Frequently asked questions

SunCetra Energy Monitor works fully — including inverter control — for 7 days after you first run it, with no license key needed. A banner in the sidebar counts down the days left, with a button to enter a key early if you've already bought one.

A one-off purchase, not a subscription — pay once and the license doesn't expire. You'll get a license key by email within a minute or two of paying, which unlocks the app for good.

No — keep the email with your key, and enter the same one again on the new install. If you've lost it, just reply to your original confirmation email and we'll resend it.

Energy Monitor has been tested against a single-phase Gen 1 GivEnergy inverter. It isn't currently tested against Gen 2, Gen 3, AIO, or three-phase systems — if you're not sure whether yours is supported, get in touch before buying.

Energy Monitor: if something isn't working and we can't sort it out between us, contact us within 14 days of your purchase and we'll discuss a refund. Design: because it's digital content delivered straight away by email, buying it means agreeing to give up the standard 14-day "change of mind" cancellation right — that's ticked as part of checkout. Either way, if the product itself turns out to be faulty, your statutory rights aren't affected — just get in touch.

By default, no — SunCetra talks directly to your GivEnergy inverter over your own local network, and SunCetra Design runs entirely on your own PC. Nothing about your system is ever sent to us.

There are a few optional extras in Energy Monitor, all switched off by default. Some of them go online if you turn them on:

Solar Forecast — your postcode (turned into a rough location), roof angle/direction and system size, never your live readings, are sent to a weather service (forecast.solar or the Met Office, whichever you choose) so it can estimate your generation.

EcoFlow — EcoFlow only shares readings through its own online service, so SunCetra uses the developer keys you create on EcoFlow's website to fetch them from there. The keys are saved only on your PC.

Anker — by default SunCetra reads your Solarbank directly over your own home network, using the official Modbus TCP switch in the Anker app. Nothing goes online and no login is needed. There's also an optional online route that logs in with your Anker app email and password instead; if you choose that, your login is saved only on your PC, scrambled so it can't be used on another computer.

Yes, alongside a GivEnergy system. Energy Monitor can show EcoFlow STREAM micro-inverters and the Anker SOLIX Solarbank 4 E5000 Pro (with its expansion batteries) on the same screen as your GivEnergy inverter, and adds their solar and output into your totals. Both are optional and switched off until you tick them in Settings. There are step-by-step instructions on the Setup guides page.

The Anker Solarbank is read directly over your home network using Anker's own official Modbus TCP setting, so it doesn't need the internet or your Anker login. EcoFlow only shares readings through its own online service, so the EcoFlow part needs an internet connection. Your GivEnergy monitoring isn't affected either way.

Turn it on in Settings to see an estimate of your expected generation. There are two sources to pick from: forecast.solar, which covers today and tomorrow and needs no sign-up; or the Met Office, which reaches about a week ahead but needs a free API key from their DataHub website (a couple of minutes to set up — the app walks you through it). Either way, treat it as a guide rather than an exact figure — like any weather forecast it's closer to the mark for the next day or two, and gets rougher the further out it looks, especially past 3–4 days.

Design has no trial — it's a one-off £19.99 purchase from day one, but the download itself is free and safe to try: the app won't open without a valid key. On first run it shows a "Computer ID" for your PC; give us that when you buy and we bake it into your key, so it only ever activates on that one machine. Entirely offline — no internet connection needed to activate or to use it afterwards.

Reply to any email from us, or use the email address on your purchase confirmation.