Alexa Enabled Skill

Good Morning All
We are currently developing the Alexa Skill for the GivEnergy Inverter. This will allow full monitoring and control over your system and include all features currently developed on the NEW GivEnergy Beta Portal. I would like to know from as many people here, what questions would you ask? would you do with this feature? would you use it to check your battery %? would you use it to set your battery charge times or simply monitor your grid import energy? It would be great to get some feedback on this as we aim to have this completed, hopefully by the end of the week. Thanks and we look forward to your feedback.

set a temperary charge cycle to "Octopus Power Hour". Customers are notifies of those 24 hours before they are avaialble.

"Charge my battery at 1 hour at 13:00"

After that has run, the standard charging programmes should restart

Are you releasing these capabilities for Google too?

for EV owners, so battery doesnt charge the car &
ALso useful when spiky loads are present i.e. doing the ironing. THat results in lots of export due to slow response time of the battery when thermostat trips off. It does that so often it results in a lot of export

"Pause my battery"
"Pause my battery for <n> hours "

or if you want the base load to still be provided by the battery by spikes avoided....
"Set the output of my battery to 800w"
"Set the output of my battery to 800W for <n> hours >

I am not sure I would use Alexa for anything GE related. I change settings based on seeing the data. I guess if the app worked on alexa show to see the data and then had voice controls I guess setting timed charge % would be nice as we move from darker to lighter days. Maybe alert us to software updates and apply them by voice? I can not really think of anything else.

Three probable uses for me:

Alexa, what’s the battery %
And more usefully:
Alexa, set the max charge to nn% - if I’ve viewed a forecast.
Alexa, stop discharge (EV plugged in for an unscheduled charge, and I don’t want the batteries to deplete)

Appreciate I’ve been rather brief on those calls - relating to Timed Charge in the latter two cases.

THALL I think the biggest use case for basic GE monitoring and control is accessibility. It would be interesting if there are members of this forum who have accessibilty needs.

Features shouldn't be just for those people though e.g. I use screen readers in the car or on a train to 'read' documents. I just open the file and listen on the car radio. Doing it right means everyone wins

Not these exact phrases but these may occasionally be used, although it's something I prob wouldn't use a lot tbh.
'What % is the battery'.
'When is the next scheduled charge' (handy for when the Solcast based Mode turns up)
'Maximum Export for 1 hour/30mins' etc (for if Agile is negative)

For me showing the Generation / Export / Battery / Grid 'card' on Echo Show devices would be ideal. Verbally on echo - Generation Battery % Demand. For me more of a monitor function.

Great to see this on Alexa (and hopefully Google too!)
Primary use cases for me would be:

"What is the battery %?"
"Charge battery to X%" - Without changing start and stop times already set
Example Response: "Battery set to charge to x% starting at hh:mm"

To aid with WAF, I can see the following additional use cases:
"What is the current solar generation?" (ie Can I turn on the washing machine?)
Example Response: "You are currently generating X.Y kW"

Call "Alexa I need a day off working from home"
Response "Disables PV & Battery then shorts out entire house supply"

Sorry, can't see a use case for me personally having neither devices but nice to see gradual progress (albeit I hope not at the expense of more pressing firmware issues for those with multi-plant installs)

Most of the above, based on Solcast a 'how many kwh are forecast to be produced by Solcast before the end of the day' would be good to have.

The ones I can think of have already been suggested, particularly the change maximum charge %.

The one thing to add, is to have somewhere for suggestions for further questions / requests after it has gone live so as it begins to be used and new ideas come up they can be fed back to your team.

Martyn We do have the option to monitor which commands get used more than others which may affect the future of the skill but I think maybe a week after launch, we will make a new post on the community forum to ask for feedback and suggestions for new commands

can you tell what peaple ask via Alexa? Inititally there will be many requests that are not supported, but if you know what s being asked .......

If someone asks for new thing, just reply saying "We will add that to the backlog", or "Thats in development"

i.e. you naturally get a self identifying backlog

I don't want Alexa to do anything - I just want to be able to set a lower discharge limit again (ie 20-30%)
Please concentrate on fixing that!!

simple question:
How is my solar doing? (returning how much generated and battery %, possibly adding the base load for the last few hours?)

Danlambert (GivEnergy) I would like to ask Alexa 'How much power are my panels producing' :-)

pjb904 just wondering, why you need to know what PV is producing?
I am guessing you will use the answer to then make a decision to do something. To make that decision you will be considering a number of other factors too. Just get Alexa to give you the answer to the question thats really on your mind.

how about:
"should I put the washing machine on now or leave until overnight"?
( implied lots of calculations to work that out based on current SOC, PV now, load now, Base Load, Solar forecast, load demand of washing machine, historical daily load profiles etc )

We have a very low tech version of that algoritm. 7 months a year = overnight, remainder = whenever

I know it's not just as straightforward as "don't focus on this, do that instead", as different devs have different skills, but I really think that at this time adding Alexa support is just fluff that can wait.

The beta portal is half finished, with basic control modes "under maintenance" - timed export and timed discharge. Comms are flaky as hell with frequent outages or multiple commits needed for mode changes to take effect.

The app and legacy portal are just hanging around confusing the hell out of everyone, compunding the issues above.

I feel like getting all hands focused on getting the beta portal into full production and switching off the old stuff would help more than this right now. Sorry to be such a killjoy.

Seye I don't need to know, just curious as a relatively new PV owner, it's something I often check and delight in :-)

pjb904
Sorry, in a very nuanced way I was agreeing with @browellm

There are very few real use cases for use voice control, especially if the core automations work. I rarely interact with my system now as it does does what it needs automatically.

My solution for the washer question is a "post-it note". It took 2 mins to develop and it works really well. Its a system with 100% availability. Its proactive as the answer is always showing. Its also very energy efficient delivery too. It was adopted by end users quickly with little/no training :-)

To me, accessibility is the main use case, but if the portal is accessible.....

Voice responses are not good in a communial evironment. Thats why SIRI and other voice assistants have never really taken off on phones. Great in private spaces like cars, not where others are present.

@browellm How about a new thread for "Development ideas"? Or a thread per idea?
We can then collectively use the like button to vote up ideas. If there are lots of thumbs up then there is a real issue / need for the feature so hopefully it will get attention?

browellm I have to agree that it is more important to get the web portal fully working correctly before starting on Alexa skills.
I would probably use Alexa for the ease of asking for information compared to picking up and logging in on my phone or tablet (I know..... it's a first world problem 😁)

Pause my system for 15 minutes.
Discharge at 50% for 1 hour.
Discharge at full power till 19h00.
Charge battery till 12h15.

For me I'd like to keep it simple.

Alexa what is my battery %?
Alexa what time will my battery start to charge?
Alexa what power is my battery discharging/charging at?

I know it's not what is being asked, however a companion app for the iPhone app that links to the Apple Watch would be really cool. If not at least prompts via text when certain events occur like full battery or peak solar production. A live readout of cash saved today, week, month etc. would be useful and really advertise the products. Great if you could input installation cost and head for "break even day"

CARLMW Ooh we do like this 😀

Danlambert (GivEnergy)
Hi Dan. Did the Alexa skill launch yet? If so, how do I find it (I've searched the Alexa app for GivEnergy)

Thanks,

Glen.

Is there a list of what requests work with Alexa?

I have found that it will tell me battery percentage and what it is generating now, but wondered if I could ask for Alexa to export for a period of time.

Thanks

GrahamRead

I Echo each of these suggestions (pun intended). I would also use these functions.

Glen Hi Glen, the skill is in beta test. If you'd like to be apart, leave a feedback with your email linked to the alexa device

I have enabled the trial Alexa skill, and although it is "fun" to ask the percentage in the battery and how much I have generated, they are not the most useful things that I would like to be able to do with voice control.

Are there any instructions that can be given e.g set a timed export?

If the ability to instruct the system to do anything, would it be possible to ask Alexa to notify me when the battery reaches a chosen percentage? The main use for this would be a day like today where our battery was at around 45% when the generation started to exceed our consumption and charge the battery. As it is a bright cloudy day we have continued to charge the battery at about 1kw (except when we boil the kettle) so we are now at 11:30am at 65% charge. It would be good if we could set the dishwasher off at sometime today, but only if the battery gets to around 85% charge so that there is enough left to last until tomorrow morning.

I would therefore like to be able to say "Alexa, ask GivEnergy to notify me when the battery is at 85% charge", and if/when it reaches this percentage let me know maybe by a text message or a notification on my echo dot(s). If this was possible I wouldn't need to keep checking to see the battery charge to see if we could set the dishwasher off.

DeveloperDavid (GivEnergy) Thanks Dave. I have done that from the feedback section in the portal. Do i get an email confirmation, or just check in on the Alexa app?

Thanks very much.

Glen I have sent you an email Glen!

Martyn We recognise that this skills main use would be for control and we have already started the process. We just wanted to release something and get a general feel for what people thought and how they use it. Notifications are something we have thought about but it comes after the control. There is a lot of work that goes into that. But we do love the idea. Thanks for the feedback Martyn!

DeveloperDavid (GivEnergy) That's great, thank you David. It's up and running now and I know what I suspected on this cloudy day in Dublin.
The skill is very handy, so thanks for that.
I see from your reply to Martyn that you are working on the control aspects and the skill is in it's early days. I look forward to new updates in time. Best of luck with the development.
Glen.

Seye Brilliant suggestions. I have a Zappi, so in theory, I should be able to prevent the car from drawing from the battery. I hate charging a battery with a battery! In reality though, it's more hands on than I would like and the Zappi seems to get confused between solar generation and battery supply sometimes - as does my Eddi. Some times at night, it has a happy face on it as though it's basking in sunshine, when in reality it's sucking energy from the battery.

Glen There are other threads that deal with Zappi/Eddi settings to prevent them from discharging your house battery. The take-home for me is to set the Zappi/Eddi to only operate when export to grid exceeds say 100W for 30 seconds.

Tim Thanks very much Tim. That's greatly appreciated.

Very interested in the Alexa skill. I'm not sure how typical I am as a user but I see lots of people using APIs to create their own automation. That's brilliant but is way beyond me.

However, I do have experience of creating Alexa routines using the simple format of 'when X happens, do Y'. The Alexa app makes this very easy.

So, for me, if Alexa has access to key data (e.g. battery reaching a certain %, export reaching a certain level), this would be really useful for me as a 'mid-ability' user. I imagine that I might well get Alexa to announce to the house that there is 'spare power' for laundry / car charging / etc. Or, conversely, to announce that we should try to hold back on power usage as reserves are getting low.

I'd certainly like 'OK Google' to be able to be able to respond to battery SOC and Generating level if that is possible.

I sometimes ask Alexa what my battery percentage is, and I get two different answers.

One is that "your battery percentage is x%", but occasionally I get "your battery is x% and is charging at y watts"

Does anyone know why this is please.

Martyn on the first is the battery idle? I'm wondering if they've added something along the lines of "if it's idle, just say the SOC, otherwise say the SOC and rate of charge/discharge"

Cdent Not always. I thought the same as you but then specifically checked when charging or discharging.

SilverArt Still hacked off that there isn't a Google Home option for Givenergy but I did discover two days ago an Alexa 'Echo Flex' at £9.99 from Amazon so ordered one, it set up easily and serves the purpose very well. Playing music is a bit thin but I don't want it for that. Available elsewhere as well, including refurbished ones by the look of it.

SilverArt is there a chance of Google home integration coming?

I would really like the alexa skill to integrate with routines, so if export is above x kwh (implying battery is full and my diverter has my water tank up to temp) turn a given smart bulb green, or announce excess energy available for use, so it prompts us to get the washing done while the sun can power it

michaelmcgoldrick I'm not going to hold my breath, just seems daft to me that it hasn't already been done, they obviously have the skills as they have the smart plugs that are Google Home enabled. I just hope that enough people 'Leave Feedback' to suggest/request it.

@DeveloperDavid (GivEnergy) Please could you tell me is there is a list of commands for the Alexa skill?

Thanks

SilverArt i dont think the smart plugs are google home enabled.. would love to be proved wrong as i just bought a few of them.. and google doesnt seem to see them.. i think you can use home assistant for integration with google which is a rabbit hole i hadnt intended on jumping into but might be unavoidable

michaelmcgoldrick That's odd, I'm sure it was listed last time I looked, but it's not there now... Strange. I'll now need to try and find where I did see it.