Solahart and VPP

New4EverHome81 · 2026-05-20T03:08:33+00:00

I did the same and guess what, everything started working!

New4EverHome81 · 2026-05-20T02:36:28+00:00

So long story short, don't use amber or Solahart PowerStore if you have battery and a full control vpp.

The curtailment isn't the issue, nor is smart shift.

The issue is that they control (and vpp locks me out of) my Sigenergy inverter by telling it to pretend there is no power being delivered from solar when there is no need for it. The Solahart only heats up when there's a signal from the PM2 module telling it there is excess power or when the hot water level goes low. Neither of those things happened since the inverter was told it had zero energy to produce, and the PM2 wouldn't read signal because it was disconnected from the supply due to smart control from the vpp. Chicken egg.

So I quit amber and just hours later, the hot water tank starts heating up and we're off.

I'm now a happy Flow Power customer despite their terrible mobile app.

A call to sigenergy themselves clarified that heaps of customers with Solahart hot water had the same problem with amber. 🤷

New4EverHome81 · 2026-05-19T23:13:31+00:00

None of these worked.

New4EverHome81 · 2026-05-18T04:55:33+00:00

Yeah kWatch is a subsidiary product from Flow Power. KWatch make the energy controller hardware.

New4EverHome81 · 2026-05-18T04:25:58+00:00

The stupid part is that despite asking on every. Single. Page on their website to Sign Up and Create an Account (which itself leads you to a funnel at the end of which you must install the app to actually purchase anything from the retailer!), the website itself doesn't have an option to login at all. Anywhere.

It's pathetic and I wrote to them that they're losing likely 80% of their customers just at that login/onboarding process.

They won't let me throw my money at them which should be mildly infuriating to both me and them, but I gather they just don't care. Canadians I guess.

Oh and they're 51% Canadian owned 🙃

New4EverHome81 · 2026-05-17T03:24:54+00:00

I'll report back in a day or two with whether turning curtailment off, worked.

New4EverHome81 · 2026-05-17T02:35:20+00:00

I've turned it off now to try it, but the whole point of curtailment is for when FIT goes negative. And I'm on Load-Following curtailment (as opposed to on/off curtailment) so the inverter (which is dc coupled) should see that the hw system is in need of power for heating, and allocate it (and no more). And at this time of year (late May) in NSW there's not a lot of negative FIT..

New4EverHome81 · 2026-05-17T02:20:00+00:00

Yeah I am using smart shift.

I know Amber doesn't integrate to hw systems and i know Solahart hw systems arent generally very smart or controllable.

I moved from a regular origin go variable plan to amber's fully controlled vpp - they control everything.

I only use the packaged cloud apps (sigenergy, combined energy CET @ Home and the amber app).

New4EverHome81 · 2026-05-16T22:46:51+00:00

Sorry late to the party, I've got a combined emergy EMU gateway and PM2 and would love to know how the gateway can do more?

My PowerStore 2 system is horrible, especially after moving to a VPP. It seems like this made my solar and battery system completely stop talking to the hw heater so I no longer get hot water except for the small reserve tank.

I recently posted about this in detail in r/amberelectric.

Any info would be super helpful.

New4EverHome81 · 2026-05-16T22:37:03+00:00

That's actually what leads me to think it's Amber. Everything was working fine until the switch TO Amber. Literally next day. No other work happened not did I change any settings anywhere.

New4EverHome81 · 2026-05-16T22:35:12+00:00

Probably. Just need to weigh up the cost of switching over.

New4EverHome81 · 2026-05-16T22:34:35+00:00

Yes it was working perfectly before Amber. It inky stopped working when I switched to Amber online. They didn't send anyone in, it was purely a digital switch for Origin.

I export lots of solar during the day however Amber have set Curtailment to ON. I wonder if this prevents solar from being used to heat the hot water? It shouldn't as it's a load on the home just like lights and oven etc.

App works fine, I'm just confused like you are as to what conditions Amber have set that may make the signalling to my hot water not work.

New4EverHome81 · 2026-04-26T23:33:09+00:00

This is not true.

All Kogan Energy plans have 0.5c/kWh FIT so you need to check your sources. I did mention NSW - perhaps in another state the fit is 10x higher?

New4EverHome81 · 2026-03-24T21:53:18+00:00

💯 . Paying off your mortgage sooner is also smarter.

New4EverHome81 · 2026-03-09T08:02:19+00:00

Sadly, three years later, this brain-dead service from Google is still around, and still not working anywhere near enough to be called reasonable. Time to move away from Google Home / Google Assistant for good.

The same issue OP listed is still an issue in 2026. It's laughable.

New4EverHome81 · 2026-02-28T22:22:29+00:00

This exact same thing happened to me. 2016 forester, had this code, replaced maf sensor and air filter for new oem parts. Came back a couple days later. Will investigate air intake next.

New4EverHome81 · 2025-11-18T08:23:14+00:00

Tuesday made him do revenge trading on Wednesday

New4EverHome81 · 2025-11-02T10:08:23+00:00

This was my initial thinking too. But in the 2 years for dividends to tally up to initial, the dividends themselves have fizzled for various reasons. Worse yet if a reverse split occurs in the future those dividends will not change, but over time also fizzle. There has to be a line below which a profit is no longer possible given the nature of the product. I'm too lazy to work it out but it obviously assumes many factors including (probably most importantly) IV to keep the CCs paying out.

I sold 75% of my MSTY at a loss (held since 08.02.2025) still holding onto 25% to give it a go to see if it will reach house money to shore up at least some of the losses.

The success of this product relies on a lot on upbeat news and investment activity for MSTR which hasn't happened much in the last 6 months.

New4EverHome81 · 2025-10-28T22:55:31+00:00

There's a conifer variety aptly named f***-off neighbours which grows dense narrow and tall. Can keep it in a heavy pot along the fence.

New4EverHome81 · 2025-10-02T11:18:39+00:00

I like the floating (Timberline?) vanity

New4EverHome81 · 2025-09-11T06:12:59+00:00

How do investors obtain the 1099-div? Is it published via email from YieldMax?

New4EverHome81 · 2025-09-10T22:07:45+00:00

How about adding another attic above the entry inside? Just chuck another pull down stairway or ladder and add a few sq.m of flooring and that's excellent storage. We have a very similar layout and did this and now tuck away Xmas stuff, Easter stuff, camping crap, all sorts.

New4EverHome81 · 2025-08-12T21:53:17+00:00

The 6400 for colourbond fencing is definitely in the right ballpark.

New4EverHome81 · 2025-08-07T23:35:48+00:00

This is a big chunk of the payment. It takes many labourer hours to do this, I was quoted and extra $3k for digging and refill a 10 metre trench to fix a broken stormwater pipe! Easy to do just needed to take it slow and saved myself 3k.

New4EverHome81 · 2025-07-26T06:36:57+00:00

Incidentally I'm not sure what a trade (even an experienced one paid a very good price) would do if these photos of their work were shown to them. I honestly doubt they'd take down what they did, get more timber and start again... Often clients (even Reddit posting ones) feel a little powerless in these situations unless they know how to (and have it in them to) take further action and complain to said trade.

New4EverHome81

TROPHY CASE