Newbie question

Hi. I have new PV panels, and a Givenergy 8kW battery.
We chose Octopus Go tariff - primarily to charge the 8kW battery 0030-0430 @ 5p/kWh. with the intention of using that stored power during the day. We have no feed in payment. We hope to get a plug-in hybrid car next year, hence the choice of Go ( and the ability to charge to battery overnight cheaply ).
I'm not sure the Givenergy App works properly, and have tried various combinations of the 4 'System Modes' with unwanted effects. Setting 'Smart Tariff' to Octopus GO appeared to allow battery to export? - and I wonder in this mode will my battery charge overnight?

I want:
(1) NOT send energy to the Grid
(2) Battery to charge from the grid ONLY 0130-0430
(3) Battery to discharge to power my house ( then grid to supplement )

Can anyone suggest the correct settings (System Modes) on the Givenergy App? ( I have read the Givenergy info, but it seems to not consistently work ?)

Thanks for any info :-)

Hi

To be honest I would forget the app and do everything on the beta portal. I don't think the app is being updated but the beta portal certainly is.

On the beta portal you need 'my inverter' on the left hand side, then 'settings'. Turn on 'eco' and then add whatever settings you want under the 'timed charge' option. I wouldn't worry about integration with the Octopus Go tariff as it's basically the same as setting a timed charge anyway (I have Octopus Go and this time of year I just do a 100% charge from 00:30 to 4:30).

Hope this helps.

To add to the above, if you've been using the mobile app, these don't (yet) appear to pull through changes you've made to the beta portal.
I'm not sure in all cases this is a fix but on mine going to Inverter Card > Remote Control > "Read All Unread Registers" does seem to prompt it to go and fetch the current state from the inverter & update the cards.

If the button is greyed out, you may need to refresh just 1 random field (the round refresh arrow, not the ">" arrow) on a register and the button should show up.

Thank you SO much for this info, both. I hadn't yet discovered the inverter controls on the portal. That is awesome - and when the Server known issues are sorted I'll complete my setup.

One last (newbie) question - is there a sure-fire way to stop my battery 'exporting' seemingly randomly?

Thanks again
Paul

pjb904 Are you exporting large amounts, or just small amounts as the battery/inverter ramps up and down to meet demand? The latter is completely normal.

judgepd Thank you again! Only small amounts - and if that's 'normal' then I'm happy. It's just annoying to see it happen.
It's early days learning for me, but I'm also amazed to see my PV panels generating on this overcast-shortest-day-of-the-year!
Thanks for helping me out :-)

It’s worth noting that the values on the portal and the app are snapshots in time. They aren’t averages and they only update every five minutes. Therefore you might see an export value, as an example, that shows for 5 minutes, the reality could be something different. Such as the short export identified above, while the battery kicks in.

I’ve only had my installation in for a week so still learning myself. The only big exports I’ve had have been when the firmware was updated and the battery recalibrated itself by discharging down to zero and then charging up to 100%. Other than that, my exports have come on the ‘good’ solar days.

Although the five minute update is a bit annoying, I mean in the modern era we have come to expect tech to work and work immediately. I knew this was going to be the case when I bought the system though so it is what it is. I’m finding it interesting to look at the daily stats as this will be a more accurate representation of generation, import, export etc.

Agree with c_squared . A good place to confirm this is the energy graph card. If you maximize it and select 'grid out' and maybe 'month view', you'll hopefully see how little is being exported (unless your battery is full or calibrating). For me it doesn't show more than about 100Wh each day this month which is maybe 1 or 2 pence each day.

pjb904 When did you switch to the GO tarrif? As that is the one I'd like to get on as I am in exactly your situation.
I ask as the website says that Go is only for Electric cars - which I don't have. I'd ring them up and ask - (I've already emailed) but I can't find a contact number on the website.

anglefire
I rang them 0808 164 1088 ( I think )- general Customer Service number - Google it, the website is designed not to tell you! ( only Mon-Fri office hours ). I said we will be getting a Plug-In Hybrid soon ( honestly are when it arrives!) - but they won't check. An hour later they'd switched us. Been on Go for 2 weeks-ish.

It's a learning exercise knowing what the App or Dashboard tells you, and I wonder if in the summer, Agile might be better.
Good luck

pjb904 interesting to read this. I’ve had my PV in for almost 3 weeks and have been considering octopus go. My current deal runs out at the end of March. Did you move your gas to octopus as well? What day price are you paying on go?

pjb904 agile at the moment is rubbish. And I can’t see it getting any better for a while - perhaps when the wholesale prices are being paid by the average domestic user it might do. I have the app called OctoWatchdog and nearly all day it’s been 35p/kWh and only really drops to less than 20p for a few hours tomorrow evening.

But I’ll give them a ring tomorrow to see if I can get on go. After all I will be getting an electric car.

c_squared You can switch to Go without penalty ( I switched from another 'fixed' Octopus tariff ). We have no Gas - Go is for electric only. Day price 24.22p, 0030-0430 it's only 5p. 19.3p per day. If you have a battery it's very good. I'm charging my 8kW battery up at 5p/unit AND putting dishwasher and washing machine on delay to cash in there too.
There's a new 'Intelligent' dual rate tariff too - with 6 hours off peak, BUT they want to know what make and model of car ( I think only fully electric models were listed ) and what smart charger you use.

IF you moving to Octopus, please sign up using this link:
https://share.octopus.energy/dawn-mule-810

and we'll get £50 each!
Good luck

I’m already with octopus - so unfortunately you won’t benefit from me 🙄
But the referral is good. My mum switched to them this year and we both got the £50.

pjb904 I think Octopus have discontinued the referral sign ups.

Still listed on my account?