Hi Ben, thanks for your detailed introdcution into the Shinephone app from Growatt. This video give clear inforamtion about this app. I have a question about the Charge and Discharge Info, at 6:30 of your video, we can see the kWh charged and discharged to the Battery everyday, seems for these 7 days, always charged more than discharged, is this correct? What is the capacity of the battery?
First, I got my SPF5000ES installed about 4 weeks ago, Only using 2 UP Pylontec 5000up model. Your video helped a lot with everything. so thanks a mill. The app is absolute trash, wish there was a better version
Question: I've set my inverter settings to: 012 = B2AC 30% ; 013 = AC2B 50% ; 014 = CGPR SNU However I noticed that the utility or AC kicks in when the battery discharges to 80% and not the parameter set in setting 012. I've since changed setting 014 to C50 in order to avoid the AC kicking in. Is there a way/setting I'm missing in order to meet the parameters in settings 012 & 013?
Thanks for all the explanations Ben, very informative. Everything seems to be showin up on the app apart from the little arrow coming from the solar panels to the inverter. But occasionally it will show these arrows moving - normally late at night. The inverter generation is showing 4.2 kWh today. I am looking at it on my PC. Can I check if I have the latest app. I can see it also on my phone and have tried your suggestion of swiping down to refresh it, but still no signs of power coming from the panels. How would I get in touch with Growatt to seek their advice, as you suggested? Just noticed all the other comments are 5+ months ago, so hope you are still responding Many thanks David
Hi Ben We have just had our system put in and very new to it all! One quick question for you my app only saying Exporting to grid? and on Reserved mode? I was not here when the guy's did the installation with only a short video on the system, How do I change the reserved mode as the battery just stays full, which it has done on the first night. thanks for any info
Just a note on the data logger. You can basically have it as real time data if you configure it on the advanced settings of the logger IP address. The minimum latency is 0.10 (10 sec). I've personally set mine to 1 or 1 minute. This should be plenty good enough for anyone.
Many thanks Ben for the walk through. I personally think it’s a fine app and gives a ton of information and options, but I’m a relatively new user and have nothing much to compare it to.
A lot of people don't like the app, perhaps because it doesn't give live readings. But for me, I don't spend all day monitoring an app, so it has plenty of information when I need it, and if I want to see what is going on in real time, I can just go to the inverter.
@@Bensgarage hi Ben I’ve been looking into options and it seems Solar Assistant is the alternative or one favoured alternative. Runs on a Raspberry pi and removes the need for that connection to the Chinese server. I might give it a go as it seems to give lots of info including monitoring the battery(s) also.
@@Bensgarage plenty of TH-cam videos on it. Basically get a Raspberry PI and a download of the Solar assistant which gets installed onto a sd card. The Pi when the solar assistant is installed is a dedicated ( max 15w) data logger and real time reporter via what I assume is a built in Web server on the PI ( stand to be corrected on that) tons of info and you can connect the battery to is to get data off that. Also there is a firmware update for the Growatt that apparently quietens the fans down by a few decibels …..
Hi Ben, fwiw I’ve got Solar assistant up and working fully now with a connection to my Pylontech battery. Lots of lovely data instantly and all on my own mini data logger. If you still want to use the shine app and have two sets of data I am informed you just need to add a usb extension cable from the usb port on the Growatt as the PI uses the printer style port that is covered if you screw the Growatt Wi-Fi dongle in hence the need for the extension cable. I like that the Solar Assistant gives much more info on the battery(s) such as cycle count and state of health. The other nice thing is it tells you dynamically what %charge/hour you are putting in to your batteries. It also gives cell voltages across all batteries. You do need the correct comms cable from the battery to the PI and it’s a bit of cash for the setup but it’s instant and reliable and would make great content ! Thanks for all the have provided. I finally got my limited solar added yesterday and am loving farming electricity ….. just need to refurbish the workshop I to the anticipated home office to make best use of my set up now. The future is bright the future is solar !
Hello, why did the shinephone app graph is showing all in orange? It used to show each one in different color, but recently it turned all orange! Can we fix it back to showing all in different colors again? ( like solar production in yellow, storage production in green, load consumption in purple, and import from grid in blue)
Hi Ben, my impression is that this Growatt app and inverter both are not aware of the UK timezone change that occurred on Sunday March 26th. It is still showing times in GMT (rather the British Summer Time) as far as I can tell. Is that also your understanding?
Hi Ben, thanks for the rundown on app, my system was installed the end of December. You clarified the important information of the app. If your app is showing the wrong time zone this can be adjusted, after opening app top of the page of your plant, below the Growatt name click on your town and edit plant time zone. Many thanks
@@Bensgarage Thank Ben. I also noticed the same. It adjusted the time on its own to daylight-saving-time on Monday or Tuesday after the Sunday when the clocks moved forward.
Thanks for the vid. I have the app installed on an iphone and an android; works okay but the dashboard only updates every three or four days for reasons unknown to me. I'd rather have it on the PC because the print is too small on the phone and it doesn't seem to work in landscape mode. It only seems to work on a PC in an android emulator such as BlueStacks, which comes with a ton of other garbage and only loads Shinephone in a phone sized portrait-style window; I couldn't get it to run anyway. I'm assuming you have it on a Mac of some description; is there a PC version anywhere, or does anyone have a sensible PC work-around? Is there any way you can export to grid from the battery after sundown (we get a higher buy-back rate after 6pm)?
Fantastic - BlueStacks duly consigned to scrapheap. Thanks heaps! I wonder why Growatt make it so hard to find? I have a PV string facing NE and another facing NW (Australia) - does the server hold the separate outputs anywhere?@@Bensgarage
I’m not sure how I found the site, but it wasn’t from Growatt. Not sure on the separate string, do they both go into the same inverter? If that’s the case then you will probably only see the total coming from the inverter.
Out of interest, for your system, Can you force it to NOT charge battery from grid unless it’s during the cheap rate? (And certainly not to do it during peak cost time!)
Sorry for the potentially stupid question:- I had my panels installed roughly 2 months ago and ever since my solar production and load consumption have mirrored themselves daily, there is no alteration like yours in quiet times or lower consumption or anything. I appreciate this sounds ridiculous but even when I was away for 2 weeks the Solar/Load figures were identical both in graph and numerical form. It just seems far too precise to me for it not to be something wrong if that makes sense? Is this a problem known with the app or system? Cheers!
I've not heard of this before, you could check your inverter to see what comes in daily and if that is different day to day, then it's an issue with the app/datalogger. They sent me an incorrect datalogger, which was all over the place.
We are off grid, with a grid feed for charging the batteries when there is no sun. We had companies to give us quotes that ranged from 15K - 11K just for seven panels and the ability to export to the grid, but the buy back price was rubbish. So I installed it myself, ten panels with frames, 5K inverter and 7kwh of battery storage, for about 6K.
Thank you Ben. I’m wondering if you can see an overview per individual panel. I have optimizers installed, like you can in the SolarEdge app?
Is there any way that it will charge from grid when prices are low?
Hi Ben, thanks for your detailed introdcution into the Shinephone app from Growatt. This video give clear inforamtion about this app. I have a question about the Charge and Discharge Info, at 6:30 of your video, we can see the kWh charged and discharged to the Battery everyday, seems for these 7 days, always charged more than discharged, is this correct? What is the capacity of the battery?
Does this app work for voltronic type inverters instead of watchpower app?
First, I got my SPF5000ES installed about 4 weeks ago, Only using 2 UP Pylontec 5000up model. Your video helped a lot with everything. so thanks a mill.
The app is absolute trash, wish there was a better version
Question: I've set my inverter settings to:
012 = B2AC 30% ;
013 = AC2B 50% ;
014 = CGPR SNU
However I noticed that the utility or AC kicks in when the battery discharges to 80% and not the parameter set in setting 012. I've since changed setting 014 to C50 in order to avoid the AC kicking in.
Is there a way/setting I'm missing in order to meet the parameters in settings 012 & 013?
Thanks for all the explanations Ben, very informative. Everything seems to be showin up on the app apart from the little arrow coming from the solar panels to the inverter. But occasionally it will show these arrows moving - normally late at night. The inverter generation is showing 4.2 kWh today. I am looking at it on my PC. Can I check if I have the latest app. I can see it also on my phone and have tried your suggestion of swiping down to refresh it, but still no signs of power coming from the panels.
How would I get in touch with Growatt to seek their advice, as you suggested?
Just noticed all the other comments are 5+ months ago, so hope you are still responding
Many thanks
David
Hi David, I'm still here responding. You could try contacting them through this page: www.ginverter.com/support/contact
Many thanks for the contact details Ben
Much appreciated
David
@@Bensgarage
Mine only shows solar amd grid??
Good Morning, How to Export Energy to the grid when the batteries are fully charged? Thankyou for your time!!!
Sorry, can't answer that. We are off grid, have a grid feed in but we do not export back to the grid.
Thankyou for your reply @@Bensgarage
Hi Ben We have just had our system put in and very new to it all! One quick question for you my app only saying Exporting to grid? and on Reserved mode? I was not here when the guy's did the installation with only a short video on the system, How do I change the reserved mode as the battery just stays full, which it has done on the first night. thanks for any info
thanks for the video ... can you use this app if the internet is down , only wifi is on? Thanks
No, it’s needs the internet, as it has to go through Growatts server.
@@Bensgaragethanks, good to know
Just a note on the data logger. You can basically have it as real time data if you configure it on the advanced settings of the logger IP address. The minimum latency is 0.10 (10 sec). I've personally set mine to 1 or 1 minute. This should be plenty good enough for anyone.
Can you pls explain how I can get this done?
Many thanks Ben for the walk through. I personally think it’s a fine app and gives a ton of information and options, but I’m a relatively new user and have nothing much to compare it to.
A lot of people don't like the app, perhaps because it doesn't give live readings. But for me, I don't spend all day monitoring an app, so it has plenty of information when I need it, and if I want to see what is going on in real time, I can just go to the inverter.
@@Bensgarage hi Ben I’ve been looking into options and it seems Solar Assistant is the alternative or one favoured alternative. Runs on a Raspberry pi and removes the need for that connection to the Chinese server. I might give it a go as it seems to give lots of info including monitoring the battery(s) also.
I'm unfamiliar with raspberry pi, how easy or difficult it is. But might be something to look into.
@@Bensgarage plenty of TH-cam videos on it. Basically get a Raspberry PI and a download of the Solar assistant which gets installed onto a sd card. The Pi when the solar assistant is installed is a dedicated ( max 15w) data logger and real time reporter via what I assume is a built in Web server on the PI ( stand to be corrected on that) tons of info and you can connect the battery to is to get data off that. Also there is a firmware update for the Growatt that apparently quietens the fans down by a few decibels …..
Hi Ben, fwiw I’ve got Solar assistant up and working fully now with a connection to my Pylontech battery. Lots of lovely data instantly and all on my own mini data logger. If you still want to use the shine app and have two sets of data I am informed you just need to add a usb extension cable from the usb port on the Growatt as the PI uses the printer style port that is covered if you screw the Growatt Wi-Fi dongle in hence the need for the extension cable. I like that the Solar Assistant gives much more info on the battery(s) such as cycle count and state of health. The other nice thing is it tells you dynamically what %charge/hour you are putting in to your batteries. It also gives cell voltages across all batteries. You do need the correct comms cable from the battery to the PI and it’s a bit of cash for the setup but it’s instant and reliable and would make great content ! Thanks for all the have provided. I finally got my limited solar added yesterday and am loving farming electricity ….. just need to refurbish the workshop I to the anticipated home office to make best use of my set up now. The future is bright the future is solar !
Hello, why did the shinephone app graph is showing all in orange? It used to show each one in different color, but recently it turned all orange! Can we fix it back to showing all in different colors again? ( like solar production in yellow, storage production in green, load consumption in purple, and import from grid in blue)
It has done the same on my app too, not so easy to see the different ins and outs. Hoping that they change it back in an App update.
Is it possible to get email alerts for faults, does anyone know?
Can you change inverter settings remotely somehow? Or all this app stuff just for stats?
There are some options for changing inverter setting, but it asks for an engineers password, which I don't have.
Hi Ben, my impression is that this Growatt app and inverter both are not aware of the UK timezone change that occurred on Sunday March 26th. It is still showing times in GMT (rather the British Summer Time) as far as I can tell. Is that also your understanding?
Hi Ben, thanks for the rundown on app, my system was installed the end of December. You clarified the important information of the app. If your app is showing the wrong time zone this can be adjusted, after opening app top of the page of your plant, below the Growatt name click on your town and edit plant time zone. Many thanks
The time didn't change on ours either, on the right day at least. Just checked it now, and it has corrected itself without any input from me.
@@Bensgarage Thank Ben. I also noticed the same. It adjusted the time on its own to daylight-saving-time on Monday or Tuesday after the Sunday when the clocks moved forward.
Thanks for the vid. I have the app installed on an iphone and an android; works okay but the dashboard only updates every three or four days for reasons unknown to me. I'd rather have it on the PC because the print is too small on the phone and it doesn't seem to work in landscape mode. It only seems to work on a PC in an android emulator such as BlueStacks, which comes with a ton of other garbage and only loads Shinephone in a phone sized portrait-style window; I couldn't get it to run anyway. I'm assuming you have it on a Mac of some description; is there a PC version anywhere, or does anyone have a sensible PC work-around? Is there any way you can export to grid from the battery after sundown (we get a higher buy-back rate after 6pm)?
I use the app on an iPhone, iPad, Mac and my PC. Go to this link and log in for the desktop version. server.growatt.com/login
Fantastic - BlueStacks duly consigned to scrapheap. Thanks heaps! I wonder why Growatt make it so hard to find?
I have a PV string facing NE and another facing NW (Australia) - does the server hold the separate outputs anywhere?@@Bensgarage
I’m not sure how I found the site, but it wasn’t from Growatt. Not sure on the separate string, do they both go into the same inverter? If that’s the case then you will probably only see the total coming from the inverter.
Yep can see them on the inverter but not the app. Go well and thanks. 🙂@@Bensgarage
Hey, im new to this, my app does not show load consumption only ppv inverter and grid. Anyone can shine some light on this.
My app is not showing 'Export to Grid.' It always shows 'Export to Grid 0.' What could be the problem?
Out of interest, for your system, Can you force it to NOT charge battery from grid unless it’s during the cheap rate? (And certainly not to do it during peak cost time!)
We can set the hours where it will charge, but on our tariff we don't get cheap rate.
How do you access the App on your PC?
Enter the same log in details you use on the app: server.growatt.com/login
Sorry for the potentially stupid question:- I had my panels installed roughly 2 months ago and ever since my solar production and load consumption have mirrored themselves daily, there is no alteration like yours in quiet times or lower consumption or anything. I appreciate this sounds ridiculous but even when I was away for 2 weeks the Solar/Load figures were identical both in graph and numerical form. It just seems far too precise to me for it not to be something wrong if that makes sense? Is this a problem known with the app or system? Cheers!
I've not heard of this before, you could check your inverter to see what comes in daily and if that is different day to day, then it's an issue with the app/datalogger. They sent me an incorrect datalogger, which was all over the place.
@Ben's Garage thank you!! If it is the data logger, is that something I can fix or would I have to contact the guys thay fitted it?
HOW TO ADD PLANT IN SINGLE ID.....?
I can’t get my WiFi modual to connect super confusing
It is not very straight forward, I did a video Growatt wifi setup, it might help.
@@Bensgarage I actually watch that video seems like you get to a certain point entering my Wi-Fi password after that it will not go any further
My system is being installed today, May I ask why u don't earn money by exporting to grid?
We are off grid, with a grid feed for charging the batteries when there is no sun. We had companies to give us quotes that ranged from 15K - 11K just for seven panels and the ability to export to the grid, but the buy back price was rubbish. So I installed it myself, ten panels with frames, 5K inverter and 7kwh of battery storage, for about 6K.