I’ve just had my system installed and have been poking around the portal/app trying to learn as much as I can about to. I noted that on the portal that it showed one battery charging, one discharging. In the inverter tab, 1 show a power of 3kW, the other -1kw? Is this simply a case of a CT clamp in wrong place/way around?
Smk82 Might be or it could be that the batteries (assuming two inverters) are being calibrated. This involves them discharging from the SoC they were delivered at to zero, then up to 100%. After that, the Givenery limits are brought in and you have access to the advertised capacity (between 15% and 95% actual).
Tim maybe, but they went through what seemed to be their calibration cycle last night.
Smk82 The portal updates every five minutes or so and if you watch closely you can convince yourself that it's all up the Swanee. The app (in Local) with 10s updates is much more dynamic and also consolidates multi-inverter data better. Since the portal updates can be minutes apart for each inverter, I find it best to use the inverter for totals, or yesterday/last week's figures and any configuration changes.
Since your original post was four hours ago, maybe look at the portal for that period and see if things settled down and make sense in retrospect?
Is there a way btw to confirm that your battery/inverters are set to work as a “plant”? I checked the battery seen by each inverter and it says 160A (8kw) - should this not have been configured differently?
Smk82 You haven't actually said what plant you have, but assuming you have two inverters, each with a battery, at the top of the portal, there is a tab showing Generation, Consumption, Battery and Grid. If you have a multi-inverter system, you can click on the arrows just below the Generation Total (or battery or Grid) and it will show the total, then inverter 1 figures, then inverter 2 figures and so on until it toggles found to total again.
If you have one inverter and multiple batteries, you won't see the above and your batteries will appear as one battery (Inverter tab - General) as Battery Capacity - xx0 Ah | y.yy kWh | (2 Pack) or 3 Pack etc.
2 3kw AC inv plus 2 8.2kw batteries. My point was that if it has been configured as plant should both batteries be seen as one unit? I do see as you said though- total for each inverter.
Question- I presume there is a master/slave relationship between the inverters. If the master goes idle/offline, I presume the slave does nothing? Asking as I’m having one inverter go idle several times. Always the same one.
Smk82 I don't have any experience with AC-coupled inverters but if it's idle, it should just mean that it's not having to transfer energy to/from a battery, presumably, the other inverter is serving the load at that time.
Each battery data should (I think) be visible with its associated inverter. The single plant bit just means that they are working together with one inverter taking the lead.
I’m considering adding a second GE 9.5 kWh G2 to a similar one presently charged with a 3.68 Hybrid G2 Inverter. i have 4kw of PV . I assume a dual set up charges and discharges both batteries in parallel? Given the 3.68 kWh charge discharge rate limitation of a G2 version presumably I would only be able, using Octopus GO ( 4 hours charging period @ 9.5p kWh )to put maximum of 14.72 kWh into the combined 19kwh of storage? But I need 5kwh offpeak from GO regime winter of this 14.72 kWh to daily charge the Sunamp heat battery, and another 5kwh to run the house, leaving just about 4kwh spare( as an energy miser I don’t want to buy ANY daytime rate grid electricity!) As you can run BOTH Octopus GO and the new COSY tariff which offers a total of 6 hours at 18p kWh to run an ASHP, ( at 2kwh/h) I could also add the 4kwh spare ? So a total of 16 KWh for Space heating? With a COP of 3 that would be 48kwh for a 137 sq m stone cottage home, for space heating only at a cost of 40p ( 4x 9.5p) + £2.16 ( 12 x 18p) = Daily £2.56 ???
Currently use approx 5 litres of oil a day for 6 months of the year at , currently 90p a litre . So
£810 for 180 days. Daily £4.50 ???
Saving £360 over the 180 colder days.
Did I mention I can get a £9k grant for a heat pump in rural Scotland😊 but will they allow a 2 nd Electric battery , more useful in the summer perhaps.
Are there flaws in my plan I wonder?
Bill G
Hi Bill
You are correct that if you connect a second battery to the existing inverter you will increase the capacity but still be limited by the inverter charge rate to how much you can charge overnight. To increase charge rate the gen 3 inverter is slightly higher, but not much.
If you added a second inverter you can charge both batteries in parallel. If the inverter had a single solar panel it'd be vat free as well!
I don't understand your thinking about the electricity tariff. You can be on Go or Cosy not both at the same time.
Economy 7 is an alternate with a longer off-peak period.
Hi there , see the message below received today from Octopus😊 I think you can be on both tariffs as they are almost, not quite ( a 30 min overlap) outwith each other Go .30 to 4.30am , Cosy starts at 4.00 to 7 am, plus a later 3 hour period in the afternoon.
Only problem , as and when I do get an EV , obligatory for GO, when and how in winter am I to charge the car .Or should I stay on eco7 ( 7 hour cheap off peak supply) as I am at the moment at 18p:kWh? Charge the Sunamp (1 hr for 3kwh) and The EV on off peak grid power ( say 2 hours at 7kwh ) plus put 14 kWh ( over 4 hours) into the batteries, and also run the ASHP of off peak grid early in the morning to get the space heating rolling before the ECO 7rate stops ? Use 9 to 10kwh from batteries to run the ASHP for 4 to 5 hours ( + 3 hours early morning) = 12 kWh at a cop of 3 = 36 kWh heat over the day time and early evening.
Plus I could save £3-4 for every 40 miles travelled in winter I reckon ,plus in summer much of motoring could be free with excess PV power.
Dear Customer,
Thank you for your message. If you have both an EV and an ASHP, you can indeed be on both the "GO" and "COSY" tariffs with a single daily standing charge. However, please note that the availability of these tariffs in your area next year may vary.
If you have any further questions or need more information, please don't hesitate to ask.
Kind regards,
Slungile
Octopus Energy Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales. Registered number: 09263424. Registered office: UK House, 5th Floor, 164-182 Oxford Street, London, United Kingdom, W1D 1NN
Forgot the car will charge from the offpeak grid as well not via the batteries or inverter.
billG incredible. I don’t know how they can let you be on both tariffs and gaining the benefits of both at the same time, but well, you have the email.
I’ve heard that you can get Go if you haven’t got the EV but have ordered it, or it’s coming soon …
geoffreycoan if these Octopus tariffs are time sliced and you have a smart meter I can see how they can do it, though not sure what happens in the shared half hour😊 I might ask. However it will soon be a commonplace thing for folk to have both ASHP’s and EV’s ? I liked the single standing charge bit 😊
billG
Did you consider the AIO which has a higher output capacity?
Amazing that you can have both tariffs at the same time! Thanks for sharing that!
Judith Let’s see if Octopus confirm what they told me. Some folk are very sceptical 😊 I ordered my system way back inJune 2022. It was delayed till March 2023 due to supply problems. At least I got the Gen2 Hybrid inverter which can charge and discharge at 3.68 kw, earlier ones only did 2.68. I know at least 3 local folk in my village have ordered AIO’s . I’m thinking of getting a 2nd 9.5 battery as part of a heat pump plan.