What’s the best way to set up the import/export battery settings?
I’ve just went onto the export part of the tariff and the Eco settings always seem to be off!
When the export percentage has been reached the battery goes to idle mode and has to be manually changed, is this normal?
There seems to be a lot of manual monitoring and overriding to be done?
Cheers.
Depends on what capacity your system has. I have 19Kw batteries (2 x 9.5) and a 5Kw inverter/panels, so. I set via the app my batteries to charge between 02:00 and 05:00 to 70% when energy is cheapest on Flux and then a discharge between 17:00 and 19:00 to leave me with 50% battery capacity for the evening/overnight period. The Panels at the moment get enough energy to charge to 100% during the day.
Pakey07 the eco setting should be off during off peak, to make the system power from cheap grid rate. It's not cost effective (round trip efficiency) to take power from the battery during off peak.
During peak, yeah, it annoys me if they aren't actively exporting for part of it - that's when it really should go back into eco. Or at least stop the grid from being used (e.g. charge limit zero to export all solar gain and discharge limit non-zero).
But at the end of the day, the tariff is designed to be hands off - octopus is in control. You get a good export rate as a result and can use the grid as the battery the rest of the time (as you can borrow from the grid at the same price it'll pay you back later).
Pakey07 What’s the best way to set up the import/export battery settings?
"Best" depends on what you want to achieve.
I’ve just went onto the export part of the tariff and the Eco settings always seem to be off!
Do you mean the timed export? Yes, that's very confusing - on newer GE hardware. you want to be using timed discharge, not timed export, despite how GE describe them. Timed Export turns eco off, whereas Timed Discharge leaves it on.
When the export percentage has been reached the battery goes to idle mode and has to be manually changed, is this normal?
Yes. It's the same as timed charge - when it reaches the target percentage, the battery goes idle. For this reason, it's not a terribly useful feature. Better, if you can, to control either tle length or the power of the discharge so that it reaches the target percentage when it finishes. Perhaps use the limit only as an emergency stop in case you overshoot.
[what I would have liked would have been if they had used that register to set the power for the discharge slot, rather than the target percentage. I tend to reduce the power rate for forced exports, rather than doing it at full power, but then have to put it back afterwards.]
There seems to be a lot of manual monitoring and overriding to be done?
Yes, if you want the best result. Many of us enjoy the challenge of automating it. Home Assistant is one route. wonderwatt.com is another option - a cloud based agent that can control your inverter. I don't know if they've done much to optimise for Flux yet.
TX200 But at the end of the day, the tariff is designed to be hands off - octopus is in control.
I think you're talking Intelligent Octopus Flux here ..?
Yes I assumed it was intelligent flux due to the issue of eco being turned off all the time.
But if it's normal flux, then ignore me!
TX200 Yes I assumed it was intelligent flux due to the issue of eco being turned off
Yes, could be. My trigger is 'timed export' ;-)
DD excellent advice, cheers.
I’ve got it all set up and enjoying monitoring and adjusting it according to weather etc.
How do you know what wattage to set it to?
Pakey07 at 8pm, I run a simple script that calculates and sets a suitable discharge power that will get down to 7% or so by 10:30
I have 2x9.5 and an AC3.0 on Intelligent Flux and it is mostly hands off now.
Given half a chance, Octopus keeps exporting (from the battery) after 7pm - Not what I want. so,
Via the App I have set the 'Reserve' to 55% (the level it gets to if at 100% at 16:00).
Now Intelligent Flux seems to do what it is supposed to do.
Charges up to 100% during the day, primarily from solar with all excess solar going straight to grid.
It discharges from battery to home & grid from16:00 to 19:00 and then stops discharging.
The App 'Charge up to' settings seems to be ignored by both Octopus and the inverter as if I set 'Charge up to' to say 80%. The battery continues to charge to 100%.
In my opinion, this daytime charge upto 100% and then export 16:00 to 19:00 is hardly worth the effort as it is only worth 16pence per day allowing for nearly 20% inverter losses. ie
To export 9kWh during the peak @ £0.2959/kWh = £2.66.
With lopsses, I need to put 11.25kWh into the inverter/battery which cost me 11.25 x £0.222 = £2.50.
Export less Import = 16p
But It does mean I can export @£0.222/kWh during the day when the sun shines, which is well worth having.
Rogerbu This is the issue that stops me using IOF. The only plus I can see for giving up your system is that it's a pretty decent export rate for excess solar, and it means you can pretty much forget have to be involved with it. But for me, I still prefer to have control of the system I paid a lot of money for.
DD how’s this done?