Thinking of a 2nd AIO

I'm considering adding a 2nd AIO to my setup.

I'd like to know what does/doesn't work in the App (display and control) and/or portal once you have a dual AIO setup.

Rob

EV charger most cloud features including do not drain batteries don't work, forget Hybrid / Solar charging none of that works either. Biggest portal commands that do not work are the Inverter Charge Power / Discharge Power Watts commands. Wonder Watt uses those, so if you have adjusted your Inverter charge and discharge power values in Wonder Watt > Advanced then any schedules actioned by WW will be sending revised Inverter charge / discharge values to the portal, but they will not work as they are not supported by dual AIO's.

The App Charge Power / Discharge Power commands don't work either for the same reasons as stated above.

There are better things ways to spend another £6k or so installed

GE promised me that they would update the EV software to work with dual AIO's but despite me chasing them every other day or so for 2 months, no date has been forthcoming. I fully expect to have to section 75 the EV charger to get any action. not that far away from that now, i am running out of patience.

I don’t have an EV.
Just charge battery overnight on cheap rate with solar top-up during the day to run house from solar/battery through the day. FIT deemed export so no point in exporting.

Basically I just leave it in Eco but with Timed Charge overnight when required.

Yeah £6k is what I have been quoted … mulling it over

I got my AIO2 in Feb, and also paid about £6k. I'm a Predbat user, so don't control the system directly.

Some quick impressions:

• the Gateway does a good job of balancing between the two batteries - I almost never see a significant gap in SoC between them
• the iOS app doesn't do local reporting (only cloud) still - a bit of a pain
• the portal/reporting doesn't work still
• I like having lots of backup for power outages
• I suspect even in the Winter it will be rare for me to use peak electricity (I am an IOG user)
• as mentioned, there are probably better ways of investing the money

Not directly addressing your questions, but hopefully some colour to inform your decision

PianSom appreciate the input

Not using peak power and having power to cover outages are my main thoughts on advantages of adding a 2nd unit

Also consider - could you get away with banking virtual battery energy on something like Intelligent Flux through the summer and the calling it back down again through winter (in monetary format)

May enable you to spend £6k on something more interesting.

hoggy something like Intelligent Flux through the summer

Genuine question - is Intelligent Flux compatible with his Feed In Tariff?

PianSom you'd have to give up the export part of FIT, can't have seg (including flux/IOF) without doing that.

They can keep the generation part of the FIT.

Yes I gave up my deemed export and took up a fixed export tariff of 15p with Octopus. I am on GO and export between 20 to 30kWH per day in the summer months. In addition you could increase that daily by another 12 to 20kWh by quick flipping during the nightly Go period. Though your DNO would have to allow the 12kWH inbound and 9.kWh outbound rates that I have to get things done in the limited Go period. To achieve this I would be importing 58kWH per day @ 08.5p = 4.93 + 0.55p standing charge gives a total cost per day of £5.48 and at best I would earn 50kWH @ 15p = £7.50. This is a best case scenario so you do the maths is it worth it for you. I think I would get my potential installer to ask the DNO a few questions before I spent any money.

There is one other thing of importance here is that you constantly have to use the full range of your AIO's or you will have SOC issues. By not fully exercising the full range and leaving mine stuck permanently close to 100% cost me 33% on a full discharge with extremely erratic SOC tracking between my AIO's. On one discharge from 100 to 4% one AIO was at 4% whilst the other was still at 55% with a very poor total discharge rate of 19.5kWH. Should be more like 26kWh. I now empty and refill on a daily basis and my SOC issues have disappeared.

If you've got more roof space, more solar might be the lower cost option. Obviously you could export more in the summer at least at either end of the day, even if you got a little clipping, and make more money which would help offset input in the winter. Also during winter, you'd also be grabbing more of the available light to keep your existing battery topped up, and draw less from the grid, and they're guaranteed 25-30 years!
Just a thought!