FoxESS Community - Owners & Installers Forum

Good afternoon,

I have just had my long awaited solar install at home 2 days ago (See my signature for details). It's a 34 Panel system with 14.4kW of batteries, mostly for being as self sufficient as possible while maximising the export to the grid using the 3-phase supply I have in the UK to my home. I plan to add more batteries to cover my over the winter months but will let the system run for a bit first.

I'm still navigating around the iPhone app and the webpage view and reporting but have a couple of question if some clever people might be able to help?

1. My batteries are all showing in the system web interface but one of them has a different firmware / version? Is it possible to update this myself and or is there any issue to it being different to the others? How does one go about installing software / firmware updates manually myself?
2. Where can I add my energy price for export as the web interface is telling me I've got £21 of savings in 2 days but not sure where that pricing is held? Can I amend this for both export pricing which is fixed at £0.15 and the import price I pay?

Will my setup be compatible with Home-assistant I'm running on my Raspberry Pi 5 for my CCTV cameras and lighting and can I use the username and password that was setup on the system initially?

Any help on this would be great.

Thanks

Hello,

Ask your installer to update your firmware.
As for the revenue figure it's simply unit rate set under site details times the output of the inverter so it's very useful.

Thanks Will for the very quick reply.

I did call the installer, given my distances from where I live to him, he suggested I email the service.uk@fox-ess.com and send them my inverter SN and they can do it? Is it easy to do myself as I'm in IT and like to keep all my IT stuff up to date

In regards to the SITE details price, is that on the web or app I can see or change that? sorry, all new to Solar and all this.

I've found the price section, just need to know if the service email address is the best place to get my software and battery firmware updated remotely?

Gosh, what an awful post-install experience. Your installer should be the ones applying firmware updates. If they wash their hands of supporting you with a simple button click what will your experience be should you have a hardware failure?
You can email fox and ask them to do it but I would personally force your installer to email fox on your behalf if they can't click a button themselves. If Fox do anything to cause a problem what will your installer says then?
You paid your installer the money, not fox. The installer should own every part of your post-install experience. For example, I charge my customers £100 per year and I take care of all software and remote bits for them. Why more installers don't follow a similar model is beyond me.

Thanks Will, totally understand the issues but I'm a good hour away from them so understand the call out. I don't expect an issue with hardware faults or replacement warranty issues but the remote update was something I was hoping FOX could do remotely? Or am I able to do it myself? I'm pretty I.T savvy as its my job for the last 40 years so could work it out but from your video, not sure I'm even able to get the files as an end user?

Also quick question on the app, the evening view shows power draw from the grid, but my setup is for battery first to supply on a night, I understand there is a small draw on the system to keep all in sync and "are you there" type response but the GUI is all wrong if its saying nothing off the battery but pulling house load from the grid. Very odd as the Octopus usage shows zero.

Thanks again for the reply's.

Installers using an agent level account can install firmware completely remotely. I show an example here

Thanks Will, you have been a star and appreciate the feedback.

I will speak to my installer, I assume they will be able to see all relevant software / firmware for all FOX hardware and if it need an update?

I have managed to get the battery firmware sorted on the odd one that was behind the rest via the FOX support email so that was completed fine this morning.

Is there a good section in the forums for Home Assistant info? Planning to start my Raspberry Pi5 setup and keen to see about some info on it linking to my FOX system hardware. People talking about an additional bit of hardware needed to be adding to the system to talk to the kit, but not sure what all that is?

Anyway, thank you again for your help and loving the system, running very well, just waiting for Octopus to sort the export tariff out and then I might be paid for the 268kWh I've exported already in 4 days to the grid

Here's a few starting points:


https://github.com/nathanmarlor/foxess_modbus

I used this RS485 adaptor - https://github.com/nathanmarlor/foxess_ ... TH-%28B%29

You'll need to wire it in: https://github.com/nathanmarlor/foxess_ ... ring-Guide

One tip - take a photo of EVERYTHING when you are doing the wiring. In particular the existing wiring for the CT clamp, and the position of the CT clamp itself. It is a good idea to unclip the CT clamp while you are working on it, but it is very important to refit it the same way around and on the same meter tail.

Thank you for the info, thats fantastic, I'll take a look.

merango wrote: Mon Apr 14, 2025 4:07 pm Anyway, thank you again for your help and loving the system, running very well, just waiting for Octopus to sort the export tariff out and then I might be paid for the 268kWh I've exported already in 4 days to the grid

Just a note on this - you are unlikely to get paid for anything exported before the export tariff is sorted. Octopus pay based on monthly meter readings from the export meter, and take a reading remotely on day 1 of the tariff being live, they don't start you off from when your export meter said 0kWh. In the 2 weeks or so between starting exporting and them setting it up I was already on 95kWh exported that they say won't be paid.