Solar options for home in 2022

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226 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 63

#3465702 28-Feb-2026 16:40

Paul1977:

richms:

Standard for anything that has to limit the export to a cap. Needed if you want to charge the battery up during free/low cost power times and ensure you don't go over the supply rating.

We aren’t getting a battery (but the quote does say “battery ready”). Orion currently still limits exports to 5kW (meant to increase to 10kW sometime this year) and Harrison’s are definitely aware of the limit so must be using the appropriate equipment to enforce it. But I’ll double check with them.

If it's 5kW or less inverter, you might have to ask for the consumption meter. Harrisons didn't offer it by default for me, it was an extra $500. Otherwise all you will have is the production data from the inverter, and the half hourly consumption data from the power company, which you could correlate to work out self consumption etc. But much easier if the meter consumption data and inverter production data is all in one system.

kangaroo13

87 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 90

#3465716 28-Feb-2026 18:41

dantheperson:

Paul1977:

We aren’t getting a battery (but the quote does say “battery ready”). Orion currently still limits exports to 5kW (meant to increase to 10kW sometime this year) and Harrison’s are definitely aware of the limit so must be using the appropriate equipment to enforce it. But I’ll double check with them.

If it's 5kW or less inverter, you might have to ask for the consumption meter. Harrisons didn't offer it by default for me, it was an extra $500. Otherwise all you will have is the production data from the inverter, and the half hourly consumption data from the power company, which you could correlate to work out self consumption etc. But much easier if the meter consumption data and inverter production data is all in one system.

If you don't already have a diverter or some sort of smart control on your hot water system, an option is to go for the Catch Relay instead of a dedicated consumption meter. It will cost around $500AUD, and provide comprehensive metering and statistics via SolarAnalytics, in addition to helping to maximise self-consumption of solar for your hot water cylinder. I can also ensure you comply to any export limit on your system.

Check this video for a comparison of the Fronius smart meter vs using a Catch Relay (particularly from about 13min45 onwards):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNEjfihfo_E&t=802s

Here are some examples from yesterday (a poor solar day in Christchurch) - to give you an idea of the data available. From the top graph you can also see how the hot water attempted to turn on when there was sufficient solar. The right hand page shows the estimated billing information for the day. There are many ways you can drill down into the data. Some data can be exported for further analysis in Excel. These screenshots are taken from the Solar Analytics web portal. I believe they were bought by Catch a few years ago.

Paul1977

5171 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2192

#3465719 28-Feb-2026 19:08

dantheperson:

If it's 5kW or less inverter, you might have to ask for the consumption meter. Harrisons didn't offer it by default for me, it was an extra $500. Otherwise all you will have is the production data from the inverter, and the half hourly consumption data from the power company, which you could correlate to work out self consumption etc. But much easier if the meter consumption data and inverter production data is all in one system.

10kW inverter, but I’ve emailed them to double check about the meter.

Paul1977

5171 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2192

#3465721 28-Feb-2026 19:22

kangaroo13:

If you don't already have a diverter or some sort of smart control on your hot water system, an option is to go for the Catch Relay instead of a dedicated consumption meter. It will cost around $500AUD, and provide comprehensive metering and statistics via SolarAnalytics, in addition to helping to maximise self-consumption of solar for your hot water cylinder. I can also ensure you comply to any export limit on your system.

Check this video for a comparison of the Fronius smart meter vs using a Catch Relay (particularly from about 13min45 onwards):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNEjfihfo_E&t=802s

Here are some examples from yesterday (a poor solar day in Christchurch) - to give you an idea of the data available. From the top graph you can also see how the hot water attempted to turn on when there was sufficient solar. The right hand page shows the estimated billing information for the day. There are many ways you can drill down into the data. Some data can be exported for further analysis in Excel. These screenshots are taken from the Solar Analytics web portal. I believe they were bought by Catch a few years ago.
……

We’re on gas for hot water, and realistically won’t be changing to electric in the next several years (unless the gas califont completely dies).

Paul1977

5171 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2192

#3465809 1-Mar-2026 14:18

Ok, so Harrison’s has confirmed the Fronius Smart Meter is included as part of install.

For those that have this, how much historical data does it store, and can you export it to a file?

EgorNZ

64 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 23

#3465811 1-Mar-2026 14:37

Paul1977:

Ok, so Harrison’s has confirmed the Fronius Smart Meter is included as part of install.

For those that have this, how much historical data does it store, and can you export it to a file?

We've had our system for a couple of years and the history still goes back to day one. I'm not sure if there is any limit on it.

You can configure reports and download them to a CSV or XLS:

Some features require a Solar.Web Premium subscription, but all the basic data is available for free.

Jase2985

13735 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6217

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Lifetime subscriber

#3465813 1-Mar-2026 14:43

Paul1977:

Ok, so Harrison’s has confirmed the Fronius Smart Meter is included as part of install.

For those that have this, how much historical data does it store, and can you export it to a file?

yep you sure can, i exported a year worth of data which was a 70mb spreadsheet.

I have it spit out a few monthly reports for me which i use for a calculating future power plans

HarmLessSolutions

1230 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 812

Subscriber

#3465819 1-Mar-2026 15:23

We have Solarweb operating with our dual inverter system (one Fronius, one SMA) with a smartmeter for each inverter. Prior to our SMA being brought online last June we had renovation works going on that resulting in the Fronius being denied internet connection for about 3 months. When it regained wifi it took a number of weeks for the data to populate the Solarweb's display. As it turns out the data for April wasn't ever retrieved so no totals available for that month.

That's only ever going to be an issue if internet link to the inverter goes down but it does show that the Fronius inverters do hold a decent cache of data internally I guess.

Incidentally the data feed to Solarweb isn't great with two inverters as the SMA's generation (which is 100% exported) is interpretted as being consumed by us. I guess that the Fronius is seeing export via the CT clamp on its phase and total export from both inverters so the SMA's exported generation via our second phase is invisable to the Fronius so it calls the shortfall consumption in order to 'balance its books'. Our installer warned us of this situation prior to connecting up the SMA but the lack of net metering in NZ means there's no easy solution to it. I just collate info from my various feeds (including the SMA's SunnyPortal app) to put my own records together.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

Paul1977

5171 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2192

#3465859 1-Mar-2026 21:23

Thanks for the info about the Fronius Smart Meter everyone. Now I've got a question about our regular power meter.

PowerEdge have said if we go on an all-day plan (i.e. one rate 24/7) that our current meter can be remotely reconfigured to record exports. But if we want to go on a Day/Night plan that the meter would need replacing.

I don't understand why this would be the case. It's an EDMI Atlas Mk7C, and we are currently with PowerShop so it records 4 different time-of-day rates (peak, off-peak, super off-peak, shoulder). If it can do that now, why would it need replacing to just do Day/Night?

dantheperson

226 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 63

#3465861 1-Mar-2026 21:51

Paul1977:

Thanks for the info about the Fronius Smart Meter everyone. Now I've got a question about our regular power meter.

PowerEdge have said if we go on an all-day plan (i.e. one rate 24/7) that our current meter can be remotely reconfigured to record exports. But if we want to go on a Day/Night plan that the meter would need replacing.

I don't understand why this would be the case. It's an EDMI Atlas Mk7C, and we are currently with PowerShop so it records 4 different time-of-day rates (peak, off-peak, super off-peak, shoulder). If it can do that now, why would it need replacing to just do Day/Night?

If had that too where i was on electric kiwi move master and octopus with time of use pricing, then when i get quotes from the legacy power companies they tell me i'll have to pay for a meter reconfigure to day/night setup. I presume it's a limitation of their older pre-smart metering IT systems where they are dependant on the meter recording the consumption against different registers, whereas the newer companies can just take the smart metering data and in their own system they can work out that data in the 9:00-9:30 slot should just charged the peak tarrif.

So probably your meter has two registers, which can be configured day/night or import/export, and to get both you need a meter with more registers (or a retailer with a more sophisticated IT system)

dantheperson

226 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 63

#3465863 1-Mar-2026 21:55

dantheperson:

Paul1977:

Thanks for the info about the Fronius Smart Meter everyone. Now I've got a question about our regular power meter.

PowerEdge have said if we go on an all-day plan (i.e. one rate 24/7) that our current meter can be remotely reconfigured to record exports. But if we want to go on a Day/Night plan that the meter would need replacing.

I don't understand why this would be the case. It's an EDMI Atlas Mk7C, and we are currently with PowerShop so it records 4 different time-of-day rates (peak, off-peak, super off-peak, shoulder). If it can do that now, why would it need replacing to just do Day/Night?

If had that too where i was on electric kiwi move master and octopus with time of use pricing, then when i get quotes from the legacy power companies they tell me i'll have to pay for a meter reconfigure to day/night setup. I presume it's a limitation of their older pre-smart metering IT systems where they are dependant on the meter recording the consumption against different registers, whereas the newer companies can just take the smart metering data and in their own system they can work out that data in the 9:00-9:30 slot should just charged the peak tarrif.

So probably your meter has two registers, which can be configured day/night or import/export, and to get both you need a meter with more registers (or a retailer with a more sophisticated IT system)

Maybe not.

EDMI Mk7C

Time of Use
• Up to 8 rates plus unified rate
• Up to 32 separate import and export
registers
• Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and
special days
• Up to 200 programmable special days
• Up to 61 previous billing periods plus
billing totals
• Block or rolling maximum demand
• Time of maximum demand
• Energy, pulsing inputs

richrdh18

232 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 102

#3465881 2-Mar-2026 08:39

Jase2985:

Your solar system should be able to show you all that data. As it should be measuring the houses load at the meter.

Power edge web portal. This is all you get. Only been with them 5 months.

frstep

12 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 9

#3466062 2-Mar-2026 17:38

I'm renovating a house and need to make some decisions on Heating/HW/Ventilation and therefore considering what solar options are, since this can impact how much I spend on other things. For example the payback on a Heat pump hot water cylinder does not appear good if most of the time you can heat the water from Solar PV.

I am particularly interested in V2H: We will have an EV and it will spend most days sitting on the driveway. Does anyone on this forum have real-world experience of Sigenergy V2H? How much of your evening peak can be run off the car? Is this a better plan than investing in fixed batteries?

kangaroo13

87 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 90

#3466064 2-Mar-2026 17:46

frstep:

I'm renovating a house and need to make some decisions on Heating/HW/Ventilation and therefore considering what solar options are, since this can impact how much I spend on other things. For example the payback on a Heat pump hot water cylinder does not appear good if most of the time you can heat the water from Solar PV.

I am particularly interested in V2H: We will have an EV and it will spend most days sitting on the driveway. Does anyone on this forum have real-world experience of Sigenergy V2H? How much of your evening peak can be run off the car? Is this a better plan than investing in fixed batteries?

I have no real world experience, but I did get a quote on the Sigenergy EV charger/V2H module with a view to future-proofing my system, and it was very expensive. Hopefully the price will come down over time & it may be an option to add later. I would think even with EV and V2H you'd probably still want a fixed battery, but possibly with lower capacity than you would otherwise.

I also would be interested to hear from anyone who has already gone down the SigEnergy/V2H path.

HarmLessSolutions

1230 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 812

Subscriber

#3466067 2-Mar-2026 18:39

Some interesting info and sound reasoning in this report.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

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