3 min read

How I Built a Real-Time Solar Dashboard for My EG4 18kPV Inverter Using Home Assistant

A few days ago, I installed a solar system and wanted a way to monitor real-time data from my EG4 18kPV hybrid solar inverter. However, I found the EG4 monitoring portal frustrating, as it often displays data with a delay of around five minutes. To get faster updates, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I purchased a third-party dongle from monitormy.solar, which gave me direct access to the inverter's data. This dongle gives me control over where I share data:

1. MonitorMy.Solar – a cloud-hosted portal managed by the dongle’s manufacturer
2. EG4 monitoring portal - the inverters official cloud-hosted portal
3. Home Assistant via MQTT Broker - a managed or self-hosted Home Assistant instance. Note: For compatibility reasons you will need to ensure HA is configured to use 24-hour time, MQTT is set up with a username and password, and the MQTT connection does not use SSL. *

I can choose to share data with any, all, or none of these options. For local-only access, the dongle also provides a real-time monitoring portal. This flexibility lets me stop sharing with EG4 or any other platform whenever I want.

My Current Setup

Now, my solar data flows directly to a Home Assistant instance running on a Google Cloud e2-micro instance, where I’ve built a very simple real-time dashboard.

For the dashboard design, I used Dante Winter’s Lux Power Distribution Card in Home Assistant to get an interactive power flow diagram. While the default setup for that Card relies on a LuxpowerTek integration hosted in a private repo by Guy Wells, I discovered this isn’t necessary if you have the monitormy.solar dongle. Instead, the sensor data is accessible via the dongle, though it requires a few minor adjustments to redirect to the dongle sensor data states, which I’ve outlined in my lux.yaml.

If you're curious, the dongle offers extensive access to EG4 sensor data, and I highly recommend it for anyone wanting more control and better monitoring. Below, I’ve included a screenshot of my real-time dashboard, and the full setup instructions are available in my GitHub repository.

Today’s: ☀️ Solar Yield | 🔋 Charged | 🪫 Drained | 🏡 Power Consumed

Get the Code

You can find my GitHub repository here:

GitHub - danielraffel/luxpower-dashboard: Simple realtime Home Assistant dashboard for monitoring an EG4 18kPV Hybrid Inverter solar power system
Simple realtime Home Assistant dashboard for monitoring an EG4 18kPV Hybrid Inverter solar power system - danielraffel/luxpower-dashboard


The dongle has been a game-changer, allowing me to monitor my solar power system reliably and without delays. If you're looking to bypass the laggy portals and gain full control of your solar data, I hope this guide and my dashboard can help you do the same!

Huge thanks to Zak at MonitorMySolar for all his support!


Note: My installer created conduit holes on the side of the EG4, just below the dongle’s attachment point, leaving no room for the antenna. To solve the space issue, I connected the dongle with its antenna to the EG4 using an HDMI cable and a Female-to-Female HDMI adapter, allowing me to place the dongle on top of the EG4 unit.

* The GitHub repository details how I configured my dongle to send data to a local MQTT broker on my Tailscale network. That machine then securely relays the data over Tailscale to the cloud-based Home Assistant VM.