Experience with Kostal Inverter: Plenticore Plus 8.5

Hardware Home Automation
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I see, the Kostal inverter has a specific binding, which connects locally to the inverter (not via Cloud API!?).
So my questions are:

  1. Are all settings reachable from the binding?
  2. is the inverter recommended from you guys?
  3. how do you use the binding “smart”? (sorry, I’m a solar n00b so I long for what is necessary in a solar smarthome)
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  1. No, actually.
    A number of basic parameters is missing which you could retrieve on previous-gen Kostal inverters.
  2. No because of 1). But this is not a good question. Kostal owners are biased so most will recommend it (because they don’t like to admit to themselves that it was a bad choice) and most non-owners don’t really know enough about it to comment.
  3. what do you mean, “use smart” ?
    As with any tech, it depends. What sort of smartness are you looking for ?
    I have built an energy management system around my inverter (a Sungrow).
    See docs at http://storm.house/energiemanagement-system what sort of smart stuff you can do with it.
    (advertising: it’s for sale, too)

I also deployed that EMS against a Kostal Plenticore I have access to which is when I found out about missing parameters. Plenticore binding is also missing abilities to control battery charging.
At least until now I have not found a means to.
For the time being, that’s a real bummer when you want manage energy so I’d be happy if anyone proves me wrong.

1 Like
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Thanks for your answer. Problem is, that my local electricians only use “their” setup. The one (you remember surely, Markus!) uses Solaredge, this one Kostal inverter and BYD batteries… So I have to find one using Sungrow! :wink:

…did you use the Kostal binding, which uses IP-access IMHO? The manual of Kostal Plenticore also states an Modbus, perhaps there’s more functionality exposed?

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Been there, done that. I know the problem well, probably everyone in DE does.
I had lots of talks with many solar installers beforehand. It’s a mindset thing… can’t really tell how much I love those traditional electricians, the forum sw would likely censor me ;-). Avoid, don’t waste time discussing.

I knew I wanted a device with full 3-phase support for uninterruptible power. Noone offered it.
So I researched the market for the proper product then contacted the vendor and asked for installers in my area that install that product. I suggest you try this approach.
BTW this was for a GoodWE inverter and after I had found that willing installer I found a better device (the Sungrow) and asked my installer to go with that. He agreed although he had never used it before.
Had some issues in the beginning but now it’s running fine.
Sometimes you have to take the long route. I’m happy now I didn’t give up along the way.

Yes I used the kostalinverter binding.
Yes you can access probably any inverter via Modbus but you need to know the registers and their meanings. That’s the tough part. For the Kostal, I wanted to avoid doing that again after I had to take that route once for the Sungrow.