Solar plan · 2026

Two phases to a solar home.

Phase 1 is a Balkonkraftwerk built around the Anker SOLIX Solarbank 4 Pro E5000 — pure bill reduction + Home Assistant tinkering, in preparation for 2026. Phase 2 is a separate, later full house system with a hybrid inverter and HV battery, delivering whole-house backup + EV charging. The two don't merge — the Solarbank stays a self-contained appliance.

Distilled 2026-07-11 from the Anker Solarbank evaluation · household ~4,900 kWh/yr (~13 kWh/day)

01

Two phases, one house

The Solarbank is a self-contained appliance — it does not grow into Phase 2. Its long-term value carries over as data, panels, and mounting, not as hardware.

Phase 1 2026 · in preparation

Balkonkraftwerk (BKW)

An 800 W plug-in appliance for bill reduction and Home Assistant tinkering — nothing more.

  • ✓ Cut the electricity bill (800 W feed-in)
  • ✓ Home Assistant control via local Modbus TCP
  • ✓ Smart-meter consumption data
  • ✓ Panels (re-wired) + mounting reused in Phase 2
  • ✕ Whole-house blackout backup
  • ✕ Meaningful EV solar charging
Phase 2 Later — house system

Full house PV system

Hybrid inverter, HV battery, electrician, and full administrative process — a regular PV installation, not a BKW.

  • ✓ Whole-house blackout backup (transfer switch)
  • ✓ Wallbox surplus EV charging (~11 kW)
  • ✓ Hybrid inverter + HV battery + PV strings
  • ✓ AC-coupled coexistence with the Solarbank
  • ✕ Reuses the Solarbank unit (stranded — proprietary)
02

Phase 1 configuration

Anker SOLIX Solarbank 4 Pro E5000 — Kleines Kraftwerk bundle incl. Smart Meter Gen 2.

5,024 Wh
Base capacity
~4.5 kWh usable
5,000 W
PV input
over 4 MPPTs
800 W
Feed-in (AC)
permanent standard mode
~1,599 €
Bundle price
incl. Smart Meter Gen 2
10,000
Cycles
vs ~6,000 on SB3 Pro
IP66
Ingress rating
outdoor-rated
2,000 Wp
Panels
4 × 500 Wp bifacial, E-W ~12°
Local
HA integration
official Anker, Modbus TCP, no cloud

Configuration note

Why standard 800 W mode

Never pay for the 2,500 W "Plugin Power 2.0" unlock — it requires Wieland + electrician + VDE commissioning and buys little. 800 W is a ceiling on the Solarbank's contribution, not an appliance threshold: loads under 800 W (fridges) are fully covered; bigger loads get the first 800 W offset with the grid topping up.

Connection: Wieland socket (required above the 960 Wp Schuko limit), installed in the same electrician visit as the Shelly Pro 3EM in the Zählerschrank.
03

Sizing & yield

Household ~4,900 kWh/yr (~13 kWh/day). A 2 kWp east-west array is well matched to the 5 kWh box — no expansion battery needed up front.

Summer yield8–10 kWh/day
Winter yield2–3 kWh/day
Daily need~13 kWh/day

2 kWp E-W array vs household daily consumption. Summer covers most of the daily need; winter is supplemental.

Battery fit

Well matched

Of the 5 kWh base capacity, ~4.5 kWh usable comfortably covers evening and overnight base load, so a single Solarbank is sufficient for the initial rollout.

Future path

Expansion = free optionality

BP1600/BP2700/BP5000 stacking adds kWh (not W); nothing to pre-buy — realistic trigger: tariff arbitrage.

04

Regulatory limits — BKW status

VDE-AR-N 4105:2026-03 (in force 2026-03-01). BKW-privileged status requires BOTH caps simultaneously — they are independent.

800 VA
AC feed-in cap
the inverter/grid limit
2,000 Wp
DC module cap
the panel power limit — NOT dropped

Connection tier

≤ 960 Wp

Schuko OK Standard Schuko plug permitted (DIN VDE V 0126-95).

Connection tier

961–2,000 Wp

Wieland Requires Wieland / fixed connection by an Elektrofachkraft. This is our tier.

Connection tier

2,000–7,000 Wp

Not a BKW Simplified-documentation tier (form F.1.2), but a regular PV installation — no BKW privileges.

Bestandsschutz is explicit for pre-2026 installations. Registration goes through MaStR, which replaces grid-operator notification under the 2026 standard.
05

Blackout coverage

Decision: not part of Phase 1

German SAIDI is only ~12–15 min of outage per year; a closed fridge keeps food safe ~4 h, a full freezer 24–48 h. Nobody will re-plug appliances mid-outage — so the off-grid socket is worth ~nothing for the kitchen fridges. Doing nothing fits the actual outage profile.

Constraint

No house backfeed

The Solarbank cannot backfeed house wiring; island power exists only at its own 2,500 W off-grid socket.

Constraint

Nobody re-plugs

Household reality: no one re-wires appliances during an outage, so the blackout socket goes unused.

Constraint

400 V loads never

Hardwired 400 V stove/oven can never be backed up by any BKW-class device.

Runtime, IF anyone ever re-plugged (~4.5 kWh usable)

2 fridges (~120 W)~1.5 days
+ router + 1 PC~9 h
3 gaming PCs + fridges~3 h
+ 1 kW electric heat~1.5–2 h

Off-grid socket only, if someone manually re-plugged loads. With sun, the fridge case runs indefinitely (sun-limited).

Opportunistic option: if the unit's final position puts a garage chest freezer within clean permanent cable reach, it can live on the pass-through socket and ride through outages with zero action — verify pass-through spec first.
06

Car charging

Cannot meaningfully solar-charge the Tesla

Panels wired into the Solarbank MPPTs can only exit through the 800 W tap (≈ 4 km range/h) or the unlocked 2,500 W tap (≈ 13 km/h). Once the battery is full, excess PV is curtailed.

Roadmap

Why a wallbox needs Phase 2

A wallbox connects to the house consumer unit (typically 3-phase 11 kW) and does surplus charging by watching the grid-point smart meter — it needs a real PV installation behind it.

Reference

Conversion overhead

  • Vacuum on off-grid outlet — 1 conversion (battery DC → inverter AC)
  • Drill charger — 2 conversions (DC → AC → charger DC); no external DC tap on the Solarbank
07

Process before ordering

Four steps, one hard deadline.

  1. 1

    Electrician visit

    Install the Shelly Pro 3EM (grid-point smart meter) + Wieland socket in the Zählerschrank — one visit.

  2. 2

    Monitor 2–4 weeks

    Log real household consumption in Home Assistant to confirm sizing before committing.

  3. 3

    Order before the 0 % VAT window closes end of December 2026

    The zero-VAT rate materially changes the economics — order inside the window.

  4. 4

    Register in MaStR

    Marktstammdatenregister entry replaces grid-operator notification under VDE-AR-N 4105:2026-03.

Verify at purchase: zero-export control works fully locally (Smart Meter Gen 2 Modbus support still "coming soon"); charge/discharge write registers are actually exposed among the ~19 Modbus data points; off-grid socket pass-through + auto-switchover behavior on the SB4 Pro specifically.
08

Phase 2 — the future house system

A separate, later project: a regular PV installation, not a BKW. AC-coupled coexistence with the Solarbank is possible.

Phase 2 component

Hybrid inverter + HV battery

PV strings on a hybrid inverter with a high-voltage battery — the core of a whole-house system.

Phase 2 component

Backup box / transfer switch

Automatic whole-house blackout backup — a standard checkbox on house systems, impossible on any BKW.

Phase 2 component

Wallbox with surplus charging

3-phase ~11 kW wallbox doing real PV-surplus EV charging off the grid-point meter.

Phase 2 component

Electrician + admin process

Full administrative process — a regular PV installation, not a layperson BKW registration.

Carries over from Phase 1

Shelly smart meter Survives

The grid-point meter carries straight into Phase 2.

Carries over from Phase 1

Panels + mounting Re-wired

Panels re-wired into HV strings; mounting reused.

Carries over from Phase 1

Solarbank + BP batteries Stranded

Proprietary, sealed appliance — does not integrate; its lasting value was the data + HA experience.

Bottom line: the Solarbank is a self-contained Phase 1 appliance, not a foundation for Phase 2. Its long-term value is the smart-meter data, the panels/mounting, and the Home Assistant control experience.
Units used
WWatt — instantaneous power (PV input, feed-in tap).
Wh / kWhWatt-hour — energy (capacity, consumption). 1 kWh = 1,000 Wh.
WpWatt-peak — a panel's rated DC output at standard test conditions.
VAVolt-ampere — apparent power. The BKW feed-in cap is set in VA (≈ W at unity power factor).
kWh/day · /yrEnergy over time — PV yield and household consumption.
VVolt — voltage (230 V single-phase, 400 V three-phase for the stove).
km/hEV charging speed as range added per hour.
IP66Ingress Protection — first 6 = dust-tight, second 6 = strong water jets.
MPPTMaximum Power Point Tracker — an independent PV input channel.
cycleOne full charge + discharge of the battery (rated lifespan ≈ 10,000).