I have recently changed over to Intelligent Octopus Go as I now have a BEV as well as GE Solar with 19Kw of battery storage. I already charge the battery overnight during the cheep period (23:30 -05:30).
My Question is:
Is it possible to set the solar to export during the day rather than charge the batteries if they were bellow 100% so I maximise the 15p Kwh export value?
Ortwin Yes, that's what I've been doing over the summer. Though now that the heating has come on, I've switched to hoarding most of my solar.
What sort of inverter do you have. Most (all but gen-1 I think) have a pause timer (available only through remote control page on web portal, or API) - simplest way to achieve it is to use that feature to pause charging during the day. In peak summer, a disadvantage of that is that it will clip solar if power exceeds the AC limit of the inverter, which isn't ideal. But perhaps you don't need to worry about that for now.
(Some inverters do seem to have a grid-first option on one of the registers, but I've never heard of that doing anything for anyone.)
I have a Gen 2 5Kw inverter with 2x 9.5Kw batteries and 4.8Kw panels.
Ortwin If you have a reasonably up to date firmware on your gen 2 inverter then you should have battery pause available in the portal as DD mentions.
But to be honest with 4.8kW of panels you won’t be generating all that much anyway in winter, so maybe not something to particularly be concerned about. In summer, yes
Hi,
I have a similar set up and am on the same tariffs. I don’t use additional automation. It’s not exactly what you asked but… what I do, is charge over night to 100% all year round and then let the batteries do their thing in the day in ECO. (Whatever gets exported gets exported or if it’s a poor solar day, the batteries support home use or might get topped up a bit.)
Then in the evening, I discharge from ‘7pm’ till 23:30 aiming to be as close to 0% as possible at 23:30. During summer and up till now (mid October) that requires no user input or daily fiddling. *During the winter I monitor what’s left then start to adjust the start time of my “timed export” later ie from 7pm to 7:15 pm to 7:30pm etc (still ending at 23:30)... as the days get shorter. Then repeat the overnight charge again. For me, I find this is a safe way to get the maximum solar export in the day (if there is any) and to export all battery excess in the evening, without risking using any peak rate import.
All depends on your usage etc but if you find you regularly run out of battery in the evening before 23:30, and are having to use any peak rate import, you would be better off using that saved solar you would have exported at 15p than spending 29p for peak import.
You can pause the batteries etc but I find that when switching between modes there can be a period when the batteries go to idle for a few minutes and during that time you’re importing from the grid at peak - which is not what I want.
There may be better ways where you might gain a smidgen more but I find (for me) that this achieves excellent results. I’m averaging 99.8 to 99.9% off peak usage only over the last few years using this method. The batteries get exercised daily and keep warm.
Ironically any extra IOG slots can be more of a pain than a blessing for me because I’m not using any automation.
On a separate note, recently I’m finding that Kraken keeps removing some of all my extra slots before 23:30, at the last minute, which is a planning nightmare, even if I did have automation. ie I plug in early (say 6-8pm) I get 21:00-2130, 21:30-22:30. Then after 2 changes just before the slot is supposed to start those extra slots have disappeared !
It kind of dangles the carrot and then takes it away !
How you’re supposed to make that work (with automation or not) I don’t know. Now I’m just plugging in as close to 23:30 as possible to avoid that. Otherwise I’m not getting a full discharge to 0% at 23:30.
Anyone else being affected by these multiple last minute slot changes?
Pete UK then let the batteries do their thing in the day in ECO.
The slight downside of that is round-trip losses since battery has to fill before you export, whereas exporting solar directly avoids that.
You can pause the batteries etc but I find that when switching between modes there can be a period when the batteries go to idle for a few minutes and during that time you’re importing from the grid at peak
Interesting - I've not seen that.
Pete UK Ironically any extra IOG slots can be more of a pain than a blessing for me because I’m not using any automation.
On a separate note, recently I’m finding that Kraken keeps removing some of all my extra slots before 23:30, at the last minute, which is a planning nightmare, even if I did have automation. ie I plug in early (say 6-8pm) I get 21:00-2130, 21:30-22:30. Then after 2 changes just before the slot is supposed to start those extra slots have disappeared !
It kind of dangles the carrot and then takes it away !
How you’re supposed to make that work (with automation or not) I don’t know. Now I’m just plugging in as close to 23:30 as possible to avoid that. Otherwise I’m not getting a full discharge to 0% at 23:30.Anyone else being affected by these multiple last minute slot changes?
Yes, it is very annoying. I've now focussed on watching the car actually charging, rather than the planned dispatches. Too often I've scheduled to charge the battery only to have the slot change. What I probably should do is if the car has actually charged, within a planned dispatch, then continue assuming cheap rate till the end of the half-hour. But don't do anything until the car actually starts charging.
And I'm now wary of plugging in near the end of a half-hour - it might decide to immediately charge for a few mins, but then it overruns a few mins into next hh at peak rate.
Many thanks for your replies. We live in a bungalow and there is only the two of us so not massive energy users. Typically we import 2-4Kw over night with washing done overnight and the BEV plugged in once or twice a week as we don't do loads of milage. I have noticed the octopus EV charging schedule change several times overnight but just let it do it's thing assuming it charges at the cheap rate if outside the normal 23:30 to 05:30 window. I like the idea of discharging prior to the 23:30 cheap rate and will give it a go at discharge to 30 - 40% battery and see how it goes.
We do something similar. Full 100% overnight charge, export excess during the day but export from 4 to 6.30 in the summer slightly altering the export time as autumn approaches. All on eco. If you export from 7 to 11.30 aren’t you running off the grid during that time?
SimonClarke If you export from 7 to 11.30 aren’t you running off the grid during that time?
I don't think so. Certainly not on my system (HY5.0 / 5.22), unless I'm exporting all the way down to 4% (which never happens outside a calibration), at which point I imagine the battery would give up and let the grid take over the house load...
ChrisLav sorry I was thinking of charging!
I understand if I set for timed discharge between say 16:00 and 21:00 it will use the battery to fulfill the house demand. Will it then export any solar output?
Ortwin timed discharge is basically paused-discharge for the time outside your selected period. So it's eco - priorities are consumption first, then battery. Anything else will be exported.
DD
It is a huge pain/shame that there is no clear description from GivEnergy of what all these settings do.
DD The slight downside of that is round-trip losses since battery has to fill before you export, whereas exporting solar directly avoids that.
Pondering this some more... On a day with bright intervals, the battery could be up near 100 most of the day, discharging slightly when it's cloudy. On one hand, charging near 100% is probably good for cell balancing; on the other, possibly slightly more stressful than staying around 50% ?