Power Me

Hi Guys 
Just wanted to share my latest video on installation and connecting your inverter to Home Assistant using the new RS485 shield and ESP32C board. 
Makes life much easier to set the thing up, no soldering and you only need to connect the power up inside the inverter to a 12V power supply and the RS485 cables so dead easy. 
You can get the board and an ESP32 from https://smarthomeintegrations.co.za/ for R400 and get delivery in a day or so. 
Slipx06 (Paul) has also included some cool new YAML code to calculate Daily energy production and consumption in the ESP32 and send that info to HA as well. 
Let me know what you guys think of the video please
 
 

Plenty. And to me it makes sense. The pv dc becomes part of the buildings electrical system, mainly due to the inverter being transformerless (Sunsynk / Axpert). So it make sense to protect this system using equipment grounding on the SPD. 
But the frame is a floating mechanical island with no reference to system ground (neutral) or equipment ground (earth).  So a seperate earth does not comprimise system/equipment grounding routes. 

This is what can happen when lightning strikes.. the molten mass at the bottom is the remains of a 3-phase professional lightning surge arrestor. 
Did it work? Well, nothing in the house got fried so you could say that yes, it did it's job.

SANS says extraneous conductive parts to be earthed... So earthing is then a must. However panels are class 2 but with earthing points... Whole kettle of fish and actually there is no written rule as such yet.
Lighting protection is very different to earthing and earthing is different to bonding. 
One day there will be a black and white answer.
 

Thank you to everyone for good feedback and comments received.
Disclaimer - the below feedback/item list was received for my installation, and is how I was assessed during December 2023 (It is recommended that one always check with the authorised/approved assessor for what applies to your installation)
So, as mentioned, I have been assessed and have received my Solar CoC - I thought it would be good to share some of the items that were checked by the assessor (there may have been others, but these are the ones I asked about and made notes on)
Firstly, during the discussion with the Assessor, I picked up that:
Regulations do change from time to time (so best to check with the CoC assessor before asking to be assessed) The Solar CoC works in conjunction with an Electrical CoC (you do need both) - he asked me for my electrical CoC and referenced the Electrical CoC number on Solar CoC certificate. Any changes to the installation, after a CoC is issued, render the CoC void (this applies to both the Solar & Electrical) Herewith some of the items checked (that I asked about during the assessment)
AC and DC cannot run in the same conduit (if they do, either the AC or DC lines must be in Sprag conduit) All MCB’s (Micro Circuit Breakers) must be correctly sized for both Grid & Load Both Main and Essential DB boards must be clearly marked and have the correct 'warning' labels and/or stickers The Solar Installation must have a separate Earth spike which must read less than 10 ohms (depending on the soil composition, you may need to add a 2nd or 3rd spike approx. 1m away and join them / the harder the ground the more likely you will be ok.....if the ground is "sand" the less likely you will achieve the required 10 ohms) - The DC DB / Combiner box / Solar Panels would be connected to this newly installed earth spike. Every Panel must be joined to the next panel by a 6mm earth wire (you cannot just earth the Rails) No Solar wires can touch the roof (i.e. solar panel wires) - all loose wires must be cable-tied to the panels or rails. Where the wires (from the solar panels) enter the roof, the wires need to be mechanically protected (so they do not move and/or chafe)  For Solar panels, you should run the positive (Red) wires in a separate conduit and must include the earth in that conduit. If you have multiple strings and have separate conduit for each strings positive wire, then you must include the earth wire in each conduit. Within the Combiner Box, you need to fit Bootlace Ferrules at the end of each Solar wire (stranded wire). This is required for both single wires (single wire bootlace ferrule) and where 2 wires are going into a MCB (twin wire bootlace ferrule) For your Inverter installation (Grid and Load connections), you cannot just use the earth wire (normally a single copper wire) contained within the flat Twin & Earth wire, as this is normally thinner than the actual load carrying wires (e.g. 6mm or 10mm). To be compliant you would need to run a separate earth, which is the same thickness as the "current carrying" wires, between your Main DB board as well as your Essential DB board. Inverter dependent (I have a Deye), for your Inverter connections (Grid & Load), the earth of the Load input (in the inverter) must be bridged. As mentioned in a previous post, from what I was told, if you do not do this you may have a floating voltage between Neutral & Earth especially prevalent during load shedding) Your Inverter casing must be earthed to this same earth Your batteries must also be earthed to this same earth You do not need both a Battery Isolator and Battery Fuses (I have both). You can choose to have only the Battery Fuses but these need to be approx. 1.5m above the ground (this is for Child safety as the fuses can be pulled open) I have added some pics of the Bootlace ferrules used, the combiner box and marked DB boards.
I hope you find this information useful as I really had no clue what to expect, and could find very little information online, before calling the Assessor (so I had some work to do before he actually came out) 🙂
 
 

 


 

Your electrician did issue you a CoC for the installation but the law states that “any addition or alteration” to your electrical installation requires a CoC supplement to be issued. So ask the electrician to issue you a supplement to your original CoC stating the the battery configuration was changed.

Yes sir. We working on something custom. Will keep you in the loop.
Sincerely
Jason

Batteries. A rather important and crucial part of a residential solar system, especially here in South Africa.
I was originally going to go the DIY route and even purchased some 184ah Svolt cells with the BMS and all other accessories necessary although something came up which lead me to sell the cells, skip the DIY batteries for now and look at purchasing already built batteries – this is where the Svolt 106AH batteries come in.
When I found out Svolt had an office open up in South Africa and they were selling batteries locally, my interest was naturally piqued as I already had some of their 184ah cells. Svolt is also a rather large company and they make cells for the EV market as well and Svolt will be supplying BMW with cells for their EVs in the future, along with CATL & Eve Energy.
 
Before I continue I want to state that I do not have any affiliation with Svolt. I do not work for them, I paid for all of my batteries, I do not get any kickbacks from them – nothing. I am just a client of theirs.
 
After reaching out to them and getting more info, I was invited to their Johannesburg office to view their batteries and other products (inverters). I had a brief chat to the guys and decided to purchase one of the 16 cells 106AH batteries to try out and see how it performs.
Taking it out the box, the battery looks really nice, the wall mount is simple yet effective, it comes with a nice set of cables and the crimps seem to be done well (as expected), the power connector which is used for the battery is very convenient and easy to connect / disconnect the cable from the battery.
Unfortunately I did not take pictures and mine are already connected, I do not really feel like disconnecting everything to take pictures but if you guys would like some pictures then let me know and I will make a plan to take some.
The battery has a nice button to turn it on/off and a screen to display some info from the BMS and once can easily navigate through the menu with the buttons.












Here is the Svolt catalogue which has the specifications for the batteries:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/69c9wnxrklmhc4xg9nn6c/Svolt-Battery-and-Inverter-Catalogue-20230803.pdf?rlkey=z8q9we55gzzs31e9wh3tw5ahp&dl=0 
 
I believe all the batteries make use of a Pace BMS. The Pace BMS is very popular with pre-built batteries and are used in many different brands of batteries. Andy from Off Grid Garage did a review one of the Pace BMS’s and you can watch it here:
 
At first I had some issues getting the battery to talk to my Luxpower, however Svolt confirmed that their batteries do communicate with the Luxpower inverters as well as majority of other inverters (MUST, Conderenergy, Growatt, Sunsynk / Deye, Victron, Svolt, Luxpower and more). The BMS has different options which Svolt can change for you to ensure it works with your inverter. By default it is set to Pylon which works with majority of inverters.
After reaching out to the Svolt guys and speaking to one of their technician staff, they decided to come through to my house to take a look and try figure out what the issue was – pretty impressive from a customer support point of view. Turns out it was a very silly mistake from my side, the dip switch was not configured properly (I left them all down as per the manual, where dip switch 1 should be in the up position). As soon as we did that, the comms started working – I had to use the battery without comms for a few days before Svolt came to my house and it worked well like this too.
After getting the battery comms working I was finally able to use the battery as intended with communication to my inverter.
The battery is 1C rated, with the communication it sets the max charge / discharge limit to 95A which is technically not the full 1C rating limit but it is close enough for me to not be bothered by it.
95A x 51.2v = 4 864W so just short of a full 5KW but if you were to have a 5KW inverter how often would you be running it at its limits when there is no grid?
I was able to access the BMS info via PBMSTools and below is a screenshot of the parameters:

 
I ended up purchasing 2 additional batteries, so that is 3 batteries in parallel and to get them connected in parallel is super easy. Adjust the dip switches as per the manual, connect them with the network cable supplied in the box and it just works. The BMS and inverter speak to each other and my limit now changes from 95A to 285A (as the limit is per battery, obviously keep in mind that you need to ensure the cables you use can handle the max current and obviously your inverter(s) too).
 
Out of the box I did have the cells being imbalanced, however I am quite impressed that the BMS was able to balance the batteries. Since it does not make use of an active balancer it can take a bit of time but it did work and it did manage to get them balanced!
At first I was a bit concerned that the BMS would not be able to balance the battery and while it was balancing I was concerned it would not  charge to the correct voltage, when I reach out to Svolt they said if that does happen they will be able to assist me and if the battery was in such a bad state that it was not usable they would replace it with a new battery for me (once again, I feel this is really good from a customer care point of view). I have not had to have any batter replaced though.
 
Below you can see a screenshot of the cell imbalances:

 
Here is a screenshot after a week where the BMS has managed to get them balanced:

 
Here is a screenshot I took at the same time of my older battery, as you can see the cells were balanced rather well:

 
 
My oldest battery has a total of 44 cycles only, so still early days but so far so good and I would not hesitate to purchase more of these Svolt batteries.
Based on my experience with Svolt customer support I am not worried about a valid warranty claim being rejected. The technical staff are knowledgably and actually know what they are talking about as well.

Svolt are still new in South Africa, the pricing on these batteries have been exceptional however I am not sure whether the price will increase with time as they become more established, I suspect this might happen as I have seen this happen with other brands but time will tell.
 
I hope this helps those who are on the look out for batteries. If there is anything in specific you'd like to know which I have not included in this review, let me know!

That is only for the PV to AC in grid-tied operation, mostly because it is a requirement in some countries to meet a certain threshold. The battery to AC will have lower efficiency, because of the low voltage and physics (and is why many of the inverter manufacturers are moving to HV batteries). The efficiency will also vary greatly with power level. To determine the actual efficiency, you would require some specialized equipment, relying on what the inverter reports is not a great strategy for accurate answers, but it's possible that the inverter reports actual values.

That is still a low voltage battery. HV batteries are 200V+.

Hi guys,
Just wanted to present to you a new Windows' software tool that we prepared for monitoring of PIP/Axpert inverters and Pylontech batteries. It supports many compatible inverter models. It can work with parallel configurations as well. This was actually the main reason to write the software because a few months ago I upgraded my system from single to 3x inverters and the "pi" solution did not work correct anymore.
The software can control switching between battery/grid mode based on Pylontech SOC, and also can control Pylontech max charge current based on the request coming from its BMS. The software can also upload data to emoncms server. 
Currently the software has only basic reporting, but all inverter/pylon data is stored in local database and we intend to add more reporting options in future.
We also added a "console" screen where users can manually send commands to Inverters and Pylontech.
The communication with inverters is by USB or RS232 connection. In parallel setups each inverter should be connected with separate cable. I chose this method because reading parallel data from a single inverter is highly inaccurate and slow (at least in the setups where we tested).
The Pylontech batteries can be connected by RS232 (console port) or RS485 (to the dedicated RS485 port). 
You can download the software at http://www.multisibcontrol.net . It is absolutely free now.
 

Even if you change the slope of the panels you still get winter months with higher values than in summer months. All my PV is used every day so no wasted PV. Although year on year we do get large variations my 3 year figures would be a good guide for Gauteng.
The site indicates July higher than most summer months. Angle of 26 deg and a 4kW PV.

I designed and certified (when SABS was still a functional entity) an intrinsically safe PSU for the coal mines some decades back.
If I recall it was a 14V, 400mA design. It started out as a 15V design, but would fail the spark chamber test at 15V vs 14V. (That was a nerve racking test.)

One of the requirements for fuses in IS environments is that they had to be a sand filled to quench the arc during fusing.

Hi guys, no I actually got permission rights & all of my Solar Assistant sites have my company logo displayed & its with Permission from Pierre the main owner & developer. 
I run & support numerous sites & his product is really a product that in my opinion is superior to many. He started off small & his product is reaching far places globally. I am very happy to support such a local grown product. 
I think especially in the US his product will gain a lot of traction. Having looked at the Solar man and Sunsynk logger, they are light years behind, only good for notifications, nothing else.  His latest feature now incorporates the Loadshedding schedules for your location. 

Since the original post above, dozens of hybrids and EV's stopped by my solar charger for a few kWh's. Here's a couple of them:








The last one was funny:
Renault was charging for an hour or so, then the Merc arrived and queued-up...on a slow solar charger
The Renault let him to and the Merc was charging for 2,5hrs.
Later that day, Renault arrived once again - as seen on the chart bellow:


 

I thought perhaps 'R' referred to 'recovery' - so 'Over Voltage' for example is 3.7v per cell and the system will clear the error and resume normal operations 'Over VoltageR' when the voltage drops to 3.6v per cell

If I owned an EV (and I do want a "Volvo XC40 Recharge" and I do still have my many years old Tesla M3 deposit still in place) I would be charging it at home.
I am not sure why there are no DC "fast" (they don't have to be fast, just DC) chargers for home PV owners as they would be so much more efficient, than the process of converting PV array to AC and then AC back to DC battery charging in an EV, and certainly if/when I can afford an EV I would investigate this DC charging possibility.
My preliminary investigation revealed that actual data communication would be necessary with the EV rather than the simple pulse based communication used in AC charging.
The EV cost problem in SA is that our useless SA Gov always implements the exact opposite of what they should be implementing.
A pure EV in SA costs a small fortune as firstly EVs are not subsidised like in 1st world countries, but they in fact occur additional import duties as they don't have an ICE.
I think I remember seeing figures like 25% import duty on pure EV vs 18% for an ICE vehicle.
Additionally, because an EV has an expensive battery inside which makes the vehicle itself expensive, this pricing pushes an EV above the luxury vehicle threshold and so an EV then incurs an additional luxury vehicle tax. Such is the insanity on this continent.
 

To connect to pylontech batteries
You need a RS232 to usb converter which is normally purchased. From the RS 232 you connect to RJ12 with pinouts as above.
Open a terminal port in your Mac OS or windows
make sure you are Sudo
Download a app called screen.. install
connect the RS 232 to the console port with the battery switched on first, then to the USB port of your laptop.  Check through hardware systems check the USB port address.. eg A10K282M
The Pylontech defaults to baud rate 1200 to start.
Type in the following command in your terminal command line
sudo screen /dev/tty.usbserial-A10K282M 1200
Paste the following instruction too initiate comms 
~20014682C0048520FCC3
Push enter
Hold ctrl+a then type k then type y [to exit]
Type in following command
sudo screen /dev/tty.usbserial-A10K282M 115200
This is the baud rate for comms to console commands 115 200
Press enter twice
You will then have the prompt
pylon>
Under this prompt you have the following options displayed after typing in help
pylon>help
@
Local command:
bat      Battery data show - bat [pwr][index]
data     History data load - data [event/history/misc][item]
datalist Show recorded data - datalist [event/history/misc][item/bat][batnun][volt/curr/temp/coul][item]
disp     Display Info at regular intervals - disp [(pwrs pwrNo)/val]/[(bats batNo)/volt/curr/temp]
getpwr   Get power Info - getpwr
help     Help [cmd]
info     Device infomation - info
log      Log information show - log
login    Login Admin mode - login [password]
logout   user mode  - logout
pwr      Power data show - pwr [index]
shut     Shut down - shut
soh      State of health - soh [addr]
stat     Statistic data show - stat
time     Time - time [year] [month] [day] [hour] [minute] [second]
trst     Test Soft Reset - trst
updata   updata system - updata
**********************************************************
Remote command:
Press [Enter] to be continued,other key to exit
 
Best results for all problems and configs is to type
login debug
with this command you ahem the following options
 
pylon_debug>help
@
Local command:
adc      Addr show - adc
bat      Battery data show - bat [pwr][index]
bmicbld  BMIC Soft Bleed Ctrl - bmicbld [chip][Val]
bmicd    BMIC data show - bmicd [chip]
bmice    Setup BMIC - bmice [chip]
bmicr    BMIC read - bmicr [chip][Offset]
bmicsh   BMIC show reg -bmicsh [chip]
bmicw    BMIC write - bmicw [chip][Offset][Val]
chgver   Change soft Version - chgver [st/ph]
ci       Current Comm Info
config   config [pov/povr/phv/phvr/plv/plvr/puv/puvr/pslp/bov/bovr/bhv/bhvr/blv/blvr/buv/buvr/bslp/bsv/bv
/cot/cotr/cht/chtr/clt/cltr/cut/cutr/dot/dotr/dht/dhtr/dlt/dltr/dut/dutr/coc/coca/cocar
/eot/eotr/eht/ehtr/elt/eltr/eut/eutr/doc/doca/docar/ocd/ocr/sc/scd/scr/clc
/recinv/shuttime/uvtime/save/default][val]
/[sleep/record][on/off/day/week/month][starttime][endtime]
/[hwsleep][<on/off>][sleeptime][wakeuptime]
ct       Track Comm Port Data [Port Number]
ctrl     Contrl IO - ctrl [cfet/dfet/buzz/heat] [on/off]
data     History data load - data [event/history/misc][item]
datac    Clear data - datac [event/history/misc]
datalist Show recorded data - datalist [event/history/misc][item/bat][batnun][volt/curr/temp/coul][item]
disp     Display Info at regular intervals - disp [(pwrs pwrNo)/val]/[(bats batNo)/volt/curr/temp]
eepe     EEPROM erase - eepe [chip]
eepr     EEPROM read - eepr [chip][Offset][size]
eepw     EEPROM write - eepw [chip][Offset][Val][size]
flae     Extend flash erase - flae [chip]
flar     Extend flash read - flar [chip][Offset][size]
flaw     Extend flash write - flaw [chip][Offset][Val]
fullchg  Show FullCharge Info - fullchg [time]
getpwr   Get power Info - getpwr
help     Help [cmd]
info     Device infomation - info
log      Log information show - log
login    Login Admin mode - login [password]
logc     Log clear - logc
Press [Enter] to be continued,other key to exit
 
logout   user mode  - logout                      
logt     Log test - logt [data]
md       Memory dump - md [width][Addr][size]
mm       Memory set - mm [width][Addr][Val]
m2s      Master updata to Slave  - m2s
prot     Protect ctrl - prot [bov/bhv/blv/buv/pov/phv/plv/puv/cbot/cbht/cblt/cbut/dbot/dbht/dblt/dbut/pot/pht/plt/put/coc/coc2/coca/doc/doc2/doca/sc/buzz/smartchg/default][en/dis]
pwr      Power data show - pwr [index]
re       Send Command To the Specified Power - re [addr][command]
rtcr     RTC read - rtcr [Offset]
rtcw     RTC write - rtcw [Offset][Val]
rtcsh    RTC show reg -rtcsh
save     Save data - save [event/history]
socr     SOC read - socr[Offset]
socw     SOC write - socw [Offset][Val]
socsh    SOC show reg -socsh
soccfg   SOC config - soccfg[subclass][Offset][value]
soccal   SOC calibration - soccal [volt/current/tempr/ccoffset/bdoffset] [value]
socd     SOC show data - socd
                                                  
**********************************************************
Remote command:
Command completed successfully
$$
 
 
 
 
 
 

I can only assume you must have endured a municipal power loss too?
The GoodWe (of which I am no Evangelist) has 2x battery SOC cut off limits.
The 1st cut off is for when municipal power is present.
The 2nd is for when municipal power is not present.
The 2nd automatically gets set to 10% lower than the 1st, when you set the 1st.
If you set the 2nd to some other value, you must set it after setting the 1st value.

Hi Hagu13.

I have been running Pylon us2000b(x4) + us3000b (x2) for around 20 months now and my battery bank currently reports a 98% state of health (SOH).
If this rate of degradation remains linear then after 10 years, theoretically the battery bank should retain 80 to 90% SOH.

For the 3 months of winter I drain my battery bank down to 30% state of charge (SOC).
I stop at 30% as I cannot fully charge the battery bank from PV the next day if I go any lower.
If I had more panel power I would be comfortable taking the battery bank down to 20% daily for the 3 months of winter.
During summer the battery bank typically only drops to around 60% SOC by the time the sun rises and then is back at 100% by around 12h00 on a sunny day.
Summer plot

Winter plot (24% SOC on this day and just missed getting back to 100%)

I run the entire house (2x geysers, pool pump, fish pond pump, cooking (no gas), air conditioning units for heating & cooling the home (30000BTU total)) off of the PV and battery storage.
 

Hi Hagu13.

I have been running Pylon us2000b(x4) + us3000b (x2) for around 20 months now and my battery bank currently reports a 98% state of health (SOH).
If this rate of degradation remains linear then after 10 years, theoretically the battery bank should retain 80 to 90% SOH.

For the 3 months of winter I drain my battery bank down to 30% state of charge (SOC).
I stop at 30% as I cannot fully charge the battery bank from PV the next day if I go any lower.
If I had more panel power I would be comfortable taking the battery bank down to 20% daily for the 3 months of winter.
During summer the battery bank typically only drops to around 60% SOC by the time the sun rises and then is back at 100% by around 12h00 on a sunny day.
Summer plot

Winter plot (24% SOC on this day and just missed getting back to 100%)

I run the entire house (2x geysers, pool pump, fish pond pump, cooking (no gas), air conditioning units for heating & cooling the home (30000BTU total)) off of the PV and battery storage.
 

Hi Hagu13.

I have been running Pylon us2000b(x4) + us3000b (x2) for around 20 months now and my battery bank currently reports a 98% state of health (SOH).
If this rate of degradation remains linear then after 10 years, theoretically the battery bank should retain 80 to 90% SOH.

For the 3 months of winter I drain my battery bank down to 30% state of charge (SOC).
I stop at 30% as I cannot fully charge the battery bank from PV the next day if I go any lower.
If I had more panel power I would be comfortable taking the battery bank down to 20% daily for the 3 months of winter.
During summer the battery bank typically only drops to around 60% SOC by the time the sun rises and then is back at 100% by around 12h00 on a sunny day.
Summer plot

Winter plot (24% SOC on this day and just missed getting back to 100%)

I run the entire house (2x geysers, pool pump, fish pond pump, cooking (no gas), air conditioning units for heating & cooling the home (30000BTU total)) off of the PV and battery storage.
 

Solcast is what you want if you want to ‘predict’ potential PV for the day. You seed their algorithm every 5 minutes with your PV production over that period and based on that, plus your location and panel angle/direction, it starts generating forecast after a week or two. Another user put me onto it and it seems reasonably accurate so far. I’m using Home Assistant though, not sure if this is available for OpenHab

It all depends on what you want to achieve. 
Light switches - No need to flash with Tasmota.  Can integrate directly with HA.  For those places where you can't get a neutral to light switch you can have a look at the Eachen switches as well, they use the same Ewelink platform Normal On/ Off control of devices - No need to flash. Integrates directly with HA Complicated load control - For example controlling Geysers.  Suggest to flash with Tasmota. The advantage of the Tasmota is the ability to set up "Rules" on the device itself which are stored in the ROM.  This provides additional backup should your HA fail for some odd reason or the unit looses it's WiFi connection.  For example, I have the following rules running on the TH16's controlling my geysers
Switch off when the temperature exceeds 65C.  Home assistant is set up to heat the Geysers to 60C, if HA fails to switch off the unit at 60 then I know the unit will switch off itself at 65 Keep the unit switched off when the temperature drops below 5C.  This is just incase the unit looses connection to the temperature sensor Switch off when the MQTT connection to HA fails.  This prevents the Geyser from heating if the Wifi connection drops or my HA fails. Some examples of items which I have currently automated/ controlling through HA
27 light switches.  Majority of them runs on Sonoff switches, the down stairs switches runs on Eachen as it is a hassle to get a neutral through the concrete slab. 2x Geysers.  Using Sonoff TH16 with DS18B20 temperature sensors, tasmota firmware and 40a relays 1x Pool Pump. Using Sonoff TH16.  Automated to run only when excess Solar generation is available. 1x Fountain pump.  Using Sonoff Basic, automated to run on a timer SunSynk Inverter.  Inverter values are communicated to HA via MQTT Wifi Mesh System.  Asus based Wifi Mesh, provides notifications when certain devices join/ drop off the network. 2x Home Theatre receivers.  The one receiver is automated to automatically turn on the projector, turn off the downlights and turn on the LED light strips when switched on.  Reverse when the receiver is turned off  1x Aircon.  Using Sensibo as gateway. Automated to operated at different modes based on the target temperature.  Will only turn on based on room temperature, time schedule and if we are at home Robotic Vacuum Cleaner.  Garden Sprinkler System.  Integrated with my Bhyve system.  Watering schedules based on weather forecast. Garage Doors. Using Sonoff SV flashed with Tasmota.  Can check if the doors are open or closed.  Can also open/ close via the app All of the above are nicely integrated with the mobile App.  I'm not using the HA cloud service, using port forwarding with integrated firewall in my router setup.
Some other nice features which you can build into the automations:
Limit/ reduce loads based on Load shedding status Check who is at home (based on wifi connections) Shopping List.  Useful to add notes of items to buy, I'm thinking of mounting an old tablet in the kitchen to easily add items as the need arise.

Hi Hagu13.

I have been running Pylon us2000b(x4) + us3000b (x2) for around 20 months now and my battery bank currently reports a 98% state of health (SOH).
If this rate of degradation remains linear then after 10 years, theoretically the battery bank should retain 80 to 90% SOH.

For the 3 months of winter I drain my battery bank down to 30% state of charge (SOC).
I stop at 30% as I cannot fully charge the battery bank from PV the next day if I go any lower.
If I had more panel power I would be comfortable taking the battery bank down to 20% daily for the 3 months of winter.
During summer the battery bank typically only drops to around 60% SOC by the time the sun rises and then is back at 100% by around 12h00 on a sunny day.
Summer plot

Winter plot (24% SOC on this day and just missed getting back to 100%)

I run the entire house (2x geysers, pool pump, fish pond pump, cooking (no gas), air conditioning units for heating & cooling the home (30000BTU total)) off of the PV and battery storage.