1 hour ago, spotity said:

Love the stats, willing to share some of your config for these 🥺

I use Solar-Assistant -> MQTT -> PostgreSQL database to record data once per minute.
Once the data is in a database, it's relatively easy to use SQL to get the statistics or use Grafana to display charts.
Eg if grid frequency is 0Hz, then we load shedding.

SELECT
  tm AS "time",
  inverter_1_grid_frequency as "Grid Frequency",
  inverter_1_ac_output_frequency as "Output Frequency"
FROM solar_assistant_v
WHERE
  $__timeFilter(tm)

The most important part is to store the sensor / inverter / meter data in a database.
I use PostgreSQL as it's a great database (use it at work).
Home-Assistant uses SQLite.
Solar-Assistant uses InfluxDB.

In my case, the sensor data is stored in jsonb and I use a view to access the columns.

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW public.solar_assistant_v
 AS
 SELECT 
    solar_assistant.tm,
    solar_assistant.payload['total']['grid_energy_in']::numeric AS total_grid_energy_in,
    solar_assistant.payload['total']['pv_energy']::numeric AS total_pv_energy,
    solar_assistant.payload['total']['load_energy']::numeric AS total_load_energy,
    solar_assistant.payload['inverter_1']['grid_power']::numeric AS inverter_1_grid_power,
    solar_assistant.payload['inverter_1']['grid_frequency']::numeric AS inverter_1_grid_frequency,
    solar_assistant.payload['inverter_1']['grid_frequency']::numeric < 45.0 AS grid_off,
    solar_assistant.payload['inverter_1']['grid_voltage']::numeric AS inverter_1_grid_voltage,
    solar_assistant.payload['inverter_1']['pv_power']::numeric AS inverter_1_pv_power,
    -- SNIP - there are many columns
    solar_assistant.payload['grid']['stage']::numeric AS grid_stage
FROM solar_assistant;

GRANT SELECT ON TABLE public.solar_assistant_v TO grafanareader;

 

Edited November 22, 20232 yr by system32

2 hours ago, system32 said:

I use Solar-Assistant -> MQTT -> PostgreSQL database to record data once per minute.
Once the data is in a database, it's relatively easy to use SQL to get the statistics or use Grafana to display charts.
Eg if grid frequency is 0Hz, then we load shedding.

SELECT
  tm AS "time",
  inverter_1_grid_frequency as "Grid Frequency",
  inverter_1_ac_output_frequency as "Output Frequency"
FROM solar_assistant_v
WHERE
  $__timeFilter(tm)

The most important part is to store the sensor / inverter / meter data in a database.
I use PostgreSQL as it's a great database (use it at work).
Home-Assistant uses SQLite.
Solar-Assistant uses InfluxDB.

In my case, the sensor data is stored in jsonb and I use a view to access the columns.

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW public.solar_assistant_v
 AS
 SELECT 
    solar_assistant.tm,
    solar_assistant.payload['total']['grid_energy_in']::numeric AS total_grid_energy_in,
    solar_assistant.payload['total']['pv_energy']::numeric AS total_pv_energy,
    solar_assistant.payload['total']['load_energy']::numeric AS total_load_energy,
    solar_assistant.payload['inverter_1']['grid_power']::numeric AS inverter_1_grid_power,
    solar_assistant.payload['inverter_1']['grid_frequency']::numeric AS inverter_1_grid_frequency,
    solar_assistant.payload['inverter_1']['grid_frequency']::numeric < 45.0 AS grid_off,
    solar_assistant.payload['inverter_1']['grid_voltage']::numeric AS inverter_1_grid_voltage,
    solar_assistant.payload['inverter_1']['pv_power']::numeric AS inverter_1_pv_power,
    -- SNIP - there are many columns
    solar_assistant.payload['grid']['stage']::numeric AS grid_stage
FROM solar_assistant;

GRANT SELECT ON TABLE public.solar_assistant_v TO grafanareader;

 

Been meaning to do something similar for some time, like the approach of going to Postgres first. What do you use to display these as sensors in HA? 

The frequency of 1 minute, is this just to reduce writes and storage requirements in the long term? Gotten use to having SA "realtime" in HA. 

Edited November 22, 20232 yr by spotity

6 hours ago, spotity said:

Been meaning to do something similar for some time, like the approach of going to Postgres first. What do you use to display these as sensors in HA? 

The frequency of 1 minute, is this just to reduce writes and storage requirements in the long term? Gotten use to having SA "realtime" in HA. 

Please see my diagram https://powerforum.co.za/topic/10730-sunsynk-8k-hubble-am2-16x400w-pv/?do=findComment&comment=145810

SA -> local MQTT -> bridge MQTT -> HA (realtime).
                        |
                        +---> paho 1 min avg -> PostgreSQL -> grafana

Setting up MQTT bridge is documented https://solar-assistant.io/help/integration/mqtt
SA auto integrates into HA and you can display most of the data directly in HA.
SA sends data to MQTT at a very high rate - up to 100 samples per minute.
IMHO, every 5 seconds would be fine (12 samples per minute).
I don't store all 100 samples, I just store the average and store that every minute for usage in Grafana.

You could also use Grafana to query the HA SQLite database.

3 year update - Solar PV & battery were installed 21 Nov 2021.

In 2023, 79.7% of my kWh came from Solar / Self generated.
20.3% comes from grid - mostly cloudy days and winter (where we use electric heaters)

Outages > 4h:

We experienced a total of 417h18m/17d9h18m in 180 incidents of outages (load shedding)
We were not impacted by outages.

The grid meter readings from the CoJ Meter and the consumption is from a Hiking DDS238-2 WiFi meter.
The decrease in self generation can be attributed to me changing the SoC threshold from 20% to 30% due to stage 5/6 load shedding earlier in the cycle.
Thinking of setting the SoC threshold back to 20%.

I've saved R65,611 over the three years (about 30% of the investment).

CoJ have added a R230 fixed fee to prepaid (with larger fixed fee to come).
Also Eskom want a 43.55% increase for municipalities for 2025.
These increases seem to make it financially viable to add another 5kWh battery and 8xPV panels to go from 80% to 95% off-grid which I'm considering.

Edited November 24, 2025Nov 24 by system32

@system32 thanks for this post it is very useful for where I am now heading after installing my SunSynk 8kW with 2x Hubble AM2s back in April 2021 I’m now looking to finally include my solar array. Where I stay we’ve been immune to load shedding but reliability of the local network is now a big issue and so it’s time for the upgrade and to also save a buck or two!

With the bought of prolonged power failures that we experienced in Ballito during Dec24 - Feb25 I established that my 11kWh battery bank was only delivering 50% of its capacity. I engaged Hubble support who dialed in via Anydesk and confirmed that a cell per battery needed to be addressed. I took them in and they honored their warrantee with great service! They obviously upgraded firmware at the same time.

Upon reinstallation this afternoon I noted that although I have setup the SunSynk to reflect a Battery capacity of 210Ah, the capacity reflected via SOLARMAN Smart only shows 100Ah???

If I’m not mistaken you also had this issue if I read correctly in your post on 10 Jan 2022?

How do I know if my CAN BUS connection to my master battery is reading correctly? More importantly, how do I know if my link from my master to my slave battery is also correct? Reading Hubbles website, I note they have some detail about the RJ45 cables potentially cause a short circuit to ground if you use a full straight CAT5 cable and they you should only use one with the necessary pins. Could this be my issue? It’s a tad ambiguous when you need only use the needed pins as it’s under the Cloudlink section?

See here for detail: https://www.hubbleenergy.com/_files/ugd/ece034_a86bd55c3a7a457d94bfe5f221d46397.pdf

Confirmation of my batteries communication with my SunSynk would be useful if you can advise? 

Thank you,

Trev

4 year update - Solar PV & battery were installed 21 Nov 2021.

For 2025, the CoJ rate includes the fixed fee.
This year, we added additional appliances (more TV, more PC, more heaters) so the load has climbed.
In Oct I added another 5KWh AM2 (total 25kWh battery bank) to reduce my grid usage (was ~30% cheaper than initial purchase).
Thinking of adding another 8 panel string to cater for winter's shorter days.

In Nov 2025 we had a grid failure that lasted 15h overnight - no impact to me.

Biggest issue seems to be rain weather ☹️ which prevents full charging - at least the grass is green.

Nov 2025, changed my minimum SoC to 25%.
20% seemed to cause the AM2's to trigger a strange charge/discharge pattern from grid.

Hubble AM2 - State of Health:

• battery/Pack_1/StateofHealth/state, payload=100 (new)

• battery/Pack_2/StateofHealth/state, payload=92

• battery/Pack_3/StateofHealth/state, payload=93

• battery/Pack_4/StateofHealth/state, payload=92

• battery/Pack_5/StateofHealth/state, payload=92

Just need them to last another 2-3 years to recover my battery costs.

Overall, I'm very happy and it's still one of the best investment I've made.

Edited November 24, 2025Nov 24 by system32

5 hours ago, system32 said:

4 year update - Solar PV & battery were installed 21 Nov 2021.

For 2025, the CoJ rate includes the fixed fee.
This year, we added additional appliances (more TV, more PC, more heaters) so the load has climbed.
In Oct I added another 5KWh AM2 (total 25kWh battery bank) to reduce my grid usage (was ~30% cheaper than initial purchase).
Thinking of adding another 8 panel string to cater for winter's shorter days.

In Nov 2025 we had a grid failure that lasted 15h overnight - no impact to me.

Biggest issue seems to be rain weather ☹️ which prevents full charging - at least the grass is green.

Nov 2025, changed my minimum SoC to 25%.
20% seemed to cause the AM2's to trigger a strange charge/discharge pattern from grid.

Hubble AM2 - State of Health:

• battery/Pack_1/StateofHealth/state, payload=100 (new)

• battery/Pack_2/StateofHealth/state, payload=92

• battery/Pack_3/StateofHealth/state, payload=93

• battery/Pack_4/StateofHealth/state, payload=92

• battery/Pack_5/StateofHealth/state, payload=92

Just need them to last another 2-3 years to recover my battery costs.

Overall, I'm very happy and it's still one of the best investment I've made.

Nice review - i think you have a perfectly sized system. Normal geyser or a heat-pump system?

1 hour ago, mzezman said:

Nice review - i think you have a perfectly sized system. Normal geyser or a heat-pump system?

I have 2 geysers.
Main is a Solar thermosiphon with electrical backup - installed in 2010.
The cottage is a is a regular 100l Kwikot (installed 2021).
I have timers on both that limit electricity from 10am - 15pm - I use the geysers as a "heat battery"

Edited November 24, 2025Nov 24 by system32