IOG and PredBat - stop off peak exports?

I know PredBat exports during off peak as it's cost optimised (7p Vs 15p), but I'm not keen on exporting to the grid when it doesn't need it.

What's the best option to stop this from happening?

1. Enable combine charge slots (I saw something on GitHub that suggests this might cause issues with day time charging, perhaps relating to extra IOG slots?) - would it end up charging during peak rates around a cheap slot?

2. Set PredBat to control charge only? I imagine there won't be many more saving sessions, any other implications of doing that? I assume it would leave the system in ECO mode.

3. Change one of the settings to require a greater profit from import and export cycles (e.g. require a profit of 9p or more?) - what's the best setting to change for this. Any negative impacts for doing so?

Any other options?

I set mine to be charge only from 05:30 to 19:00 then allow charge/discharge outside that. Seems to work most of the time and dumps my battery just before 23:30 most evenings if anything is left. I setup a couple of automations to change the state.

Ah right, so I could have an automation that changes the PredBat mode itself at the start of off peak (to control charge only) and another at the end of it to revert back to "control charge and discharge")

Nice.

Should be easy to sort too, I've done lots of automations. So fairly comfortable with that.

There are a few ways to do this:

• an automation to change mode, by far the most reliable
• setting a manual export override rate of 0p for the cheap period
• turn on switch.predbat_combine_charge_slots and switch.predbat_combine_export_slots means Predbat will combine these slots together into larger slots. You might still get some battery churn, but less of it
• ensure switch.predbat_calculate_export_oncharge is off to stop export intermingling within charge slots

There is also a feature request for 'export block' to configure a period of time where exporting is blocked https://github.com/springfall2008/batpred/issues/2687.
Please do find it and add your comments about how this would be useful to encourage it to be prioritised

geoffreycoan the rate override for export seems to work for the main PredBat plan.

It doesn't seem to show the overriden rate in the PredBat compare screen though.

Minor issue I guess. As long as it actually respects in reality (although true cost etc would be wrong).

(I did explicitly re run the compare process, rather than wait until tomorrow).

Our array is small enough that we don't export all that much, especially with a 5.12kWh battery and heat pump/hot water tank now, so I have just set Predbat to control charge only. Obviously the solar maximum is around the time of the off-peak midday Cosy slot but Predbat won't plan to export then and won't interfere if I tell it to export earlier. In our case though, if I run our hot water and/or dishwasher in the middle of the day then there won't be a whole lot left to export during the off-peak time so planned export probably won't be necessary.

TX200 geoffreycoan the rate override for export seems to work for the main PredBat plan.

It doesn't seem to show the overriden rate in the PredBat compare screen though.

yes I know rate overrides don't get included in the compare plan

I raised a bug on this https://github.com/springfall2008/batpred/issues/2820 last October when I noticed an Octopus free electricity plan wasn't being included in the compare planning.

Trefor's reply was that he thought this was working as planned, I disagreed, but nothing more has happened since then so if you want to chip in your thoughts to it, please do.

pwdst I guess it's not worth PredBat cycling the battery during cosy off peak?

It's about 14p is it?

On IOG, it charges up at 7p for 30 mins, then discharges at 15p, then charges again for an hour, then discharges, and so on.

Good for profit, but perhaps not good for the environment (or sustainability of the tariffs long term) and for extra battery cycles.

TX200 no Predbat doesn't generally cycle my battery with Cosy. 14.05p offpeak for me on the Cosy fixed tariff, slightly more on the Cosy variable tariff; so with losses not worth cycling if on 15p fixed outgoing.

I was on Agile Outgoing through the winter to take advantage of higher export rates in DFS (and now Axle) events, but these have been very few and far between and what exporting I did do in the events was often at around 10p export rate. My batteries aren't large enough to export in the peak and still see me through to the 10pm Cosy charge period.

Did have one occasion where Predbat cycled the battery for an hour as the export rate was high enough, but this was a one off.

I moved back to fixed outgoing earlier this week as starting to export more with increasing solar generation

Just thinking... It's worse than I first thought.

If PredBat decides to export my battery during off peak, that export will probably go into the car battery, so not gaining the 15p export anyway.

I've gone for the override method in the end, set the off peak slots to zero pence. I did actually write and test the automation to change the mode, but have left it disabled.