FoxESS + SG Ready

What Zerofy can do with FoxESS and SG Ready

In practice

• When there’s enough surplus, Zerofy switches the relay and the heat pump receives the SG Ready signal. How it reacts – for example by heating the hot-water tank to a higher temperature – is set in the heat pump’s own controller.
• A heat pump draws roughly 1–3 kW while running, which a typical FoxESS home system (2.5–15 kW) can cover on sunny days.
• Zerofy gets new FoxESS data every 5 minutes. Heat pumps shouldn’t switch often, so set a minimum runtime in Autopilot.
• Zerofy also shows your FoxESS battery, so you can see whether surplus goes into the battery or into the heat pump.
• Set in the heat pump controller how many degrees the hot-water and heating setpoints rise in the boost state (“recommended operation”); the default differs by manufacturer. Fronius and Enphase only switch between normal and recommended operation, so the heat pump keeps its own minimum run times.

What FoxESS and SG Ready offer on their own

FoxESS: FoxESS has its own R290 heat pumps (HP Series monobloc, HP BOX hydro module), controlled in FoxCloud 2.0, which lists a solar heating feature. The three-phase H3 Pro can switch an SG Ready heat pump through its dry contacts when feed-in exceeds a set start power.

SG Ready: Several inverter energy managers drive SG Ready directly: Fronius (GEN24 or Datamanager 2.0 with Smart Meter and a 12 V relay), SMA Sunny Home Manager 2.0 (relay or I/O module), Huawei EMMA, SolarEdge Home Load Controller or Smart Energy Relay, Sungrow SH-RT hybrids (built-in DO relay) and the Enphase IQ Energy Router+. Most of them switch on a fixed surplus threshold.

Directly, without Zerofy: The H3 Pro (15–30 kW) has an SG Ready function on its dry-contact outputs that starts the heat pump above a set feed-in power and stops it below a stop power.

Zerofy is the alternative if you want FoxESS, SG Ready and your other devices in one app, with dynamic tariffs and forecast-based Smart mode.

Setting up FoxESS and SG Ready in Zerofy

1. Connect FoxESS

Zerofy connects to the FoxESS cloud: you log in with your FoxESS Cloud account and authorize access on FoxESS’s own screen.

1. Make sure your inverter is online and registered in the FoxESS Cloud app.
2. In Zerofy, choose FoxESS and log in with the FoxESS Cloud owner account.
3. Confirm your devices on the FoxESS authorization screen.

Good to know: Use the owner account of the device. Installer and agent accounts don’t own the devices, so FoxESS shows “No Devices” and the connection fails.

Step-by-step guide for FoxESS

2. Connect SG Ready

Zerofy switches the SG Ready inputs through a smart relay such as a Shelly that you connect to Zerofy; Autopilot then sends SG Ready signals based on solar surplus and low electricity prices.

1. Have an electrician wire a smart relay (e.g. Shelly) to the heat pump’s SG Ready inputs.
2. Add the relay to Zerofy.
3. Configure the relay as SG Ready controller in the app and turn on Autopilot.

Good to know: SG Ready gives Zerofy on/off-style states, not temperature readings or setpoints. To use all four states, the relay needs two channels, one per SG Ready input.

Step-by-step guide for SG Ready

3. Turn on Autopilot

In Zerofy, open your SG Ready heat pump, turn on Autopilot and choose Solar – or Smart to also use dynamic tariffs and forecasts. Set the priority, activation threshold and minimum runtime.

Dynamic tariffs

Zerofy can also run your SG Ready heat pump on dynamic electricity prices (EPEX Spot or Nord Pool, e.g. Tibber or aWATTar) or on a fixed time-of-use tariff. Smart mode combines those prices with forecasts of your household consumption and your FoxESS solar production.

Learn more about Smart Mode

About FoxESS and SG Ready

FoxESS – Fox ESS is a Chinese inverter and storage maker founded in 2019 and headquartered in Wenzhou. Homes typically have the single-phase H1/AC1 (2.5–6 kW) or KH (7–10.5 kW) hybrid inverters or the three-phase H3 Smart (5–15 kW), with EP, EQ or ECS batteries. Monitoring app: FoxCloud 2.0.

SG Ready – SG Ready (Smart Grid Ready) is a label introduced in 2012 by the German Heat Pump Association (BWP) for heat pumps that an external controller can switch between four operating states via two contacts. It is a signalling convention, not a data protocol: the heat pump’s own controller decides how far to raise temperatures in the boost state. Products: Heat pumps with the SG Ready label (two potential-free control inputs), from many manufacturers.

Manufacturer information last checked: October 2026.

All devices that work with FoxESS