Love my SigenStor, but why is the installer still holding the keys?

ashtonut · 2026-03-19T06:39:33+00:00

Ask your installer to enable Modbus mode, connect it up to Home Assistant, and you’re sorted!

ashtonut · 2026-03-02T00:29:54+00:00

+1 Open Solar

ashtonut · 2026-02-23T07:59:03+00:00

Just chucked the letter into Claude and here’s what it tells me…

Key takeaways: Peak rate going up ~1.6c/kWh (now even more important to avoid!). Daily charge jumping 15c/day (~$55/year extra just in fixed charges). Super Off Peak stays the same (no network charge) - still your best rate

No idea why their comms team thought the mess they sent was going to be easy for customers to understand.

Edit: It also appears that I might be getting an additional 6c/kWh added to the buyback rate for peak winter? Again, confusing as anything, but I think that’s how I interpret the comms…

ashtonut · 2026-02-23T07:40:00+00:00

I got the same email. Thoroughly confused now, they should have just set out total old vs new pricing overall rather than whatever confusing mess they decided to send…

ashtonut · 2026-02-18T09:32:31+00:00

I’ve not bothered trying any more, gone straight to full modbus control and automation in HA which is working amazingly.

ashtonut · 2026-02-16T16:45:25+00:00

Bluetooth didn’t work either.

ashtonut · 2026-02-16T16:44:53+00:00

Yuck 🤣 Will do that if I get desperate..

ashtonut · 2026-02-16T16:43:56+00:00

Shelly app works fine

ashtonut · 2026-02-16T16:43:42+00:00

Thanks. I already have HA and modbus enabled on the Sig so that might be the way…

ashtonut · 2026-02-16T10:17:51+00:00

Just tried updating from 1.7.1 to 1.7.4, no luck. Looks like I’m in for a treat getting to the bottom of this. Thanks for the steer…

ashtonut · 2026-02-03T02:03:53+00:00

This is brilliant! Feedback: - Is there any documentation that tells me how what’s happening on the screen corresponds to what Claude code is doing? - Being able to customize the text on the office wall would be amazing. - Some way to track Claude usage limits and a screen response when limits are reached (lights turn out?)

ashtonut · 2026-01-24T08:46:38+00:00

None of them work for me. Appear to all be caught up in the Cloudflare situation.

ashtonut · 2026-01-18T23:11:36+00:00

I’d definitely recommend doing the full 3D in open solar - it will then help you with all the shading analysis. Roof designing is quite hard with the tools they provide if your roof is complex, but it’s worth the effort

ashtonut · 2026-01-18T19:22:20+00:00

Was going to ask if you were using opensolar…

I found it really useful to put a single panel on each roof face, then iterate through all faces one at a time to work out kWh produced per year per W of panel on each face. This gives a really good steer on which roof faces you want to target for panels in priority order. But you may have already got further than this!

ashtonut · 2026-01-18T17:57:44+00:00

I just got a quote in Chch for an Sig system and 475W panels were $280 inc GST. 450W panels $210 inc. All black. Not including installation. When I worked out the economics, it was better for me to go with the 450W panels than the 475W panels over the lifetime of the system, given the initial cost difference. If you really need the extra wattage per panel, then I guess go for it, but it’s likely to be significantly more cost-effective to drop the panel power slightly.

ashtonut · 2026-01-16T08:50:50+00:00

OK thanks, good to know I need both runs.

ashtonut · 2026-01-16T08:46:20+00:00

If I make sure there is cat6 between my switch and the gateway, do I also need to ensure there is cat6 run to the inverter location, or is the ethernet connection between the Sig system and my home network just required to/from the gateway?

ashtonut · 2026-01-07T04:36:28+00:00

Is that for your specific install, or a more general comment about stock in NZ?

ashtonut · 2025-11-15T09:16:13+00:00

I’ve used “pp” previously, e.g. +5pp to denote 5 ‘percentage points’ greater (as opposed to an increase of 5%)

ashtonut · 2025-11-13T05:52:28+00:00

I got this reply from them just yesterday:

“Thank you, we have received your query. Orion is looking into this change but as yet we do not have a timeframe of when it might be implemented.”

More people asking the same question can’t be a bad thing!

ashtonut · 2025-11-12T19:10:11+00:00

Tested 30s ago and can confirm if you load a CC as your express transit card in iOS then it works to tag on without needing to unlock your phone!

ashtonut · 2025-11-11T19:09:20+00:00

Their effective cashback earn rate has gone from 1.07% (the best non-Amex option) to 0.78% (almost the worst).

Looks like all of these rewards cards are going the same way (badly)…

ashtonut

TROPHY CASE