

neb: And an unrelated comment, it's a good thing we don't live in that third-world country north of Mexico with our handling of solar power.

paywalled

neb

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#3042922 27-Feb-2023 21:00

Jase2985:
neb: And an unrelated comment, it's a good thing we don't live in that third-world country north of Mexico with our handling of solar power.

paywalled

Oh, I just run NoScript and never even noticed a paywall.

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#3043638 1-Mar-2023 14:56

SMA EV Charger 7.4

Thanks for the nudge @billgates! I've had the charger since mid January now. I've been meaning to do a write-up, but haven't got around to it until now.

Hardware

The SMA EV Charger 7.4 is an all metal enclosure that follows the design aesthetic of the inverters. It feels pretty solid and well built. It's a bit on the larger side in terms of width, but isn’t as deep as other chargers. The charger is installed on a wall that's out of the way, so the size isn't an issue.

Supply

Charger was ordered by the installer (Northstar) from AC Solar Warehouse that sent it from AU.

Installation

Took about 4-5 hours for two installers. This also included adding a new RCD, and hooking everything up to the garage mains box. Commissioning was a breeze that I did with input from the installer and videos on SMA’s website. Once the charger is added to Sunny Portal, the app displays a new e-mobility tab with options to control and view current charge, and review past charge. I have all my SMA gear on ethernet for a solid backbone.

Cost

The charger wasn’t cheap. Just the device cost $3372 ex gst. Plus labour and materials on top of that of $762 ex gst.

Operation

PV charging – On sunny days the charger is set to PV charging where HM2.0 controls everything. It’ll follow PV generation and sets the right amount of power and if needed turns off/on the charger. Being a small PV system, I’ve in Sunny Portal allowed for 90% PV and 10% grid power to give the charger some buffer so it keeps charging. I tend to play around with this setting to find a good balance.

Fast charge – In the evenings the fast charge option is used which pulls as much power it can from the grid. I tend to combine this by setting a charging schedule in the EV. It would’ve been better if scheduling could be done in the app, but only an end time can be set not a start time. I wouldn’t be surprised if this feature is in the works.

Unresolved

For some reason I can only pull 4.3kW from the grid. Need to get in touch with the installer to see what we can do. I’ve managed to get up to 6.8kW by combining PV and grid so it’s not the EV limiting the rate.

Others

SMA is pretty slow to release updates. Reading comments on the SMA blog and forums, it seems as people have been requesting new features but SMA has been slow to address these.

Settings can be set in 3 different places. The app is used to monitor usage, start/stop charge, change between charging modes. Sunny Portal is used to set parameters for HM2.0. The charger has its own UI, where charge related settings are made eg power rate, amps. Would’ve been nicer to do it all from one place. It’s not a big deal though, often it’s a two step operation of turning the dial to switch between modes and plug the handle into the car.

Cable hook isn’t included, SMA wants you to thread the cable around the charger, but my preference was to use a hook so just repurposed a hook I had in the garage.

Evnex

This was my backup plan, but I wanted to keep everything SMA for simplicity. With the Evnex charger, I also needed to fit their power sensor in the mains box then run a cable to the garage to allow for solar diversion. With the SMA charger, I only had to plug in an ethernet cable and link up with HM2.0.

Overall

Even though it’s an expensive product I really like how nicely it integrates into the SMA ecosystem. It’s pretty hands off too, where the EV can be plugged in all day and HM2.0 will do its thing. If you don’t need the bells and whistles, I think a Evnex or Tesla charger would be a more cost effective solution.

Screenshots

A) PV charging

B) PV & grid charging

C) A day of PV charging

D) A day of PV & grid charging

E) Another day of PV charging

neb

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#3043639 1-Mar-2023 15:05

Newtown:
SMA is pretty slow to release updates. Reading comments on the SMA blog and forums, it seems as people have been requesting new features but SMA has been slow to address these.

Zey are German, for everyzing zere must be zer proper paperwork first!

This is great when working with German companies as clients, you can be pretty certain that you'll have your side finished long before they need it at their end.

FineWine

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#3043695 1-Mar-2023 16:46

@Newtown

Did you look at the Zappi Charger which only last year got NZ approval.

This is what we will be looking at in the future to go with the rest of our myenergi products provided by Harrisons solar. Of course we may not need it if hydrogen technology for vehicles become a true reliable reality and cheaper option.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

Newtown

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#3043738 1-Mar-2023 17:46

FineWine:

Did you look at the Zappi Charger which only last year got NZ approval.

Only in the early days before I went down the SMA route. I was looking at zappi + eddi + harvi in a system sense to help us electrify everything. I was impressed by zappi, and the myenergi eco system, but unsure why I didn't pursue it.

billgates

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#3043752 1-Mar-2023 19:26

@Newtown if you login directly in the Web UI server for the EV charger, what are these parameter 2 values set to for your setup?

Maximum Unbalanced Load

Nominal current at the grid connection point/Grid connection point rated current

(It should be 63amps or whatever amp your main circuit rating is for home which will be printed on the main switch). I am guessing Grid connection point rated current parameter is currently set to 16amp or 32amp. Change it to 63amp, save settings and try charging again from grid and report back.

Thanks for the detailed write up. Good to know that the housing is made of metal and thus sturdy. What amp size dedicated breaker did the installers install out of curiosity? 32amp or 16amps?

I am guessing that the RCD installers installed is a Type A RCD as SMA EV charger has the Type B RCD built in which otherwise is an extra $400 cost to install for EV chargers that do not have this built in. Both Evnex and Tesla do have Type B RCD built in as well.

The install price is very reasonable. My work colleague paid $700 for 2 hours labour to install the Tesla Gen 3 charger in brand new home right next to the main circuit board. Your install looks further away from your main circuit board with extra cabling involved so pricing is very fair. IIRC you mentioned you had to pay extra $400 for the SMA EV charger since none was available in country yet so they air freighted it from Australia so I am guessing normal RRP is around $2900 when in stock in NZ.

Do whatever you want to do man.

Newtown

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#3043774 1-Mar-2023 22:19

Thanks, that did the trick! 🎉

EV Charger settings

– Maximum unsymmetric load, changed from 4600 to 7400 W
– Grid connection point rated current, changed from 32 to 63 A

Garage mains box

– Hager CDA240T: RCD Type A, 40 A
– Hager MSN132: 32 A circuit breaker

billgates

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#3043778 1-Mar-2023 22:41

Nice work. Yeah that Unsymmetric load value of 4600W is the legal limit in Germany. SMA should offer a wizard where you select NZ as country and it changes it to 7400W for single phase models and 22000W for 3 phase models. I remembered these 2 settings from the SAE German forum and read a post from one of the early buyers and SMA engineer pointed to fix these settings. Bing translate in browser ftw!

That is a Type A RCD they have installed which is correct. The install job looks very tidy. I am so far set to get the SMA EV charger after we get the battery inverter and batteries installed hopefully by end of this year. SMA cannot do 2 phase charging from there 3 phase model unlike Evnex and Tesla Gen 3 (Tesla EVSE only does 16amps max per phase on 2 phase apparently anyway). But the convenience of SMA EVSE with Home Manager 2.0 with true PV control unlike the CT clamp export control from Evnex is hard to pass by. I am budgeting $50k for 2 x SMA Sunny Island 08H-13, 2 sets of 16kWh minimum BYD LV Flex to cover each phase and SMA 7.2kW EVSE.

Do whatever you want to do man.

neb

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#3045844 5-Mar-2023 00:02

billgates:
The generator has a noise complaint issue at night in an urban environment atleast, fuel storage/purchase problem as well only limited number of appliances that can be connected to the generator with long running power leads.

In case this is of any interest to anyone, talked to some folks today who ran a outside unit from a Honda EU20i generator. It was amazingly quiet, standing right next to it I could barely hear it over nearby road noise, it's an inverter generator and weighs around 20kg, they said it'd run 4-6 hours from a single petrol fill, and the cheapest place to get it was Trade Tested. They also recommended adding fuel stabiliser to the petrol if you're going to have it sitting there for awhile.

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