Ted Lassoes the Sun!

What's the temperatures on the Solarman app?

AC = inverter and DC = batteries?
 
ok, I feel a bit better (but worried for @ItherNiT and @spit ... shew that looks hectic)

@Speedster : Time is correct, HA is reading the data is from solarassistant which gets its time from the Internet. Just checked to be sure. The Pi is also running a bit hot.

1664893215582.png
 
furpile said:
Is this a 5kW without the fan?
Click to expand...
Yep
RonSwanson said:
Pointing a big fan at batteries also works well, keeps them at ambient temperature.
Click to expand...
Yeah doing that now.

The inverter is in the garage without a ceiling. But there is some insolation/pink fluff against the roof. But there aren't any windows and the sliding door out the garage goes out to a patio with clear roof.

Will run the fan for tomorrow and see how it goes.
Might need to install a ceiling first.
 
Yesterday's stats - I parked the cars in the garage about half an hour later around 5:45 pm and then closed the garage door.

Went in about 15 mins later and you could still feel the extra heat in that room.

Super pissed at the Shelly DW2 sensor I had placed to monitor temps. That particular one just eats through batteries every 2-3 weeks. Paying R140 for batteries is not on. Have given up on them. Of the 5 I bought, only one works reliably. Screenshot_2022-10-05-05-15-59-915_io.homeassistant.companion.android.jpg
 
TedLasso said:
Yesterday's stats - I parked the cars in the garage about half an hour later around 5:45 pm and then closed the garage door.

Went in about 15 mins later and you could still feel the extra heat in that room.

Super pissed at the Shelly DW2 sensor I had placed to monitor temps. That particular one just eats through batteries every 2-3 weeks. Paying R140 for batteries is not on. Have given up on them. Of the 5 I bought, only one works reliably. View attachment 1394779
Click to expand...
What about putting some of those twirly whirly roof chimney thingies?

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TedLasso said:
Super pissed at the Shelly DW2 sensor I had placed to monitor temps. That particular one just eats through batteries every 2-3 weeks. Paying R140 for batteries is not on. Have given up on them.
Click to expand...

Wifi isn't meant be used in battery powered IoT devices. You should have a look at Zigbee or Z-Wave. Or just wait for matter/thread to drop later this year.

Zigbee and z-wave allows the antena to be turn off and actually save power when not sending updates. I'm getting around 3months out of my Zigbee temps sensors (they are using rechargeable AAA batteries).

My mutli sensor zigbee (Lux, movement, temp, humidity) one is on around 8 months now and still going strong, but it uses a weird CR battery.
 
ItherNiT said:
Wifi isn't meant be used in battery powered IoT devices. You should have a look at Zigbee or Z-Wave. Or just wait for matter/thread to drop later this year.

Zigbee and z-wave allows the antena to be turn off and actually save power when not sending updates. I'm getting around 3months out of my Zigbee temps sensors (they are using rechargeable AAA batteries).

My mutli sensor zigbee (Lux, movement, temp, humidity) one is on around 8 months now and still going strong, but it uses a weird CR battery.
Click to expand...

I learnt that after I bought the Shelley's ... my first experience with their products and seriously let down by this particular model. The battery's were supposed to last two years, but in this specific DW2, it eats them up in 2 weeks - and it's close to WiFi.

Can you provide a link to the zigbee one that you use? May get one just to monitor the garage (and then go deep down the zigbee hole but I think all my Philips hue lights run on it)
 
wingnut771 said:
What about putting some of those twirly whirly roof chimney thingies?

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Click to expand...
Definitely won't work for me - cos the solar panels are there :D

The garage roof space is well insulated - 135mm pink aerolite, etc. The garage has always been hot (we don't know why - there is a geyser in there but it's only turned on for 1-2 hours a day to feed the kitchen) - considering how cold our house was before we put the insulation in - we were thinking of converting the garage to a bedroom becuase it was so lekker warm all the time -LOL
 
TedLasso said:
Definitely won't work for me - cos the solar panels are there :D

The garage roof space is well insulated - 135mm pink aerolite, etc. The garage has always been hot (we don't know why - there is a geyser in there but it's only turned on for 1-2 hours a day to feed the kitchen) - considering how cold our house was before we put the insulation in - we were thinking of converting the garage to a bedroom becuase it was so lekker warm all the time -LOL
Click to expand...
It's hot in there because it's insulated and keeping the heat in from all the heat sources (inverter, geyser, cars). Might be a plan to put a small aircon in there, or some kind of extractor fan.
 
TedLasso said:
I learnt that after I bought the Shelley's ... my first experience with their products and seriously let down by this particular model. The battery's were supposed to last two years, but in this specific DW2, it eats them up in 2 weeks - and it's close to WiFi.

Can you provide a link to the zigbee one that you use? May get one just to monitor the garage (and then go deep down the zigbee hole but I think all my Philips hue lights run on it)
Click to expand...
I use these 3:

But you will need a zigbee co-ordinator for home assistant, I can highly recommend the sonoff one:
isphome.co.za

Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus v2 (ZBDongle-E) - ISP Home

The Sonoff Dongle Plus v2 aka ZBDongle-E is ideal for Home Assistant, OpenHAB and Zigbee2MQTT. It is a universal Zigbee USB stick and can be used as a Zigbee gateway on open-source platforms to locally control all your Zigbee devices.
isphome.co.za isphome.co.za

I know a few people on the forum use the sonoff temp sensor as well, but I'm not sure how the battery life stacks up. It will also probably last longer as it doesn't have a screen that it needs to update.
 
wingnut771 said:
It's hot in there because it's insulated and keeping the heat in from all the heat sources (inverter, geyser, cars). Might be a plan to put a small aircon in there, or some kind of extractor fan.
Click to expand...
Indeed. What I want to see if what folks like @ItherNiT have done with their temp fan solution. I can't use them (unless I wall mount one) but since we need to walk past our inverter to get into house, it's a bit tight there.

Battery is close to the ground and inverter at face level - ensure we didn't mount too high because of the temp concerns

Another solution also : I am thinking of using HA to open the garage door about 20% for 5 minutes to let the cold air in and close it again - do that every hour until 10pm. I may try that for today
 
ItherNiT said:
I use these 3:

But you will need a zigbee co-ordinator for home assistant, I can highly recommend the sonoff one:
isphome.co.za

Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus v2 (ZBDongle-E) - ISP Home

The Sonoff Dongle Plus v2 aka ZBDongle-E is ideal for Home Assistant, OpenHAB and Zigbee2MQTT. It is a universal Zigbee USB stick and can be used as a Zigbee gateway on open-source platforms to locally control all your Zigbee devices.
isphome.co.za isphome.co.za

I know a few people on the forum use the sonoff temp sensor as well, but I'm not sure how the battery life stacks up. It will also probably last longer as it doesn't have a screen that it needs to update.
Click to expand...
wow! Some interesting kit out there if you go look for it! Will try to find something without a digital face or else .. my wife will have something to complain about #DataNut
 
@TedLasso thanks for bringing the temperature to my attention.

Added a small fan below the inverter but it didn't seem to do the trick, so later took a bigger fan and you can clearly see the difference.
1664973037955.png
 
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