My Eddi and efficie...
 

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My Eddi and efficient solar usage

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Any one got one of these with a battery?

In order of priority
1. I’d like to charge battery,
2. use the energy eg put the dish washer on/ run lights fridge etc, then
3. Excess to immersion to heat water

1 and 2 are interchangeable but always would want 3 last as gas heating the water is cheaper if needed.

Will a myeddi do this or do I need something different. Seems to be some risk of conflict between battery and immersion taking the power..?

 
Posted : 30/01/2023 9:49 pm
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The inverter will look after things and prioritise charging the batteries first, but you'll need the Harvi to pair with the Eddi so budget for this too.

Basically the Harvi looks for any energy being exported to the grid, and tells the Eddi to use this to heat the water tank. If it detects electricity being imported from the grid (ie, you're using the dishwasher too) then it'll cut back on the hot water heating.

Personally I don't think the benefits of it are worth the initial expense (close to £1000 for the Myenergie system). Average home uses 4kWh of energy for hot water so it might only save you £50-60 per year.

I went down the lazier approach of a 16A smart switch on the immersion heater and just use Home Assistant to dump 2kWh into the tank if the batteries are charged and predicted solar output for the rest of the day will refill the batteries. It's a bodge, but it works and only cost £30.

 
Posted : 31/01/2023 10:31 am
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I was wondering how the Eddie knew you had a full battery - we were supposed to get one with our install, but they were on back order so we skipped it.

 
Posted : 31/01/2023 10:43 am
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I went down the lazier approach of a 16A smart switch on the immersion heater and just use Home Assistant to dump 2kWh into the tank if the batteries are charged and predicted solar output for the rest of the day will refill the batteries. It’s a bodge, but it works and only cost £30.

Interested in how you did this through HA, any details? What was the £30 for??

 
Posted : 31/01/2023 10:48 am
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In order of priority
1. I’d like to charge battery,
2. use the energy eg put the dish washer on/ run lights fridge etc, then
3. Excess to immersion to heat water

I think your inverter would always prioritise current home use of PV but thats probably not too important. Mine is:

1: House use gets first dibs
2: Fill battery
3: Excess goes to iBoost to heat water
4: back to grid for .15p per kW (on Eco7 so charge battery overnight on .17 per kw)

 
Posted : 31/01/2023 10:52 am
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@surfer. Thanks - I did think of that option as I use smart plugs for quite a few things. Problem is you need to be certain of solar or end up spending more on the elec to heat than the gas.

I was also wondering if there’s any IFTTT that could integrate with any particular brand of plug. My infrastructure is Kasa.

If you’re always exporting then I guess it’s ok to smart switch but otherwise would need to only do it when not doing that extra load of washing or what ever.

 
Posted : 31/01/2023 11:07 am
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[I'm basing the below on my theory that the Eddi is an updated version of the Immersun v2 with the same functions so may be wrong]

you’ll need the Harvi to pair with the Eddi so budget for this too.

Are you sure about that? ... the Harvi is just a remote sensor and I'd say it's an option (otherwise the Eddi is useless without it). Does the Eddi not come with a wired clamp?

1. I’d like to charge battery,
2. use the energy eg put the dish washer on/ run lights fridge etc, then
3. Excess to immersion to heat water

Can any diverter actually switch things on?
"2" is the default as it's part of the house load at any given time.
"3" only happens when there is spare generation after current house power requirements.

The Immersun allows you to define three different outputs/heaters and assign their priority. So you could have two HW tanks and heat one then the other, or heat the only HW tank and then send remaining spare power to a dedicated heater (which is what I do) or electric UFH.
I'd guess that the Eddi probably has the same number of outputs.

 
Posted : 31/01/2023 11:10 am
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Are you sure about that? … the Harvi is just a remote sensor and I’d say it’s an option (otherwise the Eddi is useless without it). Does the Eddi not come with a wired clamp?

Thats my understanding as well, I thought it was to improve connectivity if your Eddi was too far away. You can have multiple clamps.

Can any diverter actually switch things on?

Yes the iBoost turns on the immersion coil.

 
Posted : 31/01/2023 11:16 am
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My fuse board and inverter in my garage arent in my airing cupboard (or remotely close to) so I assume I will need the harvi ?

 
Posted : 31/01/2023 11:19 am
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Yes the iBoost turns on the immersion coil.

I think you'll find it merely send spare power to the immersion circuit - if it actually switched it on* the immersion would be pulling the full 3kW.

* and how would it without a wireless 3kw relay and some form of wireless capability

My fuse board and inverter in my garage arent in my airing cupboard (or remotely close to) so I assume I will need the harvi ?

Not at all - the Eddi can go in the garage.
In fact it used to be standard to put the diverter next to the consumer unit* as, generally, there's more space and a wired clamp is more reliable.
You can put the Eddi in the garage next to your consumer unit and use the wired clamp. The diverter/Eddi is then wired into the circuit/cable from the CU to the immersion.

CU ------ Eddi -------------------(any distance)------------------ Immersion

* Plus, if the diverter is near the consumer unit, it's easier to connect it to other house circuits whereas it's very difficult if it's next to the tank (unless the tank is in the garage also!)

 
Posted : 31/01/2023 11:35 am
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if it actually switched it on* the immersion would be pulling the full 3kW.

interesting. It has a boost mode so when turned on does pull the full 3kW but the excess solar appears to only work when there is a minimum of >100W excess.

 
Posted : 31/01/2023 11:41 am
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I was also wondering if there’s any IFTTT that could integrate with any particular brand of plug. My infrastructure is Kasa.

I use IFTTT to dump power into our electric UFH:
Pi connected to the inverter checks the generation every 5 mins - if it's over a predefined level it send a message to IFTTT which in turn sets the UFH to 22c (i.e. switches it on) via the Warmup wifi enabled UFH controller.
When the generation drops below the predefined level it send another message and IFTTT sets the UFH back to 13c thus switching it off.
Each time there's a change IFTTT also adds a row to a spreapsheet recording what's happened, like this:
(Date/Time - Routine Run - PV Generation)
October 6, 2022 at 11:52AM UFH22 2194.6
October 6, 2022 at 11:58AM UFH13 630
October 6, 2022 at 12:14PM UFH22 2016.4
October 6, 2022 at 12:16PM UFH13 1974.8
October 6, 2022 at 12:32PM UFH22 2016.1
October 6, 2022 at 12:34PM UFH13 695.8
October 6, 2022 at 01:00PM UFH22 2003.8
October 6, 2022 at 01:02PM UFH13 997.3
October 6, 2022 at 01:12PM UFH22 2216.3
October 6, 2022 at 01:16PM UFH13 1129.3

 
Posted : 31/01/2023 11:51 am
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interesting. It has a boost mode so when turned on does pull the full 3kW but the excess solar appears to only work when there is a minimum of >100W excess.

The lower limit can usually be altered - check your manual. The lower the limit the more you'll put into the HW, but you also run a greater chance of importing a bit of power.

 
Posted : 31/01/2023 11:56 am
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Interested in how you did this through HA, any details? What was the £30 for??

The 16A wifi switch with a simple Home Assistant automation.

 
Posted : 31/01/2023 11:56 am

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