In this age of lower feed-in tariffs, solar energy self-consumption is king. The new multi-phase 6 Channel Catch Control hardware and software aims to have you wearing the crown.
Maximising self-consumption basically means running appliances when the sun is shining. A cheap way to do this without having to manually switch things on and off is with a timer switch. But while the switch might “know” what time it is, it won’t be aware of prevailing weather conditions.
There are other options, but coordinating a bunch of gizmos and gadgets including hard-wired appliances to do your bidding can get pretty complicated and frustrating with some of the solutions available, particularly if you don’t like to spend a lot of time fiddling.
A smart, flexible and more user-friendly way to control your appliances is with Catch Power’s Australian designed and manufactured Catch Control. Previously known as the Catch Solar Relay, this small device is installed in a home’s switchboard. SQ founder Finn reviewed Catch Control early this year and considers it the “Swiss army knife of solar” – that article is well worth reading.
New 6-Channel Catch Control And Software Available
Not resting on its laurels, the Catch Power team have recently taken the device to another level with release of the new multi-phase1 6 Channel Catch Control hardware, which can act as a central orchestration device across multiple brands. As the name suggests, it provides six independent channels providing precise control of inverters, batteries, EV chargers, and individual circuit control.
The device can control loads via contactor, EV chargers via OCPP, air conditioners via DRED and everything else by TCP and RTU. The installer’s interface is via Bluetooth and all communications occur through Wi-Fi.
The company has also expanded and updated its software services following its acquisition of Solar Analytics. There’s a configuration app, a new version of its owner app called Monocle and a variety of functions available; including Load Control, Plan Optimiser, Battery Calculator and True Performance monitoring.
Here are a few brief examples of some of the many ways the 6 Channel Catch Control and software can be used:
- It can be configured to send surplus solar energy to an electric hot water system, rather than exporting it to the grid for what may be a pittance.
- Solar households with electric vehicles can use their cheap-as-chips solar energy for charging – and ensure they are only using solar.
- You can also set a scheduler to turn on a charger when mains electricity rates are low, and manually trigger charging remotely.
- Preserve a home battery’s capacity for overnight use and not allow it to be used for EV charging.
- Manage regulatory dynamic control rules on solar, batteries and electric vehicles.
- Participate in wholesale trading (e.g. Amber Energy). It can take over buying and selling energy for you (for the very brave), or you can control it yourself if preferred (still some bravery required).
- The Plan Optimiser tool compares your actual production and consumption data to all available electricity plans and calculates how much you could save by switching.
- Voltage, frequency and demand control.
The company says it will soon release a white paper showing combined maximum average *extra* savings for a solar owner of more than $1,000 per year, which has been based on analysis of their fifty-thousand-strong customer base.
“Catch Power’s software allows users to ensure they are using the most solar possible, on the best energy deals and loads are automatically scheduled.”
How Much Does The 6-Channel Catch Control Cost?
The original Catch Control (formerly Relay) hardware is still available and costs $447.00 + whatever for installation (it must be installed by a licensed electrician). The 6 Channel version is much pricier at $955.50 + installation. But if the savings detailed in the white paper can be achieved, that would mean a hardware simple payback of around a year.
Both devices have Solar Analytics integrated, access to which is provided at no cost. The “inverter” version of Solar Analytics (which is what I use) costs $6/month, $60/year, $250 for 5 years or $450 for 10 years. I’m on the annual plan and think it’s money well spent – so, to have that free with Catch Control is a very nice inclusion.
Catch Power states the company is “100% focused exclusively on the residential segment because that’s where we believe the greatest need is, especially for solar, EV and load control”.
You can learn more about Catch Control here. The Catch Control and Monocle App owner’s guide is here.
Footnotes
- Can be used in single-phase, split-phase, and three-phase homes. ↩
About Michael Bloch
RSS - Posts
Does it work with an Enphase inverter? I believe the previous version did not.
It will monitor any solar system and can provide the load control and solar analytics benefits. As for controlling an Enphase system some customers on negative FIT from Amber Electric have been using our device to turn off the Enphase Micro inverters via the DRM port in the Envoy. You could hypothetically achieve a basic method of curtailment using the correct DRM controls
Does anyone know if Catch able to give them the instructions?
Ah – it’s Solar Analytics that does not support Enphase inverters. So, you can have Catch Control but not the software to monitor it as you would want.
It might be more accurate to say Enphase does not support Solar Analytics…
Ok, but Solar Analytics has been saying for a while that support for Enphase is coming……
I believe that was their intention, and the software is easy and may already be done, but Enphase have made it so bloody expensive to access their API by third parties that it is just not feasible.
I sent Catchpower an email 2 months ago. I was quite excited about getting one as SQ seems to favour them.
No reply.
Went with simple timers instead.
Cheap. No app to stuff up or become obsolete
Happy.
If Catchpower can’t be bothered to reply when there is money on the table I wondered how good any post sales support would be.
Aussie company too, bit disappointing.
Hi BTB – Ben from Catch Power here. Sorry to hear your email wasn’t replied to which email address did you send your email to? In this day and age of auto filtering and spam blocking I wonder if your email just went to the Junk / Spam folder and that’s why it was lost. Did you contact Catch Power via a phone call or via our Facebook page? Please send a copy of your email to [email protected] and I will find out what went wrong with your correspondence.
I also contacted Catchpower as I wanted to control more than just my HWC. I suggested that having the ability to control multiple appliances (spa pool, heat pump, EV, etc) would be a big improvement.
I didn’t get any response from them but judging by this, they have listened to their customers.
Hi TD, that’s correct you can now control a compatible EV Charger and 2 x dedicated loads from the 1 x 6 channel device. 1 via the relay output and 1 via DRM / dry contact control.
(Currently Wattpilot, Delta and Ocular are compatible EV Chargers)
I have a 3-phase supply, but my main loads are single phase, hot water, pool filter. Can I still you this controller? Or do you recommend another one for 3 phase installations
Hi Tim,
The 6 channel Catch Control can control either single or three phase loads. Your electrician just needs to connect our device to the suitably rated contactor to switch your loads.
Biggest improvement i could see is adding a hardwired communication option. Hardwired is always preferable if its a option.
Also could you combine two of them so you cover every circuit?
Are they cloud only or do they take local control for if say the internet/service is out?.
The load control doesn’t need Wi-Fi to operate but you can’t remotely switch loads without Wi-Fi. You can change the load schedules via Bluetooth locally onsite or remotely via WI-FI. We control inverters via RS485 so again WI-FI isn’t required to control exports except if its Dynamic Exports then we need WI-FI in order to receive CSIP commands from the DNSP Servers and change the export power flow throughout the day.
Looks great, would this essentially replace what a Green Catch Power can do and then some?
If you have an existing Solar Analytics (6CT) unit on a “lifetime” subscription – would the 6-Channel Catch Control be the direct replacement for that (& can it use the existing SA CT’s?)? Does the 6Ch Catch Control have 5G support or is it the same 4G support as the existing Solar Analytics unit?
I notice that there’s EV Charger Control (solar smart charging? OCCP?) support with Fronius Wattpilot, Delta and Occular chargers – is there a timeframe for other chargers (I assume they’d need OCCP support?) – like Zappi, Tesla, Wallbox, etc?
Hi Rodney,
The 6 Channel can be a direct replacement for Solar Analytics/ Wattwatchers hardware as long as we are talking 100A rated CTs. When you buy a 6 channel Catch Control it ships with 6 x CTs. We recommend using our supplied CTs and not anything third party. We operate on WI-FI not 3G/4G/5G. We are integrating with Wallbox and Zappi EV Chargers very soon. Schneider EV Chargers when they open the pearly gates to let us in to their locked version of OCPP and Tesla when they bring out the software update to allow OCPP capabilities.