Fluxated

Just wanted to say that as others have mentioned I just want to use the Octopus Flux tariff pretty much as intended ie. Charge battery cheap at night and export battery at tea time. This sounds simple, but while charging 2-5 am works it’s difficult to use the battery to supply the house as needed during the day then export at teatime

While others have quite rightly mentioned using automations to achieve what I want, my point is I should not have to really as not everyone has the time or skills to do this

Octopus Flux is set up so every day is a repeat of the last. I do hope GivEnergy can give us a simple one tick box to mimic this, as it’s from a major supplier like octopus!

CARLMW change your end of charge time to 1600? No point in charging at 1500 and discharging at 2200 as there's little difference in the rates. Or do the automations. There will never be a simple box tick for everything everyone wants to do... that's why there's an API.

CARLMW I am inclined to agree, the basics should be standard, no different to central heating controls. HA as an option should be the exception, not the standard.

100% agree. Raspberry Pi + a bunch of coding/configuring is not an "everybody" solution. If Giv are installing 120 batteries a day, I'm pretty sure they're gonna need better user-friendly solutions asap.

CARLMW Don't disagree but, think the boot should be on the other foot. (IMO) It's a tough ask for Givenergy to spend time building in schedules for any and all time of use tariffs their customers may choose to have with whichever energy companies come and go. I think it is also a tough expectation on the energy supplier to be able to control their customers plant for whichever manufacturer they chose to go with.

Maybe what is needed is a standard for energy supply tariff APIs to pass information to micro generation scheme controllers? In the UK, all SMETS2 and many SMETS1 smart meter tariffs and consumption are registered with the Data Communications Company (DCC) and dynamically change when the home owner moves to a new tariff. If micro generation equipment manufacturers were to be able to pull that tariff information from DCC, then (assuming DCC doesn't change it's API), it might be an easier ask for the manufacturers to do this. Of course the answer in different countries will be different.

On the other hand, for Givenergy to provide it's customers with a portal-based daily/weekly/monthly scheduler for mode and power changes might not be a stretch too far.

Some companies like SolarEdge don't actually let you adjust the system yourself so I'm glad Givenergy are a bit more sensible..

I joined when Agile was toxic and everyone jumped to Go / Go faster. when agile became really profitable (last feb) Givenergy had a mass of people jumping back to agile to make export money last year.
They cannot be expected to change the firmware and controls on the whim of a market.

I don't actually see why people are wanting to export during the peak, Your battery is a set size to discharge to the grid but house usage will change soo much it will be stressful to see if you don't start importing during the peak or afterwards.
Last summer i set up for agile import and export the day before, and just having Flux will probably work out about the same without hammering the battery.

One option if you do what this would be to use the traditional agile integration if it is still there, it would charge the battery to get you through the evening peak if it thought you might run out.

Tim On the other hand, for Givenergy to provide it's customers with a portal-based daily/weekly/monthly scheduler for mode and power changes might not be a stretch too far.

PLEASE!!!

Tim

On the other hand, for Givenergy to provide it's customers with a portal-based daily/weekly/monthly scheduler for mode and power changes might not be a stretch too far.

I think this is what OP is getting at, not that GivEnergy needs to react and integrate with any new whim from energy companies. Having to use (advanced) tools like HA, GivTCP is really a stretch for the broad user base, where GE can invest in greater UI/UX to enable more control/automation through their portal will be huge for less technical users - which inevitably will be the majority.

They just need to build their own scheduler like the R&D app (but one that’s reliable)
There’s not that many states really, you want the system in eco (or not) or charging or discharging or paused. That’s about it.
Have it so you can pick any one of those for each half hour of each week and I’d imagine you’re good for 99% of peoples use.

There is likely a market for someone running this in the cloud for users as a subscription - all done through GE API so no need for anyone to buy a rpi and mess about.

hoggy there are a few more states than you mention, plus setting some of the limits, such as SoC target and reserve. I've already templates such a scheme. Maybe I should offer it as a service? 😁

Having access to a 2nd charge period would be a good start.

From memory last year on the demo web portal there used to be settings for this (classed as unsupported registers).

stevelewis yes but it’s not like it’s an endless list.
I’m sure many in the community would snap your hand off if you did.

I think that if advanced scheduling is available for the more technically minded it would not be at all difficult for a GE employee to create one for Flux etc. This could then be mirrored onto customer’s systems.

We are the chosen few that join forums and don’t mind getting hand on with settings etc. but why can’t my mom that’s 85 enjoy a PV system too that someone can be set up for her in a simple way?

I think GE would do better to focus on how much £££ customers are saving with their systems and how long till they are paid off rather than a multitude of settings. On washing machines you have loads of options but everyone just uses quick wash and cottons!

Just give customers Flux mode, EV mode, Cosy mode etc. and it would be simpler. If they don’t do this I think Octopus with start selling their own systems that will, working with one or other company.

Along side this I like the suggestion that for a subscription your system could be monitored and set remotely. If I have surplus solar do I put it into the car, house battery, water heater, export it etc. This is far too complex / time consuming for most people and if I they could pay £20 a month to save £50 why not?

Far more people buy pod machines for their coffee than bean to cup, because they just want a coffee not a new hobby! In the same way I think most people who can invest £10k in a system are probably too busy earning money to spend time messing around with it 🤔

All I want is setting timed discharge not to turn off eco!

BarleyRiser Absolutely!!!!