GMT v BST

I am a new user, so please excuse any daft questions (and this one may be daft).

When the system was installed a couple of weeks ago, I'm pretty sure that the commissioning software used by the installer asked a question about time zones and had an option about whether to enable BST changes. I went for GMT and no BST implementation as my cheap night energy tariff runs on GMT all year and I would not have to bother remembering to change the battery charge period twice a year. I was happy that the inverter would think the time was 1hr later than local time in the summer. The usage graphs for the first few days were indeed showing the current time as an hour behind the local time and everything seemed good.

However, checking again today the system seems to have changed by itself to BST - the graphs now show the current time as the local time. A timed battery charge last night started an hour earlier than I wanted - using the daytime tariff for that hour which is a tad annoying. As far as I am aware, the only setting I have changed in the past couple of weeks is the 'charge to %'.

I can't see any options in the app or web portal for implementing or disabling BST.

I don't really mind BST being implemented provided I know what is going on and can put the reminder to change the charge times in my diary.

Does anybody know what I have done wrong?

Gliderman Does anybody know what I have done wrong?

Nothing!

You can set the timezone for your account in Account Settings - Timezone. I think this is supposed to be the timezone of the inverter location, rather than your preference for displays. Mine is set to GMT but the portal displays BST. I recall another thread about this issue when the clocks went forward in March. I think that wherever the inverters are located in the world, the data sent to/stored by Givenergy is always in UTC. Conversion of UTC to local time would be done by the portal.

It would be useful if the timed charge/discharge options had an explicit time qualification (eg GMT/BST), so that you know what you are programming it to do. Some electricity suppliers move their off-peak slots with the timeshift while others such as EDF do not; theirs is always GMT whatever the time of year.

Thanks Tim
Looks like I'm going to be using BST from now on then ( at least until the clocks go back when I'll have to change my charge times). It's very odd that the system was working in and displaying GMT for the first few days of operation. We did have a brief power cut a few days ago, so I'm wondering if that might have caused the change to BST. I have the EDF tariff as you have probably guessed.

Gliderman

You could just untick the BST in account settings. then logoff and back on the Portal, go to Inverter remote control and send time. You inverter should then remain in zulu time (GMT) for non forces

TheDragon (GivEnergy) untick the BST in account settings

I thought I'd seen a setting for BST but when I went into the portal Account Settings, I couldn't see anything other than timezone. Do I have a different view of account settings?

I could not find a setting for BST either - although I'm pretty sure there was one in the commissioning process. Hey ho - no matter, as long as I understand what the system is doing. Thanks.

Gliderman

You are right. Its gone. Used to be a tick for Daylight Saving

So now we are coming up to clock change time, does anyone know if adjustments need to be made anywhere for the clock changes so battery charge times coincide with cheaper rates?

pgbish Here is a reply I had from Adam in February:
On any time zone change we automatically push the changes to all systems, however if it was installed after, and then did not get the time and date sync we ran it could of been running later times, this is something your installers setup on install. It shouldnt be anything to worry about going forwards, as we automatically run the changes on any time zone change

I’m thinking of changing my timed charge that night, just in case!!

I guess knock an hour off the end of the timed charge period, just in case.

Think I’ve got that the right way around? If it accidentally stays in BST it’ll be starting and finishing later than it should?

Although to be fair if it’s already at 100% charge, before the final hour of the timed charge period, it probably won’t cost too much in grid use that time of night.

TX200 Take care to check your supply contract. Some suppliers (EDF!) have their off-peak as 00:00-05:00 GMT and that's the same all year round, so 01:00-06:00 in summer. Others, keep the slot start and finish times in sync with the clock shifting seasonally.

Givenergy systems display whatever the local timezone is (eg GMT or BST). If the log shows an event at 10am, it's 10am for the current season (GMT/BST).

To complicate matters more, most systems (including Givenergy's I believe) all work on UTC (which coincides with GMT), logging data to databases as UTC or Zulu timestamps. When you pull the data back, you computer sees UTC and adjusts it by the timezone you are currently in (GMT or BST or whatever else). The use of UTC by systems means that there is no doubt about exactly when something happened, or which event occurred first etc.

All of the home automation I use (and especially my Influx time series database) works with UTC but my dashboards are all configured to display times as local timezone.

I just had an incomplete update from Octopus, my smart meter stays on GMT all year The follow up question to Octopus has been to clarify if the times they gave me for cheap rate are GMT times (which I assume they are) or current BST times.
Will post an update when i have an answer.
So far the info i have says GivEnergy move time to correspond to the current time (auto adjust from/to BST/GMT) and supplier doesn't, it stays as GMT. I am still trying to confirm my car charger time

pgbish The meter will stay in UTC (GMT) all the time but your tariff may or may not change with the seasons. Our EDF tariff is set 00:00 to 05:00GMT off-peak all year, so in the summer, our off peak is 01:00-06:00BST. The supplier isn't changing the time of use, it us who are changing to summer time.

Looking at the Givenergy API, the output from a Web "Get Latest System Data" is timestamped as Zulu/UTC, suggesting to me that the inverter also works in UTC but displays time as local timezone (as specified in your account settings)

At this time, i have confirmation that the smart meter stays at GMT and also that my cheap rates stays at GMT which means an hour shift in actual day time of an hour.
What i dont know yet is if the time changes on my car charger settings.
Currently my GivEnergy online account is showing BST

I'm pretty sure Octopus Go, Go Faster etc is local time, so 0030 BST in the summer and 0030 GMT in the winter. Not sure re agile, but would assume the same.

TX200 I am on economy 7, and what Octopus is telling me is different in that the time of the cheap periods always stay at GMT. I quote...
"I have checked with a member of the smart metering team who have confirmed that your smart meter timings of 00:30 - 07:30 will be set for GMT so at the moment as we are in BST, they will be an hour out at the moment"

Tim so I’m with EDF too can you clarify what my settings should be?

Currently I have the car (phev) choosing the charging period, currently set 01:00 - 06:00

My account settings are set to GMT (is this different to the inverter settings?) and so I charge my battery from 00:00 - 05:00

So the above should fall in with the cheap tariff, the car time to be changed when the clocks go back.

Or is my inverter running on BST by default, so i need to correct my battery charging times?

shawry The PHEV is correct until the clocks change at the end of the month.

Your account settings are correct but GMT isn't the current time setting, it's your timezone, so the inverters can be told at what time and on what day the clocks change. In retrospect, maybe it would have been more helpful to describe the timezone as Europe/London.

Your inverter is running on UTC, but you can't see that (unless you are using Givtcp) as it is using your account settings timezone to display the current time, corrected for your timezone and the current date/time (ie BST atm). Therefore, your EDF off-peak battery charging which doesn't change with the seasons, should be done 00:00-05:00 UTC which is currently 01:00-06:00 BST but will change to 00:00-05:00 GMT at the end of October. Maybe, it would be helpful if the inverter qualified the displayed time with the code for the timezone being used (ie BST or GMT).

The only way I can get this sorted in my head is to use UTC for all my home automation but display times in my dashboards as local timezone (taken from the computer). Using Node-RED, when you click on a timestamp it switches between hexadecimal, decimal and then UTC (AKA Zulu) and local time (eg 0x183aa978400, 1665014400000, 2022-10-06T00:00:00.000Z, 06/10/2022, 01:00:00 [UTC+1] for midnight yesterday).

I finally believe i have got to the bottom of my time uncertainty for Economy 7.
By double checking the meter readings (I also found the tariff rate on the in house smart display) i confirmed that my current cheap hours currently (BST) are 01.30 to 08.30 and in winter (GMT) they are 00.30 until 07.30.
This is different from other smart tariffs such as Octopus go, as these follow same hour irrelevant of GMT or BST.
I cant comment on other energy supplies Econ7 tariffs, but worth checking.

If anyone is still wondering about GMT vs BST as we approach the clocks going back, don't do as I did and fiddle with your settings either on the portal or App prior to the change. Best to have confidence that GE will sort it out and check again on Monday or Tuesday. Only if there then seems to be a problem should you investigate further.
I managed to upset my GO timings for a couple of weeks before I realised...

Very helpful info from pgbish as I am wrestling with a new smart (?) meter from EDF on an E7 tariff and my bills seem to have risen since installation. I had understood that the the E7 period was 10:30 to 00:30 then 02:30 to 7:30 (as my bill says), but now I'm not so sure. I was charging my 10.4 kWh battery at 02:30 to 7:30 every night. Now I see that the meter is stuck on GMT so that would be 01:30 (until tomorrow anyway), so I cannot now be sure if that was an hour at day-rate. I have set the smart meter page on my dashboard to show the 2 rates ( probably incorrectly as I set them on BST times and for the 2 periods as above).
If I could get through to EDF I would check the low-rate period, but if pgbish is confident, I will use those timings and assume that if I reset them tomorrow (when GMT is back) they will be correct. Useful discussion anyway.
Thanks
PeterB

Ge have posted an article about the time change in the "known issues" tab on the portal. Basically, it should be automatic.

I did notice that a "Sync Inverter Time" button has appeared in the GE account settings. I haven't noticed this before!

pgbish where is this? I went looking and couldn’t find it either in the main my account page or the my inverters page?

Smk82 Its not there this morning, despite a comment in the know issues section about daylight savings
This was all in the online portal in account settings

I had to manually change my charge times as they were still charging on the BST hours (economy 7, Octopus told me my hours physically remain the same, but means i have to change the times for GMT/BST)

Something isn't right because i changed my charging time this morning at about 6am to new GMT time, so charge would be 00.30 to 07.30, but the charging stopped at 6.30.
The times in the portal/app are all now GMT, so not sure why it stopped at 6.30. Maybe the inverter is on old time.
We need the Sync Inverter Time button

pgbish Mine has done the same this morning. Was due to end at 7.25am, but started and finished 1 hour early. Yet the system time appears to be correct.

SteveBlewer I suspect, but cant prove it, that the inverter time is out, which is why the button in settings was introduced. I suspect a problem with it as the button has now dissapeared

pgbish I find it kinda weird that you can't actually go into the inverter settings and manually change the system time. You can with most things these days.

I thought maybe it might be OK now, so i tried to set a charge time 30 minutes ago, using the now times, and it still didn't work, so your theory could be right.

perhaps re start the inverter after the time is set?

I have rebooted this morning. but i guess i am not going to know until tomorrow morning when charging starts again. I dont really want to set a charge up during the day just to prove what the time is on the inverter

It looks like the clock change worked, but didn't get an extra hour of charge overnight. So still buggy? Should have charged from 0030 BST to 0430 GMT?

I have just rebooted and set a timed charge for 8.15, it didn't charge!!

Maybe wait 24 hrs and see what happens - after all, the offical time change is at 2.00am, so not surprising that if that is during any timers set for charge/discharge, things might not work correctly for that night?

My inverter seems to correctly reflect GMT in its data this morning, but I am just permanently in Eco mode just now.

pgbish
I'm having this problem. Charged time isn't work.
I'm assuming the inverter is running the wrong time, but the sync button that GivEnergy are referring to isn't there.

Ditto to all the above. No sync time on mine either. Overnight charge stopped at 0330GMT not 0430 so then dumped a load of charge into the car as it continued to charge (Correctly) to 0430 GMT 🙁

richardsmith99

I have manually run the Set Date & Time control from the inverter controls, but it's not making any difference.
The inverter seems like it's timezone is still running in BST.

wilfleek Interestingly my inverter reset at 02:30 back to 01:30. Would have expected it to have reset at 02:00 back to 01:00 but maybe there is a capacity issue with trying to update all inverters at the same time. I too am in permanent Eco mode so no real impact. Does beg the question though as to how a user with timed settings can work around the clock change when they don't know when it is going to take place!

The Sync Inverter time button in Account Settings has appeared for me now, and that fixed the issue.

Yes, same here, GMT now fixed. Also the server sent out set data/time last night. Charge times now correct!!

I pressed the button in the inverter remote control area. Couldn't find the other button in account settings (it is there now though).

Timed charge this morning worked as requested.

PeterB
Have now visually checked the 22:30 and 07:30 changeover times from Rate 1 to 2 and v.v. and that is happening correctly (now we are on GMT). I know that EDF has regional tariff variations so I guess their E7 periods could also vary; I am in the South East EDF region so it seems to be 22:30 to 00:30 and 02:30 to 07:30 here.

Found it last night when I enabled 'settings' on the app. Something/someone/some low life had changed the Charge start time from PM to AM. Not me Guv. Happened when clocks changed - I did sync the times from the portal. It may be a good idea for Givenergy to stick to a 24hour clock. Start time was 10:30pm i.e. 22:30 with charge to 40%. So it was charging to 40% from 10:30am - difficult to spot if the sun comes out ...

As it is BST now, my setting says GMT+!. Still the portal displays graphs in GMT... is there a way for the graphs to display current time correctly?

mk666 If you are located in the UK or Ireland, set your "timezone" to GMT all year round. The label on your account details are a misnomer; it should say "Europe/London" (or Dublin) as the inverter internal time is changed remotely with the seasons. If the time is actually wrong, use the synchronise time button on your portal settings.

Unless you have massive batteries that tak 6 hours to charge, why not just set your start and finish times an hour shorter at each end and then it doesn't matter. I'd also suggest say 15 minutes buffer to allow for inaccurate setting on your meter timer ( mines an old economy 7 mechanical switch).