question

lifewithmike avatar image
lifewithmike asked

Victron Energy Meter / ESS for split phase data from Enphase Envoy or Sense Energy Monitor

Background: I currently have an Enphase IQ Combiner 4 and a Sense Energy monitor at my main panel on exterior of the house. I'm looking to add some Victron Multiplus II's in my garage with 30kWh of storage to store more over production locally and run in self consumption (As Enphase calls it) or ESS mode as Victron calls it. Why do i want to do it this way? Distance is well over 100ft and even Wifi wise, its far enough I have 3 APs to cover my home decently because its a large spread out single story.

Questions:

  1. Can I somehow or some way get data from my Enphase Envoy/Combiner 3 or my Sense Energy meter via my local LAN/TCP/API into Modbus to read into the Cerbo GX?
  2. Is there another device similar like the Empora Vue or something which I can read into the Cerbo GX?
  3. If the above two Qs are fails, I think my only option is a VM-3P75CT installed in that exterior box and doing those Zigbee to RS485 adapters on it to the garage and crossing fingers the range won't break it?
    1. Or running 2x 3.5mm "extension" cables in new conduit to the exterior box to get readings at the meter.
Multiplus-IIEnergy MeterModbus TCPenphase
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1 Answer
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matt1309 answered ·

Hi @LifeWithMike

I've had similar issues where I've used RS485 meter then two converters RS485 to TCP/IP then back from TCP/IP to RS485 into the cerbo device. So essentialy sending RS485 energy meter data over LAN.


It works ok, but not as flawless as something natively supported.


In response to your questions:

1. I'm not aware of one but you could write one if your familiar with python. If it's a simple http api there's a few community made "drivers" you could just tweak. ie shelly energy meter drivers. So you just tweak those ones so that rather than data being in shelly format it's in enphase. Similarly for modbus protocol.

Same goes for Sense Energy meter.

I'm happy to try lend a hand on this if you've got details of the http api's or modbus registers.


2. Is this to monitor specific loads? You can have multiple energy meters setup as AC loads and view in the advanced dashboard of VRM. But i'm not aware of anything that matches this closely in gx alone. However not something I've messed with.

(Personally prefer systems like openhab/homeassistant for that type of data and leave my victron system for kind of whole house power views rather than granular load specific).


3. I've not tried zigbee, but I've also been toying with the idea of use the largest guage possible twisted pair/cat 6 wire i can get my hands and seeing if i can get CT clamp to work over long distances. Folk tend to say 100ft is reachable so maybe with some decent wire you'll be fine.


The above options are all a fair chunk of work/testing. Personally i would get the new conduit in and either go the energy meter route or even try your luck using CT clamp if you're close to 100ft and have decent wire. I'd pt a couple of big cat6's in conduit and try ct clamp first (cheap). If it's not working then fork out for the meter.


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