Hi, I had my batteries fitted today and I am trying to understand which mode to use.
I want the batteries to charge from my PV and the system to operate dynamically all the time apart from between 2am and 6am when we charge the cars. Is mode three the right mode? Will the solar still charge the battery if we do that?
Thanks in advance
Set to mode1, Dynamic and use Smart Charge from 0200 to 0600 to charge the battery to a nominal percentage each night.
Coops79
Answering your question on mode 3 - this is the correct mode to use if you want to prevent your battery discharging during the 0200-0600 window. If you set your discharge window under mode 3 to run from 0600 to 0200 the system will effectively act like it is in Mode 1 except during your EV charging window. As an example under that setup if you had 40% SOC at 0200 you'd still have 40% at 0600 when the battery started discharging again. In the 0200-0600 window everything would run 100% from the grid.
I will caveat that as this is a slightly unusual use of Mode 3 - the knowledge base implies it was designed with shorter discharge windows in mind - but I see no reason from the description for it to not work as intended.
On your question regarding preventing charging - as far as I know the only way to prevent excess PV going into the battery is with a mode 4 Timed Export.
The suggestion by stevelewis to use a Smart Charge would take advantage of your EV tariff (assuming you are on one) to top up your battery during the same time window. If your PV capacity exceeds the maximum output of your inverter this might lead to inverter clipping over the brighter months (so now onward) as your battery won't be able to act as a sink for excess PV if it's essentially full at sun-up. Over winter though I'd imagine using a smart charge and an EV tariff would be a real money-saver.
Pretty sure I'm correct on the above, but I'm sure someone else more knowledgeable will correct me if I'm not 😄
Thanks both. I was intending to use smart charge in the winter as described but in the summer I want to use as much PV as possible to charge the battery.
I tried the mode three 0600 to 0200 setting but struggled to get it to accept. I think it might be because it goes past midnight.
Feels like I am on the right track but just needs a bit more fettling.
Thanks both
I think as above, then, the answer is to setup smart charge between 2am and 6am
If the battery is already full due to PV, then it shouldn’t top up much overnight.
It’ll probably flip between charging and discharging a bit (a couple of percent either side of the charge target) if you set the percentage to charge to anything below 100%, but hopefully you won’t notice that amongst the costs for charging the EV!
If you do set the charge percentage to say 60%, the battery will continue to be used to supply the house and I guess the EV too until the battery has got down to 60% - where it will stay for the rest of the period.
The other option is to change the charge rate to zero (on another tab within the my inverter, settings area), but remember to turn it back up the next day. Guess that’s where automation comes in handy if you have the time and patience to look into that.
TX200 I've never understood the design intent behind forcing a discharge if the actual charge is higher than the target during a timed charge period - why would anyone want to do that? I grab the actual value in the API and use that as the minimum when setting a target. @Danlambert (GivEnergy) - your thoughts? Maybe a small improvement suggestion/bug fix?
I'm on Go Faster- cheap period from 20:30 to 01:30.
I set mine to Eco mode with a Timed Charge to 50% from 22:00 to 01:30. This ensures that the battery leaves the cheap period with sufficient charge to power the house during the night (the house consumes about 20% from 01:30 to 07:30 when, hopefully, the PV starts to generate).
If the cars are plugged in, then yes, some of the battery will discharge before the Timed Charge kicks in. That doesn't bother me in the slightest as, at this time of the year, charged with free solar.
I'd rather pay a few pence to charge the battery at night than have to rely on grid power if the following days weather is poor and the PV doesn't generate. To fill a totally flat battery at night will cost 45 pence. During the day 45 pence will only buy 3kWh.
You can overthink these systems. You also enter a world of ever diminishing returns.
I wonder if I am over thinking it to be honest. What I wanted to avoid doing was my house battery discharging into the car. I have tried the mode three settings but the app keeps changing the times. Smart charge might be the key.
Ita a zappi mk1 charger and the rumours of them fighting for excess solar got me worried. I suspect its only really a problem in certain modes that I rarely use (we always uses eco+ before the batteries were fitted)
stevelewis if it was sunnier than expected and also likely to be sunny tomorrow, discharging the battery rather than buying from the grid makes sense. Make room for more solar tomorrow.
TX200 That's how dynamic mode works. As I understand it, setting the target SoC below the actual battery level forces discharge (at full power) back to the grid to achieve the target level. Not so sensible! Mind you, this may have changed since I read about it a couple of months ago.
stevelewis must have changed, as mine discharges for the house demand, not at full power.