Can anyone explain what this inverter setting does? I can't seem to find anything documenting it.
Options are:
Load First
Battery First
Grid First
I've tried each the three settings out for a little while (while exporting), and couldn't see any noticeable difference in behaviour of the system. At the time there was c. 2kW of solar generation.
Bump.
Also, I see from the EV charger FAQ that people will be able to choose somehow whether to use the battery for charging the car or not. I wonder if that is linked to this setting?
@TheDragon (GivEnergy) Perhaps you could help clear this one up?
I'd like to know the answer to that to.
It might be useful to have a web page where all of the settings in the Remote Control section is explained.
andyn you will be able to enable the logic for surplus PV to car, home or both.
Other logic options are there too.
I'm not in anyway involved in portal logic.
But testing the EVC itself. It does everything we need it to
Bumping this again - I'd still really like to know how this setting is intended to work - anyone?
Bumping again. Seems weird that noone can explain what this setting does/is for?
An entirely plausible expectation might be:
Load first = usual behaviour - first generate enough AC to cover load, then send to the battery, and anything leftover goes to AC for export
Battery first = ignore load and concentrate on battery. Only generate AC for power the battery cannot accept.
Grid first = generate AC until max power is reached, and send the rest to battery.
It's easy to imagine scenarios where each behaviour is desirable. Unfortunately, like you, trying them on my gen-3-hybrid system seemed to have no effect. Maybe it only works with an EV charger. ("Load" meaning car, perhaps.)
DD Yes indeed, that is the sort of thing I was imagining (and it sounds useful) though it would be nice not to have to speculate :-)
Why is this register not active in code? Is there anything being said from Givenergy on the subject. This is a fairly basic and very useful feature to have. Maybe resting on their laurels with recent success they've had.
It's baffling. No idea whether it is active in code or not, just would like to know what it does, or would do!
@TheDragon (GivEnergy)'s comment suggests it is used somehow by the car charger, but that's the only (cryptic from my pov, unless someone can further explain it?) clue we have so far.
To be fair there's always things that make it to the list but don't make it off the drawing board.
Another example is the solar diverter - that's been in the FW for years but you can't buy one:
https://github.com/britkat1980/giv_tcp/blob/main/givenergy_modbus/model/register.py#L719
True, though even an answer of "it's something we're working on/we tried out/won't bring to market/doesn't currently work/works like this but try at your own risk" still eludes us :-)
I know it may only sate my curiosity, but that would be a good thing!
Anyone heard progress on @andyn original question?
For my set up it is desirable to sell solar straight to the grid at over double the price I filled the battery the previous night. For me using solar is actually 'expensive', perverse as some may find that.
JayC68 It is bizarre to me that noone is willing to tell us what this is supposed to do. It feels as though whatever it is, it doesn't work yet, but why the secrecy, which at this point feels deliberate? 🤷♂️
JayC68 I've never got this feature to do anything. Simplest way to bypass battery and export directly to grid is to use the pause timer to pause charging. Unfortunately, this doesn't fall back to battery when generation exceeds max AC generation, so you get clipping.
Simply turning off eco does give grid-first, battery-second behaviour, but unfortunately also turns off discharge during solar dips.
(Ideal would be to separate these behaviours of the eco flag, so you could configure them independently.)
You have to remember that the firmware is done in China for worldwide markets and as such it may not be something for the UK (or atleast they've not been told what it is supposed to do - no answer is slightly better than a "we dont know"), may not be fully implemented full stop yet and is more a place holder function (Which DD not being able to get it to do anything would suggest), or may even have been for non Givenergy branded inverters. You can for instance, get them to make you one with your own name on it, should you have deep enough pockets: https://x.alibaba.com/BE7g?ck=pdp
hoggy I think the idea that they do not know what it is for is for the birds. But if they really don't know they should just say so and explain why. Not saying anything just makes them look either rude or incompetent. There's no need to make excuses for them, I'd just like to know what this is for. Anything between no answer and the answer is just guesswork, something I'm perfectly capable of myself, and unfortunately just serves to confuse the issue.
andyn go and ask them directly via support channels then.
hoggy Their suppprt channels, my installer, don't know. Yet we know there is at least one more senior employee here who participates in these forums, so they are I'm sure aware the question has been asked, so if they wanted to, they would answer it. Clearly they don't want to answer this, which makes them look bad. This is also a better place to gather collective knowledge that may or may not exist.
How about you patronise someone else, somewhere else, rather than clog up this thread with guesswork that doesn't get us anywhere nearer an answer.
andyn True, though even an answer of "it's something we're working on/we tried out/won't bring to market/doesn't currently work/works like this but try at your own risk" still eludes us :-)
I know it may only sate my curiosity, but that would be a good thing!
I did once ask support about it, but got the rather unhelpful response that "those functions are available on your inverter".
https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/3960-does-grid-first-work-on-latest-gen-3-hybrid-firmware/4
I also have been wondering if the choice between load, grid and battery was affecting our export. Although we have been using panels for 4 months now I still feel totally confused. I have set system to charge between 2am to 4am up to 56% but it is not doing it. Hence I wondered if options for load etc were causing problems.
Also not exporting to set percentage between 4pm and 6pm. I am getting to the stage where I will just have to reset it again and just use eco mode. We're on Octopusn Flux.
Lynn Also not exporting to set percentage between 4pm and 6pm.
Does that mean it's not exporting enough, or not stopping at the set percentage?
Is it definitely timed export you're asking for, not timed discharge (which is now something else). Also, the standard interface actually configured the overall battery reserve, not the discharge target - need to go into the remote control part of the portal to access the correct settings (or use the API).
Lynn not exporting to set percentage between 4pm and 6pm.
On Octopus Flux, you don't really want to do this. When the percentage is reached , you would start importing at peak rates. See explanation here:
We are on Flux and have set limits as shown thinking they would be best. I have not used any other app described in various posts as really not at all confident. I was under the impression that we could just set it and leave it!
I have, hopefully, uploaded screenshots of settings.
Lynn there's a couple more that need to be set: something like "enable AC charge" and "enable DC discharge". I think they're up near the top of the page.
One other thing: there seems to be two different settings that control the AC charge upper limit. The one you've shown, and there's another down in the group of 10 charge slots. ISTR that the one the app sets is not the one the inverter actually uses, but I can't remember which one's which. Best set them both the same (or slightly different so you'll then know which one is actually being used).
The pause timer shouldn't be needed - the default outside the configured time is not-paused anyway.
Thank you for your reply.
I have now put the 2 charge upper limits the same. Not sure if this is what you meant.
Lynn I have now put the 2 charge upper limits the same. Not sure if this is what you meant.
Yes. I'd probably make them different just to find out which one the inverter's actually using, but same is obviously simpler.
I actually run a script using the API which copies one to the other. That way, if I've used the app to update one of them, that setting gets copied to the other one.
Thank you. It will be interesting to see what happens tonight!
Don't really know why I'm bothering with this but seeing as I scrolled past the "answer" today:
hoggy Kinda makes sense on an inverter - not sure about an AIO AC-coupled battery though!
hoggy It's something I've wanted for a while - when I asked support why it didn't seem to be anything, they told me it was all working as expected. And post #3 above suggests it was working in some manner.
During the summer, I usually want solar to get exported directly, rather than filling the battery (from where I'd just export it later). But if solar exceeds the AC limit of the inverter, I want the excess to go to the battery.
Turning eco off does achieve that, but obviously is no use when the solar drops, since battery won't discharge to make up any shortfall. So I have a script which toggles between (eco=on, pause=pause-charge) and (eco=off, pause=none) depending on solar intensity.
can't immedialtely think of a use-case for battery-first, except perhaps in the run-up to a peak-rate period when you'd rather run from grid and preserve all solar for the peak rate. But even then, ac-charging would seem a surer bet.