Axpert smart controls without ICC or Solar Assistant

For those that don't have the means to fork out cash, but have the time to input into getting a smart control system setup for the Axpert Series of inverters:

Jblance Mpp-Solar (Github) has open source communications for the MPP-Solar inverters based on the Axpert units (tested working on Axpert MKS II (Mecer Sol-I-AX-5NB)

You will need a raspberry pi or other linux box to connect to(you can use either serial out on inverter or USB out)

Install your home assistant on the pi or other linux box that you use, along with the MPP-SOLAR programs from github, the install instructions are on the github repo.

Once setup configure your mpp-solar to output your inverter info to hass-mqtt (instructions on the github repo)

This will allow you to read the inverters sensors to display and use in home assistant

Now the data is passed to Home Assistant, but we cant change source priority on the fly.

What I then did was write a small mqtt client using paho mqtt, that listens to topics for Source Priority.

When Solar is triggered the topic Solar is posted to the client and action of running solar.sh script is run, this triggers sending the command to mpp-solar and switches to solar the same goes for utility and SBU modes.

Now Home Assistant can switch between the output source priorities on the fly, and you can then setup automation's that will switch when for example battery drops or when battery charge is sufficient

My Home Assistant is currently setup to switch to solar if its 1 hour after sunrise, and battery is above 90% if criteria are not met it will remain on utility, and for lower end on battery it will switch from whatever source its set to to go back to utility when it drops to 70% at any point, this can be changed at any time by editing the automation on home assistant.

I will be adding smart switches to some loads, thus when grid goes down you can program non-essentials to power down automatically to conserve battery power, one could then have sensors like thermometers that can be put in freezers that monitor internal temps, and switch the freezers back on if temps go above a certain threshold.

I will be adding motion sensors throughout the house for lights, that will check for movement, and if no movement in 15min detected, to automatically switch lights off.