Hardware Requirements for Solar, Heatpump & Bat Storage

Hello all,

So in an ideal world i would like to find a local installer to come and select/fit/commission all the montiring kit for me (does anyone know of any companies in the Bristol area that could do this?!). But from what i can tell this isnt really available, so will have a go myself!

FYI, im an ex electrician, and work as a building services engineer so have some knowledge, but tend to fall down a touch with the IT side of things…

Anyhow, long story short, id like to monitor my solar array (2kW Solar Edge inverter), Air Source Heat Pump (5kW Vaillant AroTHERM), and soon to be battery storage system (19kWh, 3kW, AC coupled Givenergy Battery system). Now i am assuming i will need a CT/Temp Sensor for the following items:

Solar Inverter
Heat Pump Elec Supply
Heat Pump Immersion Elec Supply
Heat Pump - Flow Temp Sesnor
Heat Pump - Return Temp Sesnor
Hot Water Cylinder Temp Sensor
Underfloor Heating Buffer Vessel Immersion Elec Supply
Underfloor Heating Buffer Vessel Temp Sensor
Storage Battery Elec Supply
Incoming Meter Tails

Most of this kit is installed within my plant room, so pressume i will just need 1 No. emonPi, and maybe 2 No. EmonTx’s (this is assuming the inputs can be used for temp sensors as well as CTs?!)

Also, i note that the Vaillant AroTHERM has Modbus comms, is there any way of intergrating directly with this to pull the required data?

Any Help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards, Simon.

That is indeed how it works. Everyone on the forum will do their best to help you, I’m quite certain of that.

I assume you have a standard UK domestic single phase supply?

The first possible point of confusion: The emonTx has one voltage and 4 current inputs, 3 rated at 100 A and one at 16 A (with our recommended split-core c.t.) though the 16 A input can be uprated fairly easily (but a soldering job). The temperature input is entirely separate, and works on bus system, so many sensors use the same bus.

At a first glance your list looks to be close, but you might like to consider the heat pump monitor instead of one of the emonTx’s.
How are you going to record and look at the data?

Probably yes, if it’s not encrypted and you have access to the documentation describing how the data is accessed. But the emonTx doesn’t have a USB input, so you need something to do something with the Modbus comms. What depends somewhat on the answer to "How are you going to record and look at the data? "

Finally, the Shop’s stock position is “precarious” due to the global shortages, you need to ask directly (by email), but I don’t think you’ll be able to get an emonTx for a while.