Best Approach for Monitoring Solar PV and Battery System with OpenEnergyMonitor?

Getting Started FAQ
1

Hi Everyone,

I’m in the process of setting up a solar PV system with battery storage and want to integrate OpenEnergyMonitor for real-time monitoring and data analysis. I’ve read through some of the guides and forum discussions, but I still have a few questions before finalizing my setup.

My System Setup:

  • Solar PV: 5kW
  • Battery Storage: 10kWh
  • Inverter: Hybrid inverter with grid-tie capability
  • Energy Consumption: A mix of home appliances and EV charging

My Goals:

  • Monitor solar generation, battery charge/discharge cycles, and household consumption
  • Track grid import/export to optimize self-consumption
  • Set up alerts for battery state-of-charge and system efficiency
  • Ideally, integrate data into Home Assistant for automation

Questions:

  1. Hardware Recommendation: Would an EmonPi or EmonTx be the better choice for my needs? Do I need additional CT clamps or other sensors?
  2. Battery Monitoring: Since my battery is connected via the hybrid inverter, what’s the best way to get accurate charge/discharge readings? Any recommended workarounds if direct monitoring isn’t possible?
  3. Grid Export Tracking: How precise is the standard setup in detecting grid import/export fluctuations? Any tips on calibration?
  4. Home Assistant Integration: Has anyone successfully pulled OpenEnergyMonitor data into Home Assistant? If so, what’s the best way to do it?
  5. General Best Practices: Any advice on data logging, MQTT usage, or visualization tools for long-term analysis?

I appreciate any insights or shared experiences from those who have a similar setup. Looking forward to your recommendations!

I also checked this: https://community.openenergymonitor.org/t/integrating-pv-and-battery-monitoring-systems/power-apps

Thanks in advance!

2

Have you had a look at the following

https://docs.openenergymonitor.org/applications/solar-pv.html

Information can then be passed to HA via emoncms integration

Not sure of your inverter, but there may be a integration in HA for that

3

We have the same setup, in terms of solar, inverter etc.

emonPi will do it, obviously you’ll have to set things up to your requirements. The issue is how to get the data from the inverter for solar gen, battery Soc etc. Ours has a serial interface, so we’ve set up a nodered system on a Pi Zero, to read the data from the inverter and send it to the emoncms server.

Given you’re thinking of HA, check if your inverter has an HA interface, then you wouldn’t need anything like nodered or whatever to get the data out of the inverter. But you will probably need a serial interface to get the data from the inverter into HA.