Settings kept changing on battery to weird incorrect settings

So mid Jan 2025 my system stopped serving my house from the battery and stopped charging the battery. My solution has been installed since May 24. I kept changing the settings back but they kept changing back and the solution would stop working as intended. Which would be to serve house with solar and either rest from battery or charge the battery until full then export.

These changes seemed to keep coming in every 5 minutes or so and become extremely frustrating. I checked the logs of the battery and I saw the changes were coming from "You" "API - Inverter settings". When I changed in the App the changes would come from "App - Inverter settings - xxxx" and when I changed from the portal they would come in from "Portal - Remote control". I thought the app might be doing something screwy so I reinstalled that. I also firmware updated my inverter and my battery and ran a battery calibration.

This morning I remembered I was on smart tariff with Octopus. So I deleted that from my giv energy app and also deleted it from the Octopus app in their devices and boom, settings stopped changing by themselves. It kept turning eco mode off and ac charge to disable. But it was also changing my exporting and charge windows. Clearly they have some bugs or issues in the system. Changes started around 22nd Jan 25.

shalesey This morning I remembered I was on smart tariff with Octopus.

It's not Intelligent Octopus Flux, is it ?

DD Yeah intelligent flux. But definitely not working as intended.

shalesey ntelligent flux. But definitely not working as intended.

Which would be to serve house with solar and either rest from battery or charge the battery until full then export.

That's not really the optimal way to use the battery when on IOF. Better to export the solar, and then use the grid. Your battery is lossy, whereas the grid acts as a perfect (lossless, infinite-capacity) virtual battery.

They're probably equally frustrated that you keep attempting to change the settings when they are trying to use your battery. They intentionally keep the eco flag off, and change the charge and discharge windows to suit their needs.

The terms of IOF are that, in exchange for favourable rates, you give them full control over the battery. The fact that your house is running from grid rather than battery isn't anything to be be concerned about - it costs you no more, and you don't have to worry about round-trip losses to/from battery.

Unless they are routinely importing from the grid during the peak period, rather than using the battery. Then you would have cause for concern, since that is costing you money.

When I looked into this further it looks like I applied for intelligent flux but they haven't switched it. So they must have applied the settings to my battery and not applied the tariff. So i'm paying flux prices and they were changing my settings as if it was intelligent flux. So it was costing me way more.

shalesey Sounds like you need to get this sorted out with Octopus so they charge you the correct rates for when they were controlling your battery.

And then decide whether you want to remain on Intelligent Octopus Flux or go onto ordinary Flux. OIF is better in the summer when you are generating plenty from your solar panels as the export rate is better than ordinary Flux; less good in the winter. As DD says you hand control of your battery over to Octopus and they manage it for you; importing directly from the grid rather than using your battery is actually cheaper for you as you don’t incur the AC to DC and DC to AC conversion losses that the battery incurs

geoffreycoan That's super interesting. I don't know a whole lot about solar and I am interested to know more. How much loss are we talking to and from the battery? Isn't using my battery like Intelligent flux wants to do, bad for my battery life?

I also have another issue that either of you might know something about. I have a Sauna and it draws around 9Kw. When I turn it on, it only ever pulls 3.7Kw from the battery. I've changed settings in the app and on the cloud portal and I can't get it to increase above that. Apparently I have a G99 approved solution. But even if they are restricting me to ₃.7Kw for exporting. That shouldn't prevent me from serving 6kw internally right?

shalesey That's super interesting. I don't know a whole lot about solar and I am interested to know more. How much loss are we talking to and from the battery? Isn't using my battery like Intelligent flux wants to do, bad for my battery life?

Round trip losses from charging and discharging the battery are roughly 15-20%, so most people tend to use 20% as its easy to remember.

On intelligent Flux you get paid the same rate for your import and your export, so holding the battery level, using the grid for your day-time need and exporting any excess solar is the most efficient and cost beneficial to you.
No it won’t do your battery any harm, the batteries are designed to do thousands of charge/discharge cycles and to hold charge when not in use.

I also have another issue that either of you might know something about. I have a Sauna and it draws around 9Kw. When I turn it on, it only ever pulls 3.7Kw from the battery. I've changed settings in the app and on the cloud portal and I can't get it to increase above that. Apparently I have a G99 approved solution. But even if they are restricting me to 3.7Kw for exporting. That shouldn't prevent me from serving 6kw internally right?

There are two separate things here, your G99 limit for exporting, and what your inverter can deliver to your home to meet home demand (e.g. your Sauna, cooking, boiling the kettle, lights, etc).

You don’t mention what type of inverter you have, but if you have a generation 2 or 3 hybrid inverter then the most they can discharge at is 3.6kWh (the generation 1 hybrid’s its 2.6kWh). The All-in-one can discharge at 6kWh.

If you are getting 3.7kW from the battery it sounds very much like you have a hybrid inverter, and I’m afraid that’s the most you can get in or out of the battery, the rest will have to come from grid import.
You can add a second inverter and batteries to increase the throughput but that comes with its own complications.

geoffreycoan Good explanation but worth pointing out that efficiency figures for batteries are just that - for the battery on its own.

If you put a dc charge into a GE battery and then take a dc discharge out then it'll be 95%+ efficient. That's the figures on brochures etc.

However the part of the inverter which converts dc to ac (and vice versa) isn't 95% efficient. More like 85-90%. Reasons are many, one of which is having to boost the 50Vdc up to 230Vac - that's also why the AIO is more efficient as its a 320Vdc battery.

I know you know this but its not immediately obvious to most people.

Looks like is an AIO with a GivGateway. Would it be the gateway causing the issue?