New Catch Control: 6 Channels Of Kick-Ass Home Energy Management

For years now, Catch Power has offered what I think is the go-to consumption meter for single-phase houses. Now that the six-channel unit has arrived, your three-phase house can enjoy the same benefits. Electricity bills might be growing, but thankfully, Catch Power is adding features to its Catch Control faster than retailers can add zeroes to your bill.

I recently quizzed industry legend Nigel Morris about the new six-channel unit, and I’d like to say that we’ll offer a deep analysis of all of its abilities, but to be honest, not even the head of sales and marketing at Catch Power is completely across all of what this thing does. It sounds ludicrous, but as Nigel himself puts it, the questions don’t seem to matter; the boffins out the back keep telling him, “Yeah, we can do that”.

Impatient? Scroll to the end to see a list of everything the Catch can do.

It reminds me of the first round of home electrification when everybody knew electricity was better than lamp oil, and they had no idea how many useful things would be plugged into the walls 100 years later.

What Is Catch Control?

Catch Control is a hardware and software solution for managing solar energy, batteries, and loads. Available in 2-channel and 6-channel versions, Catch Control works with single, split, or three-phase properties and is compatible with most popular inverters.

As a company, Catch Power started out with the Green Catch, a diverter designed for simple resistive loads (like electric hot water services) to harvest solar yield dynamically. As the sun varies, so too does the storage of energy in your hot water service.

Catch Control is a consumption meter that can stand alone or be integrated into your solar power system. It uses RS-485 to communicate with your inverter, so it’ll replace proprietary units like the Fronius Smart Meter.

Unlike any other, Catch Control has a relay output to divert solar energy. The ON/OFF switching isn’t as refined as dynamic control, but you can connect it to many things, notably those with a motor (like a pump or air conditioner) that would be damaged by a Green Catch.

Controlling So Much More

Catch is more than just an energy meter—it’s designed to give you monitoring, analysis, alarms, remote control and automation, network compliance, and the ability to connect a brand salad of different devices and equipment.

Its narrow,  using only 2 poles in your switchboard, making it straightforward to install. Multiple units can be combined for more complex setups.

It also supports Wi-Fi, Modbus RTU, and Bluetooth communications for maximum flexibility. Plus, the 6 unit features “dry contact” terminals for managing additional loads with Demand Response Mode inputs.

DRM means you can throttle your air conditioner, for instance, and reduce costs by either being paid for participating in a demand reduction scheme or just cutting consumption to keep below a demand charge threshold.

Solar and Battery Optimisation

At its core, Catch Control is designed to increase your self-consumption of solar power. If you have a retail deal from the likes of Amber, here’s how it handles scenarios you’ll encounter using live spot pricing:

• High Feed-in Tariff (FiT): If the FiT is attractive, Catch Control will turn off non-essential loads and discharge the batteries, maximizing your export profits.
• Negative FiT: If the feed-in tariff goes negative (i.e., the dreaded sun tax where you’re paying to export), it will curtail your inverters, preventing you from losing money by exporting energy.
• Negative Consumption Tariff: If import electricity prices drop into negative territory (i.e., you’ll be paid to consume grid electricity), Catch Control shuts off the inverter, turns appliances on, and charges your battery to take advantage of the earnings available.

Battery Exclusion Zones: Prevent Your EV Draining The House Battery

Catch Control’s battery exclusion zones give you precise control over where your stored energy goes.

It’s the kind of seamless integration you’d come to expect from having everything under the same brand ecosystem. And it’s the reason we often recommend brand loyalty. If you have, say, Fronius Solarweb overseeing a Gen24 hybrid inverter, then using a Wattpilot EV charger and Ohmpilot hot water diverter is the best choice.

While Tesla, Sigenergy, Solar Edge and GoodWe can do similar things, Catch Control means that even though SMA & Sungrow don’t offer EV chargers, you’ll be able to integrate them with other brands.

A Real Advantage

For example, your EV charger can easily drain your house battery because it can’t tell the difference between raw sunshine and stored electricity. We’ve detailed a workaround before, but with Catch Control, you can set exclusion zones to stop your EV charger from drawing power when it shouldn’t, ensuring you maximise the financial & practical benefits of your house battery.

It’s all about priorities. Fill the house battery first because it will save you money during the evening peak, or even export it for a higher FiT. Then, fill the car with excess solar energy if it’s available, while bearing in mind that low-priced grid energy could be available on a scheduled midday or overnight tariff.

All Your Energy Data in One Place

Ordinarily, preventing a home battery powering an EV charger meant connecting it to the grid, outside the solar & battery system. Without secondary apps, you would lose visibility of that load. Catch Control gives you full oversight and even retains the ability to charge an EV during an outage.¹

An Example: Hot Water Control and Amber Pricing

Catch Control works seamlessly with Amber’s real-time pricing to help you run your hot water system when energy is cheapest. Under normal conditions, it will use your surplus solar energy. However, during price spikes, Catch Control automatically adjusts, ensuring you avoid paying a premium for electricity.

One user asked if Catch Control could still heat their water if Amber throttles their Sungrow inverter due to negative feed-in tariffs. The answer is yes—Catch Control can prioritise your hot water, ensuring you can harvest solar yield even when Amber curtails solar exports.

Features of Catch Control

Although it’s packed with features, this is an incomplete list because functions and brand integrations are being added all the time:

• Inverter, battery, and load control: Manage all your major energy resources in one place.
• Static, dynamic, and flexible control: Adjust settings as your energy needs change throughout the day.
• Grid Connection Compliance: Approved solution for flexible export, demand response and emergency backstop rules.
• Live Notification of Network Intervention: This is a real-time indicator for network curtailment events.
• Live data and historical data storage: See how your system is performing in real-time or review past performance.
• Solar performance analysis: Get insights into how efficiently your solar panels are operating with Solar Analytics.
• Advanced battery calculator: Predict savings and performance before investing in batteries.
• Load scheduling and timers: Automate when appliances run to optimise for low energy costs.
• EV charger control: Manage your electric vehicle charging based on solar availability and tariffs.
• Amber wholesale integration: Catch integrates seamlessly with Amber to manage energy based on real-time pricing.
• Fleet management: Ideal for homes with multiple energy systems or commercial setups.
• Remote Control: Manage your system remotely with the ability to manually switch connected loads on or off.
• Cloud tethering of meters and inverters: If you have a rural or commercial property, Two Catch Control devices can offer export limiting over long distances without having to bury hundreds of metres of cable.

Universal Energy Management for Your Home

Catch Control integrates with your solar setup, offering universal energy metering, export limiting, and dynamic export compliance across Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and soon NSW.

With Solar Analytics’ ability to search for better tariffs and predict savings from adding batteries, Catch Control can also optimise household energy efficiency and costs.

Whether you’re looking to reduce energy bills, boost your solar self-consumption, or prepare your home for future energy markets, Catch Control offers the flexibility to help you get there. It’s so good I think SolarQuotes might even buy one and we’ll install it to show you. 

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/catch-control-6-channel/