I have been running britkat1980’s GivTCP and ozilee’s Solcast Forecast integrations on my HomeAssistant Blue for some months, but only recently been giving them serious consideration.
My thanks go to both of them.
My system has 3.3kW PV panels, a GivEnergy inverter and 8.2kW battery and a Zappi2 charger and a Fiat 500e EV. I’m on the Octopus Go tariff.
The two integrations don’t fully meet my intention to use Solcast data to determine the Target SoC needed for the coming day, prior to charging starting at 00:30.
The GivTCP integration seems to assume that a target SoC of 100% is needed from October to March, viz palm_setting_2.py line 18 ‘Disable SoC calculation in the winter months as consumption >> generation’.
I find that on sunny days even in January, if I enable GivTCP’s SmartTarget option, the battery can reach 100% before or soon after midday. My morning and early afternoon consumption is typically less than the PV generation on sunny mornings.
In my view, automated setting of Target SOC should be aiming to have the battery near 100% in the late afternoon such that no energy is taken from the grid before midnight.
Unless I’ve missed something, there’s no way of changing GivTCP’s parameters such that SmartTarget functions as I would like in the winter months.
As far as Solcast is concerned, I am fortunate that I’ve had my account for a year or two and I have a 50 API call allowance, so could leave the Solcast integration’s Auto API Calling active without penalty.
I need a Solcast prediction for the coming day to be available just before 00:30 daily to allow the Target SoC needed to be estimated using the most recent data before charging starts. Also I observe that Solcast’s prediction for the day ahead can change between 00:30 and 04:30 so getting further Solcast predictions up to about 03:30 may be useful to modify the Target SoC during the charging period.
I really have no need for further Solcast predictions until the evening, if I might wish to manually set the Target SoC, or not until just before 00:30 if I’m relying entirely on automation.
I have an interest in Solcast’s estimated actual data to compare with the GivTCP measurements of PV energy, but I only see a need to poll for that data at the end of each day.
So in short, whilst I have 50 API polls available to me, I choose to disable the Solcast integration’s Auto API Calling and have created an automation to poll at the times of interest to me. By this means, I’m using about 10 polls daily even though I have 50 available.
One trivium, the Solcast integration claims to poll between sunrise and sunset. It actually polls between a fixed 06:00 and sunset. Nothing of significance, unless at extreme latitudes.
B
#1 BirchTreeHouse