Recommended YT videos to watch to learn - GivEnergy and octopus agile?

Had my 16 420W panel system installed today (with 9.5W battery). Have just managed to inset my API and account details from Octopus into the GivEnergy app. (Had to use the web browser as clicking between to copy / paste would crash the GivEnergy app.)

So after the calibration finished annd the battery gorged itself with peak time energy at higher costs than I was paying on a fixed tariff, it now seems I'm now exporting back to the grid at less than 1/2 price than what I bought it for! Obviously early days and a lot to learn, but definitely dont want that to happen again!)

What I would like to do eventually is set up an automation so that it follows the agile prices and grabs when cheap if battery isnt full and isnt sunny (so time and weather criterias) and simply leave it to run itself. I see that Home Assistant is mentioned, but couldnt get on with it, and use Homebridge. Can't see any plugins for it, so are my options limited?

Any pointers appreciated.

I had the same experience, to the point I disabled the Giv smart features as it felt like it was simply charging on a routine and then dumping later rather than being based on my usage. Not sure it's smart enough at this point.

My suggestion is to try HA again. HA has matured significantly over the past few years and is now at the point where you do not need to be a YAML guru to successfully setup the system and integrations. Even the creation of automations is now a guided experience, if you do not feel comfortable with editing code directly. I retired my homebridge setup after taking a fresh look at HA in March.

https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/1592-show-us-your-dashboard/9 has a little more detail of how I use HA for automation of grid charge

Les37b If you go to your dashboard on a browser (portal.givenergy.cloud/dashboard) make sure the Smart Tariff card is completed - there are some automations for Agile built in to GE so have a look at them and see if they do what you need

Ok thanks for your replies. I’ve decided I will give HA another go.

Unfortunately I ran straight into a problem. The install I was using was on my Synology and doesn’t have add ons, so going the pi route.

I do have one but is a gen 3 not a 4. I do need to source a power source for it also.

So easy question. Is a pi V3 good enough or should I try to source a V4? (Yes I do know they are in short supply and prices inflated.)

I don’t want to use the 3 if it is sluggish (and don’t want to set up to find out!)

Anyone using a 3 for HA? How does it cope?

Les37b how much memory does it have?
It will probably be ok, so long as you just run HA and the any solar related integrations, etc.
I wouldn't use the pi3 for a full on home automation project.
It's relatively easy to migrate HA to another device if you outgrow the pi3.

I'll plug my own channel here I think 🙂
Have a look at this video https://youtu.be/ygD9KyciX54
It should help you get GivTCP up and running once you have Home Assistant running on your Pi.
I have another video about installing Home Assistant on an SSD attached to a Pi, but the same instructions can be used to install HA on a normal SD card if you wanted to: https://youtu.be/WAolAvektlw

Things move rapidly in the world of HA and GivTCP, so some of the screens you see may look a bit different now but all of the options and processes are the same. The end result of getting GivTCP working is that you'll have a whole bunch of 'entities' and 'devices' in Home Assistant. Devices contain Entities, and Entities track data points (power, energy, temperature, etc), just to help you out with the HA naming terminology which is confusing at first. You can add those entities to a dashboard as a 'card', or you can install other cards on your dashboard that use those entities but display the data in a different way, such as a graph or a Power Flow Card (https://youtu.be/C4Zh35E9wJE https://youtu.be/6IbdPoZb5zc). Anyway... I hope that helped and have fun!

Whenever HA is mentioned I wonder if someone (if it is possible) has created something like an ISO image where everything is configured for GE kit apart from obviously an ip address for the end user.
I assume this is too simplistic.
SO many times I have debated learning HA but then occasional posts of things stopping working for some reason has put me off.
I have watched some of your videos which are enticing but the whole HA field seems full of acronyms and an expected level of computer litteracy.

SpeakToTheGeek highly recommend, i followed your videos to get my HA up and running. I wont pretend that i understand everything but its working and now have powerflow plus card, solcast solar forecast, Myenergi and Givenergy integrations together on one screen, really useful.

positor1 I'm pretty much with you on this! I regard myself as probably much more of a Linux user than anything else, having used Ubuntu for what feels like forever, and there's very little that gets in the way of doing something with this OS.
Home Assistant is like learning a whole new language related to computing, and it takes a LOT of getting used to. Having said that I reached a point of sufficient understanding to start to write automations without learning YAML. For example, at battery 85% check if it's daylight and then switch Eddi to 'Normal' is relatively easily done.
I'd really like to see other automations for HAss to help learning and figure out what other people are doing.
My top takeaway is (rather like Linux) use some decent hardware and set up a backup regime in week 1.
When I get updated hardware and everything working again I'll be happy to post my automations for others to see - and probably many will laugh at my noddy approaches!

SpeakToTheGeek it was your channel that got me into solar. Great videos, keep the content coming. 😀

RHardie that is great to hear. Even if you are the only person I've convinced then it was worthwhile!