Hi Chris, I'm still trying to get my system to show up on the app, mainly because it doesn't recognise my SN. I may be looking at the wrong piece of equipment though. Can you tell me where to find the SN?
Hi Susan, To see the SN, you need to go to the 'Device' page/tab and then select 'Inverter' which should display the SN of the inverter. Hope that helps, Chris
@@handyman-at-home Thanks, but that's the problem, there's nothing showing on the web page. I input the SN that's on the piece of equipment that I think is the inverter (the big thing?) and have tried the SN that's on the datalogger (the small thing attached to the bottom?), but neither are recognised. On my computer I can see the wifi connection for the solar panels but if I switch it on, my main wifi disconnects. Anyway, I've emailed Solis again. They don't seem to understand what the problem is, and send me to instructional videos which aren't really useful.
Hi Susan, Don't know whether you've had any success, but my only suggestion would be to try re-connecting your datalogger to your WiFi first. There seem to be a couple of videos kicking around showing how to do this, but I can't vouch how useful/successful they are. Good luck! Chris
Interesting to see how Solis compares to our Luxpower display & App where battery SoC is just shown as a percentage. We switched to Octopus Flux last week as our Fixed tariff was ending. Unfortunately, two-thirds of our export, due to a full battery, occurs BEFORE the Flux Peak period. We only have a 5kW battery, which is currently full by midday, and the panels are all South facing. I'm now thinking that some should have been West facing instead.
Thanks for commenting Robert - I'm not familiar with Luxpower myself. We switched to Octopus Flex on 8th May and the more I look at it, the more I'm convinced that you can only really get the maximum benefit if you have a pretty hefty sized battery. We have 7kWh capacity and, as an example, it was at 100% SOC from around 04:30 (after about 2.5 hours charging during the early morning Flux low rate period) through to around 18:30 (excepting for a few dips around breakfast time when the panels weren't fully generating). After 18:30, it was then a steady decline to around 30%, before we were again round to the early morning re-charge. All our export stopped at the same time (18:30) even though we were still generating till around 19:45 / 20:00, as all that was just being consumed. So, although we did export a little bit during the peak rate slot, it wasn't much, and we certainly couldn't do a forced discharge of any significant amount of power, as we'd just end up having to re-import again later in the evening. This was for our best day so far (24kWh solar generation). So my initial take on all that is that we'd really need at least another 3kWh battery capacity as a minimum, and probably 5kWh ideally, in order to be fully able to take advantage of exporting during the evening peak rate slot. (We have 4.5kW of panels, split 50/50 on almost a perfect East-West orientation.) Despite all of that, from the figures I've looked at so far, my finger in the air is that Flux is still proving to be a good option ... at least at this time of the year.
I too have been struggling with a Solis Cloud system for over a year now and have noticed some strange things. One persistent thing is the cloud showing current being sent to the mains supply, then when I check on the inverter it does not show that? I wondered if the designers are Chinese and maybe don't speak English?
To be honest, I've found more recent versions of the software improved and more stable - maybe I should do a new video... There's certainly a time lag between the information at the inverter itself and that which the app is pulling down from the cloud. Our installer specifically made a point of highlighting this during handover of the system. I guess that's to be expected if the inverter is sending stuff up to the cloud and then your phone/Pc is pulling it back down. I also think the app only polls for the information every so often, so it's never going to match the instantaneous real-time info at the inverter. Don't know where the software designers are located, but I suspect it will be China, which makes sense, given that's where the hardware is made. Some of the message text is definitely a bit "Chinglish" at times. For me having local support in the UK is important, and I believe they have a support office located here in the North West. Cheers, Chris
Hi Chris. Just wanted to say thanks for the video and rant. We have had our solar pv system since last march and happy with it until last solis update. The graphs and data are senseless to me with negative values for battery charge and grid😮. I reported back to the installers and they had passed on many complaints to solis but with no acknowledgement. What a sham. Hopefully the designers will realise that most users of their app are just simple (me) folk who just want to know how much energy their pv system is generating and how much they will save. Not much to ask for? Mike
Hi Mike, I hear your frustration!! We had our system installed July '22 and I was initially quite satisfied with the Solis app. It then seemed to go through a whole series of updates, most of which were retrograde in my opinion, which triggered the rant😂 It seems to have settled down in the last few months and if I'm honest, I've got used to the current iteration and dare I say I actually quite like it. They incorporated functionality to allow remote control of your inverter, useful for setting time of charge and discharge periods, rather than using the front panel, which was one of my main gripes. They've also incorporated the SOC level on the main chart, which is great for seeing what your battery charge level is. Whilst I still miss the larger daily bar chart that it had initially, I think you can now get all of the information you typically might need. I think some of their changes were to try and deal with issues around reporting energy flowing into (charging) and out from (discharging) the battery. As far as I understand it, the graphs and data positive and negative values, are meant to signify inflows and outflows respectively. I had been wondering whether to do another video on the current iteration of the app - do you think that would be worthwhile? Cheers, Chris
Yes - mine's the same 😞I think they were removed in the most recent update, and I'm not aware that you can get them to be displayed again. Solis have the innate knack of making things worse rather than better as regards their software. I think the reason given was something to do with data inconsistencies ... but in my opinion they were a handy quick indication of the day's performance.
I raised a few issues with support with this update. They have reduced the precision for the consumption so its only whole Kwh now except they have the more accurate information in there and sum up using the right numbers so the day counts no longer add up to the month. The removal of summary of to and from battery is a pain as you loose the overview and as you point out its haphazardly been fudged into the month view now, again lacking the precision showing only whole number Kwh making it exceptionally inaccurate when 0.5 in 7 is a 7% error. I also raised the issue with the colour of the bars with now self consumption and self-use being different numbers and the same colour its just confusing. What they mainly added is in the menu from the overview page there is now a Plant Large screen and it shows that information. I want that precision back so the values are to 0.1KWh, I want the battery summary there (SOC over time would be nice) and the remote access page could really do with some cleanup so its easier to swap from charging modes and other settings to switch between a few modes and make that accessible from an API so I can do that from an external tool to make smart decisions or they start to integrate weather information and allow us to write rules ourselves.
I see a somewhat similar difference in BMS and battery voltage while it charges but mine is inverted, my batteries have a slightly higher reported voltage than the BMS. That differences narrows after charge is complete and seems unchanged by discharge. Peak BMS is 53.03V and 53.7 Battery Voltage. I saw another person having alarms like this and they had to flash the firmware on the batteries themselves, was caused by an incompatibility on the BMS inside the batteries where pylontech had issues batteries with different chips onboard. There is also one other view from that invertor page that is worth a look which below the energy flow chart are some sections and the battery section has a View button, this will show the invertor view of charge/discharge/power and voltage but also has a BMS view which shows some more settings. I don't think its necessarily anything you can't chart but it might give you some more insight as it shows the battery fault information in there. If there is any numbers you want from a very similar system (I have a pair of pylontech's 3000s also) without faults just let me know and I'll happily look it up.
Thanks for such a comprehensive reply Paul - haven't had time to go through it thoroughly as yet - but a lot more structured than my 10 minute rant .... Did you get any response from support? I'm also interested in the remote access capability - wasn't aware that was something you could do (yourself) with the Solis - is that something you have to request from them? Have seen a couple of Home Assistant vids which go along the lines you're suggesting re. integrating weather based decision making etc, but they're probably way too advanced for me just at the moment. Have only started to dabble with HA in the last couple of weeks. Chris
After watching your video, I think John Motson would sum it up this way..'The Solis app and the Fox Ess app are balanced, in Solis's favour'! We have a Fox Ess system and the mobile app or cloud app do not show daily Solar Generation, just imagine that!
Hi, Just a quick note to perhaps help set your mind at rest ... Things seem to have stabilised with the software over the last couple of months, and they've also now introduced new functionality to allow you to control the inverter from a PC or your mobile to define things like battery charging during low rate periods. My experience so far has been that the hardware works very well (touch wood), whereas the software is OK but perhaps not the absolute best out there. I don't regret going with Solis so fingers crossed for your experience. Chris
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Mine does not show consumption at all is that because I don’t have a battery?
Hi Chris, I'm still trying to get my system to show up on the app, mainly because it doesn't recognise my SN. I may be looking at the wrong piece of equipment though. Can you tell me where to find the SN?
Hi Susan, To see the SN, you need to go to the 'Device' page/tab and then select 'Inverter' which should display the SN of the inverter. Hope that helps, Chris
@@handyman-at-home Thanks, but that's the problem, there's nothing showing on the web page. I input the SN that's on the piece of equipment that I think is the inverter (the big thing?) and have tried the SN that's on the datalogger (the small thing attached to the bottom?), but neither are recognised. On my computer I can see the wifi connection for the solar panels but if I switch it on, my main wifi disconnects. Anyway, I've emailed Solis again. They don't seem to understand what the problem is, and send me to instructional videos which aren't really useful.
Hi Susan, Don't know whether you've had any success, but my only suggestion would be to try re-connecting your datalogger to your WiFi first. There seem to be a couple of videos kicking around showing how to do this, but I can't vouch how useful/successful they are. Good luck! Chris
Interesting to see how Solis compares to our Luxpower display & App where battery SoC is just shown as a percentage.
We switched to Octopus Flux last week as our Fixed tariff was ending. Unfortunately, two-thirds of our export, due to a full battery, occurs BEFORE the Flux Peak period. We only have a 5kW battery, which is currently full by midday, and the panels are all South facing. I'm now thinking that some should have been West facing instead.
Thanks for commenting Robert - I'm not familiar with Luxpower myself.
We switched to Octopus Flex on 8th May and the more I look at it, the more I'm convinced that you can only really get the maximum benefit if you have a pretty hefty sized battery.
We have 7kWh capacity and, as an example, it was at 100% SOC from around 04:30 (after about 2.5 hours charging during the early morning Flux low rate period) through to around 18:30 (excepting for a few dips around breakfast time when the panels weren't fully generating). After 18:30, it was then a steady decline to around 30%, before we were again round to the early morning re-charge.
All our export stopped at the same time (18:30) even though we were still generating till around 19:45 / 20:00, as all that was just being consumed. So, although we did export a little bit during the peak rate slot, it wasn't much, and we certainly couldn't do a forced discharge of any significant amount of power, as we'd just end up having to re-import again later in the evening.
This was for our best day so far (24kWh solar generation). So my initial take on all that is that we'd really need at least another 3kWh battery capacity as a minimum, and probably 5kWh ideally, in order to be fully able to take advantage of exporting during the evening peak rate slot. (We have 4.5kW of panels, split 50/50 on almost a perfect East-West orientation.)
Despite all of that, from the figures I've looked at so far, my finger in the air is that Flux is still proving to be a good option ... at least at this time of the year.
I too have been struggling with a Solis Cloud system for over a year now and have noticed some strange things. One persistent thing is the cloud showing current being sent to the mains supply, then when I check on the inverter it does not show that?
I wondered if the designers are Chinese and maybe don't speak English?
To be honest, I've found more recent versions of the software improved and more stable - maybe I should do a new video... There's certainly a time lag between the information at the inverter itself and that which the app is pulling down from the cloud. Our installer specifically made a point of highlighting this during handover of the system. I guess that's to be expected if the inverter is sending stuff up to the cloud and then your phone/Pc is pulling it back down. I also think the app only polls for the information every so often, so it's never going to match the instantaneous real-time info at the inverter. Don't know where the software designers are located, but I suspect it will be China, which makes sense, given that's where the hardware is made. Some of the message text is definitely a bit "Chinglish" at times. For me having local support in the UK is important, and I believe they have a support office located here in the North West. Cheers, Chris
@@handyman-at-home Thanks for your explanation.
Hi Chris. Just wanted to say thanks for the video and rant. We have had our solar pv system since last march and happy with it until last solis update. The graphs and data are senseless to me with negative values for battery charge and grid😮. I reported back to the installers and they had passed on many complaints to solis but with no acknowledgement. What a sham. Hopefully the designers will realise that most users of their app are just simple (me) folk who just want to know how much energy their pv system is generating and how much they will save. Not much to ask for? Mike
Hi Mike, I hear your frustration!! We had our system installed July '22 and I was initially quite satisfied with the Solis app. It then seemed to go through a whole series of updates, most of which were retrograde in my opinion, which triggered the rant😂 It seems to have settled down in the last few months and if I'm honest, I've got used to the current iteration and dare I say I actually quite like it. They incorporated functionality to allow remote control of your inverter, useful for setting time of charge and discharge periods, rather than using the front panel, which was one of my main gripes. They've also incorporated the SOC level on the main chart, which is great for seeing what your battery charge level is. Whilst I still miss the larger daily bar chart that it had initially, I think you can now get all of the information you typically might need. I think some of their changes were to try and deal with issues around reporting energy flowing into (charging) and out from (discharging) the battery. As far as I understand it, the graphs and data positive and negative values, are meant to signify inflows and outflows respectively. I had been wondering whether to do another video on the current iteration of the app - do you think that would be worthwhile? Cheers, Chris
Mine does not show the consumption & generation bar charts anymore. Is this due to a new update? Is there a setting to display this again ?
Yes - mine's the same 😞I think they were removed in the most recent update, and I'm not aware that you can get them to be displayed again. Solis have the innate knack of making things worse rather than better as regards their software. I think the reason given was something to do with data inconsistencies ... but in my opinion they were a handy quick indication of the day's performance.
I raised a few issues with support with this update. They have reduced the precision for the consumption so its only whole Kwh now except they have the more accurate information in there and sum up using the right numbers so the day counts no longer add up to the month. The removal of summary of to and from battery is a pain as you loose the overview and as you point out its haphazardly been fudged into the month view now, again lacking the precision showing only whole number Kwh making it exceptionally inaccurate when 0.5 in 7 is a 7% error. I also raised the issue with the colour of the bars with now self consumption and self-use being different numbers and the same colour its just confusing.
What they mainly added is in the menu from the overview page there is now a Plant Large screen and it shows that information.
I want that precision back so the values are to 0.1KWh, I want the battery summary there (SOC over time would be nice) and the remote access page could really do with some cleanup so its easier to swap from charging modes and other settings to switch between a few modes and make that accessible from an API so I can do that from an external tool to make smart decisions or they start to integrate weather information and allow us to write rules ourselves.
I see a somewhat similar difference in BMS and battery voltage while it charges but mine is inverted, my batteries have a slightly higher reported voltage than the BMS. That differences narrows after charge is complete and seems unchanged by discharge. Peak BMS is 53.03V and 53.7 Battery Voltage. I saw another person having alarms like this and they had to flash the firmware on the batteries themselves, was caused by an incompatibility on the BMS inside the batteries where pylontech had issues batteries with different chips onboard.
There is also one other view from that invertor page that is worth a look which below the energy flow chart are some sections and the battery section has a View button, this will show the invertor view of charge/discharge/power and voltage but also has a BMS view which shows some more settings. I don't think its necessarily anything you can't chart but it might give you some more insight as it shows the battery fault information in there.
If there is any numbers you want from a very similar system (I have a pair of pylontech's 3000s also) without faults just let me know and I'll happily look it up.
Thanks for such a comprehensive reply Paul - haven't had time to go through it thoroughly as yet - but a lot more structured than my 10 minute rant .... Did you get any response from support? I'm also interested in the remote access capability - wasn't aware that was something you could do (yourself) with the Solis - is that something you have to request from them? Have seen a couple of Home Assistant vids which go along the lines you're suggesting re. integrating weather based decision making etc, but they're probably way too advanced for me just at the moment. Have only started to dabble with HA in the last couple of weeks. Chris
After watching your video, I think John Motson would sum it up this way..'The Solis app and the Fox Ess app are balanced, in Solis's favour'!
We have a Fox Ess system and the mobile app or cloud app do not show daily Solar Generation, just imagine that!
🤣 Very good! No daily Solar Generation figures.... 🤦♂️ Makes me think I'm being harsh on Solis ....
This is quite frightening as I am having a Solis inverter and Solar panels fitted soon. So was looking on information about the app works. :(
Hi, Just a quick note to perhaps help set your mind at rest ... Things seem to have stabilised with the software over the last couple of months, and they've also now introduced new functionality to allow you to control the inverter from a PC or your mobile to define things like battery charging during low rate periods. My experience so far has been that the hardware works very well (touch wood), whereas the software is OK but perhaps not the absolute best out there. I don't regret going with Solis so fingers crossed for your experience. Chris
have watched all of your videos. The video quality is excellent. I've noticed that your videos aren't getting as many views as they deserve. If you implement SEO strategies for your videos, I'm confident that they will attract a lot more views. I believe your videos have the potential to rank organically and gain a wider audience.
I am waiting for your reply.