Multiple Battery Charge Slots

I am scratching my head a bit with Timed Battery Charge Slots. I have a GIV-HY3.6 inverter and I want to set two timed charge slots but in 'Remote Control' on the Portal there is only one timed charge slot and two discharge slots available. In the past I have started the 2nd charge using the App but the last time I did that a couple of weeks ago it screwed up all of the Portal inverter charge/discharge settings and it wasn't until the following morning, when my battery was at 4%, that I discovered single Timed Charge slot had been set to 00:00hrs to 00:00hrs so no charge during the Octopus Flux low cost period. The purpose of the 2nd charge period is to ensure that the battery has charge before the Flux Peak cost period.

Is the single Timed Charge slot a function of this inverter model or am I missing something?

Is the cancellation of the Portal settings when using the remote control on the App anything to do with the software version (D0.450-A0.451) or firmware (3017)?

thanks

Dave

Davegreen1 Is the single Timed Charge slot a function of this inverter model or am I missing something?

Probably the former.

Is the cancellation of the Portal settings when using the remote control on the App anything to do with the software version (D0.450-A0.451) or firmware (3017)?

No, probably just a glitch.

See also https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/5221-app-for-setting-multiple-charge-periods

Davegreen1 If you are running firmware 450-451 then you have a 1st Generation hybrid inverter (same as me), which only has 1 charge slot and 2 discharge slots. There isn’t enough memory in the inverter for more slots.

Personally if the inverter was limited with memory I would have designed it with 2 charge and 1 discharge slots, but it is what it is. If you want more than one charge slot you’ll need to use a third party product, the simplest of which is Rubic Cube’s Android app which for £10 one off fee will do what you want.

Other alternatives for more powerful planning and charging options include My Energy Optimiser, Wonder Watt, Predbat within Home Assistant or Octopus R&D. Search for any of these on this forum for more details

Thanks folks. I took a look at the link that you pointed me at DD and I note your Technophile/phobe question. Whilst very definitely on side with (most) modern tech stuff I am rapidly approaching 80yrs young so core knowledge is somewhat patchy. I used the App to charge the battery this afternoon and the charge settings on the portal did revert to 00:00 again. I'll follow up on the options over time and until I've got my head around things I'll use the App and then reset the portal.

Thanks again

Dave

Davegreen1 I used the App to charge the battery this afternoon and the charge settings on the portal did revert to 00:00 again.

Ah... was that using the quick-play button on the app? I don't use that, but I think it has to configure the charging timer to do it - no way to do it otherwise. Does it just configure charging for the full 24 hours ? I thought it was supposed to be able to restore the previous settings afterwards, but I was never quite sure how that would be implemented.

Yep, I have used that Charge option on the App in previous years for pre Flux Peak charging during the low solar season. Select to Charge at 15.00 then select 'Resume' at 16.00. According to the App definitions that should "Restore the battery to normal operation" which, in the past, has been the case. This year it is performing differently, as described - post Firmware update maybe? After using the App I now have to go into the Inverter Settings and reconfigure Timed Charge settings and Battery Options/Operating Range settings, which have all been zeroed.

If you want to use my Android App, I would recommend using the scheduler to adjust only the charge end time. i.e.

At 15:00 if battery below 40% set charge end time to 16:00
At 16:00 if battery above 0% set charge end time to 05:00

In theory setting the charge start time (to 15:00) would produce the same result, but if your inverter was offline at 16:00 and the reset command failed you risk the battery charging through the peak period!! Setting the end time so the the charge period temporarily becomes 02:00-16:00 is safer.

Rather than charge the battery and then discharge during the peak period with the associated losses I just pause the discharge when the battery still has enough to get through the peak and un-pause the discharge at 15:59. The house just runs from the grid at the middle price band instead of charging the battery at the same price and then discharging it. All the charge going into the battery was at the cheap rate.

Thanks everyone. I really don't want to use 3rd party software to manage the situation, that's a personal choice solely to minimise the complexity of the management platform (refer you back to my patchy core knowledge) but thanks for the brief anyway Rubikcube. I do like your advice nophead because that can be tailored to conditions, like right now when the OAT is very low my heat pump is working quite hard, especially during the low price period when I'm heating water and charging the battery. With the heating circuit active from 06.30 the battery is fairly well discharged by 08.00. However, when conditions a more benign it will serve well to pause the battery and discharge at Peak.

The 'glich' with the charge settings in the portal, well, mea culpa, I was pressing the Pause rather than the Resume button on the App. Even in my dotage you would think that I would be able to recognise the common symbology!!! Having discovered my mistake and applying the correct function all is well.

I don't think it ever makes sense to charge the battery at the medium rate and then use it rather than just using the grid at the medium rate. So if I were you I would pause the battery earlier, perhaps just after 5AM. As long as it is fully discharged after 4PM before the next 2AM you have used all the cheap charge and used the grid medium rate for the rest. I think that is the best you can do and it is kinder to the battery as well.

Davegreen1 I have the Android App and, like you, do not wish to use 3rd party software. But the App is so useful, I have bought the upgrade in the hope the Rubikcube will maintain it as long as I need it.
Thanks again, Rubicube, it is an excellent aid to looking after solar, batteries and heat pump!

I did use the GivEnergy app but it can be a bit unstable and cause problems.
So I have switched to the work done by Rubikcube and it's more stable and for £10 gives you a direct route to the batteries bypassing GivEnergy and their servers.
If their servers go down you can still schedule and manage the batteries without any recourse to GivEnergy.
So IMO it's worth it just for that reason...
YMMV

I tried out the Octopus R&D app, and it seems fairly straight forward. However, the charging slot timing is problematic in as much as you cant charge around the midnight period (cosy octopus has a 2200 to 0000 slot) as it only lets you charge from/to times of the same day, and 0000 is considered the following day. If you set it to 2300 then the latest you can set it to is 2330, so you lose 1/2 and hour charge time!!
The only way around this that i can see (but haven't tried it yet) is to set it to charge based on rates so it picks up the low rate hours in the day, and set the GivEnergy inverter to charge 2000 to 0000 as the Octopus R&D doesn't appear to overwrite the GE charge time. (unless anyone else knows better?)

The Rubikcube App does sound interesting - where can I find it? I haven't experienced any problem with the GiveEnergy App, apart from those that are self inflicted. There is a problem at the moment with it not connecting to the network 'Home' mode reliably but it remains connected and fully functional in 'Away'.

I entirely agree with you nophead, having a battery fully charged, with the lowest possible energy cost, at 16.00 is ideal. However, as far as I am aware, the only way for me to enable 'battery pause' is manually on the App and at 05.00 I'm not very alert - inert might be a better description - and by the time I am back from the land of nod the battery is almost fully discharged with the current ambient conditions (no higher than 1 deg C today).

Davegreen1 You can find it on the app store (I think it is on the Apple store as well) - Monitor for GivEnergy Inverter. Search for inverer monitor and you should see it

Davegreen1 Have you looked at the Cosy tariff with Octopus? I noted you had a heat pump, and the 3 cheap periods between 4-7am, 1-4pm and 10pm to midnight, are cheaper than Flux and you get 8 hours of cheapness as opposed to 3 hours! 😁

pgbish An update to the Octopus R&D midnight charging slot issue is that you can change the time slot 2200 to 0000 by creating a slot with 2200 to 2330 and then after saving it, drag the box in the calendar to 0000.