FoxESS Community - Owners & Installers Forum

Hey together,

i am planning a PV setup for my garden. Theres a building with a 66° roof, faced to south - so in general, perfect conditions.

I want to put 5 panels in a row (Solyco 500Wp R-BG 108h.5) and connect them to a FoxESS H3-6.0-Smart Inverter with a FoxESS EK6 Plus Battery. The 6.0 inverter is necessary, as i need 2kW output per phase for making warm water in the kitchen. I have a 24/7 load of ~60W and like i said, sometimes peaks for e.g. heating water or in winter the heater, that prevents freezing of the water pipes. 3 phase power connection is there and i also distributed all fuses/power circles across those 3 phases.

So my first question is: What do you think in general about this setup?

The second question, which is maybe also more important: I do not have internet in my garden. A local wifi for inter-communication of devices shouldn't be a problem, but connection to any cloud services is not possible.
I know, that i cannot use the App, Cloud Services, whatever of the FoxESS products under that condition, but are FoxESS products in general able to work under such conditions? E.g. with a local web interface or something?

And: How does the Inverter know, how much power it should release? Is there any "magic"? Or is there something like an local API? I can get all relevant data via ModBus from the electricity meter (ABB) with an Raspberry Pi and could feed a local API, if thats possible in any way... maybe somebody can tell me, how the mentioned Inverter works.

Thanks so far and best regards

Do you have existing Solar setup on your main house?

Not sure of where you are, but there are Solar Water heater panels that could do all of this minus the electrical fuss, apart from wiring in a pump to circulate the hot water into a storage cylinder?


Without WiFi, you could if needed to do the initial setup via a phone hotspot. Once the system is programmed it will keep working, odds are you just set it to "Self-use" work mode and walk away.

The next issue you face refers to your question about how does it know how to release the energy, that is where the CT Clamp(s) comes in. You need to have this wired back to the water heater, so it can feel the flow of energy and produce power to feed that circuit.


I am sure to have missed plenty of things there, but this is a "rabbit hole" type of question that leads to many more questions/problems.

this is a "rabbit hole" type of question that leads to many more questions/problems

Thanks for your response.
Well, yes, thats why i came here and asked for some opinions and experience.

Do you have existing Solar setup on your main house?

My bad, i provided not enough details: There is no main house, the garden is more like a holiday garden with a small house on it, far away from my normal house. We have 3 phase electricity there, but its quite expensive due to the location etc., which is why i want to cover most parts of my electricity usage with my own electricity.

For warm water: We're only talking about a 5 liter boiler which is located below the sink in the kitchen. Not big at all, but it wants its 2kW of power - not permanently, but "peaky". Its not a big water circle at all or something, that you would expect from a normal house. Theres also no shower, heaters or anything similar that needs hot water. Only for cleaning hands and a few dishes.

But thats only one consumer, theres also the fridge, some lights, typical garden devices, charging phones and laptops, etc. - thats why i wanted a setup that can put the power to all of the 3 phases.

But if i got you correctly, i put the mentioned CT clamps around the main power line coming in (e.g. directly after the electricity meter) and the inverter gets its required information from the measurements of the clamps? Are these clamps directly wired to the inverter or how are they communicating with the inverter?

Without WiFi, you could if needed to do the initial setup via a phone hotspot. Once the system is programmed it will keep working, odds are you just set it to "Self-use" work mode and walk away.

Well that sounds not so bad at all, but is there any option to do some local configuration (e.g. via a local web interface), or is configuration only possible via internet and cloud? As i said, a local wifi is absolutely no problem, only an internet connection of that WiFi is not possible.

So you have a small location with 3-phase supply/meter and distribution board there.

You would in theory put the CT Clamps around the phases coming from your meter, they run back to the Inverter hardwired in.

As mentioned you could hotspot a wifi connection from your phone from time to time if you did need to adjust things, and yes a local modbus connection can be setup to make some changes also.


Another possibility exists, one that could save long term money.
Disconnect from the grid, and have a large power bank setup.
One of these for example can output 3.84kW and can be hooked up to solar to charge it.
https://bluettipower.co.uk/products/ape ... 2397360509

There are many such systems, above is just an example, with enough solar it could run for an extended time as your base load is quite low.

Another possibility exists, one that could save long term money.

Hehe, thats a nice idea - i had that too already! But its think its better for me to have the grid as backup. The basic fee per month is quite low, as we only have one power line / main electricity meter, which is shared between multiple gardens. So i cannot really save much money there. (Legally crazy, it wasn't my idea - something historical from times of the German Democratic Republic, please don't ask...).
On the other hand, i want to have a backup from the grid, as i MUST heat the water pipes with electricity when temperatures are below 0°C, to prevent freezing and blasting. The high price per kWh from the grid is still cheaper than renewing all water pipes, hehe.

As mentioned you could hotspot a wifi connection from your phone from time to time if you did need to adjust things, and yes a local modbus connection can be setup to make some changes also.

Modbus sounds good, that would be better than nothing... combined with a Raspberry Pi, i may build an own local web interface for monitoring and configuration. The internet situation is a bit problematic up there. But its very good to know, that the general usage of the Fox ESS devices is also possible at least without a permanent internet connection. A temporary hotspot for setup is something i can do with my smartphone.
Unlimited configuration possibilities in a offline setup would be the best, but i guess thats something that one can't find anywhere today.

On balance it seems keeping the grid going will be a good idea for you. As long as everything I have said is correct, then there could be a working system going ahead.

Is this a self-install or are you getting in the professionals?

Is this a self-install or are you getting in the professionals?

Yes and no, hehe. Building the modules on the roof will be done by a professional roofer, as the currently damaged roof will be fully replaced in a few months, and cabling + setup will be done by myself, together with an friend, who is a professional elictrician.

All sounds good, let's hope it can be sorted out what you wish.
It would be good if others can chime in to say if this all sounds possible to acheive.