I've got the Fox ESS system with H3 inverter installed about a week ago and was experimenting with the configuration.
My power provider has off-peak and peak periods and I would like to avoid drawing power from grid during peak period. My approach was to try to ensure that the battery has a certain SOC percentage just before the peak period starts.
What I found is that it is quite hard to achieve with the Fox Cloud 2.0.
I can use the mode scheduler to configure periods but:
- if I use "self use" period with a minimum SOC set to 50%, it will charge the battery but from solar only, not from grid, which might not be enough on the cloudy day
- if I use "force charge" period, there doesn't seem to be a way to set the limit SOC, it just charges to 100% regardless.
There is a setting called "Forced charge cutoff SOC" when the period mode is "force charge" but I cannot set it to anything but 100% - the app lets me to change it to anything I want and successfully submit, but if I check later it'll be set to 100% again.
What I'm wondering is - is this a known shortcoming? Is this a bug? Is there another way of achieving what I want?
If you set self use with minsoc at 50%, the battery will slow charge (at 5A DC) using solar, and if there isn't enough solar it should take it from grid - depending on your battery voltage 5A won't charge very quickly.vava wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 10:21 am
I can use the mode scheduler to configure periods but:
- if I use "self use" period with a minimum SOC set to 50%, it will charge the battery but from solar only, not from grid, which might not be enough on the cloudy day
- if I use "force charge" period, there doesn't seem to be a way to set the limit SOC, it just charges to 100% regardless.
There is a setting called "Forced charge cutoff SOC" when the period mode is "force charge" but I cannot set it to anything but 100% - the app lets me to change it to anything I want and successfully submit, but if I check later it'll be set to 100% again.
What I'm wondering is - is this a known shortcoming? Is this a bug? Is there another way of achieving what I want?
Using Force charge you need to set the maxSoC and FCSoC to be 50%, they are essentially the same thing on latest firmware but if you only set one, it will get overridden by the other.
Will has done a very good video that covers the various methods of charge and discharge, definitely worth a watch
https://youtu.be/L_AC_H4TPsQ?si=rsvQK9jp3r4uWcr-
I've tried that today, doesn't work the way I want it to work unfortunately.
My peak period starts at 3pm, so I've set a "force charge" interval from 14:30 to 14:59.
I've set all of the min SOC, max SOC and Force Charge Max SOC to 30%.
Note though that I've checked later and the Force Charge SOC was overridden to 100%.
Today was a relatively sunny day so the battery was charged from solar to almost 90% before force charge period started.
However, the force charge period still prioritised charging the battery, even though max SOC was set to 30% and the battery was almost full.
It looks like it was using just solar for that purpose but I would've liked it to actually use solar and battery to power the house at this point, rather than trying to get battery to a 100%.
My peak period starts at 3pm, so I've set a "force charge" interval from 14:30 to 14:59.
Note though that I've checked later and the Force Charge SOC was overridden to 100%.
However, the force charge period still prioritised charging the battery, even though max SOC was set to 30% and the battery was almost full.
Hi
Vava: Did you ever manage to resolve this ?
I have the same issue with my kh10 inverter and ep11 batteries. Id like to force charge overnight to say 80%, to leave some room for solar charging the following day whilst ensuring I have enough battery charge.
I set the max soc and force charge to 80%, save it and can conflicts saved ok. However at later point both settings get overwritten to 100%.
It's a bit frustrating, just wondering if anyone knows how to fix this ?
Vava: Did you ever manage to resolve this ?
I have the same issue with my kh10 inverter and ep11 batteries. Id like to force charge overnight to say 80%, to leave some room for solar charging the following day whilst ensuring I have enough battery charge.
I set the max soc and force charge to 80%, save it and can conflicts saved ok. However at later point both settings get overwritten to 100%.
It's a bit frustrating, just wondering if anyone knows how to fix this ?
No, unfortunately I think this is how it works.
If you charging from the grid though you can control how much charge will be added using time - Force Charge will always charge at the maximum speed so you can time it to charge just a certain amount.
Not as nice as being able to say how much charge you'd like it to have at the end still.
If you charging from the grid though you can control how much charge will be added using time - Force Charge will always charge at the maximum speed so you can time it to charge just a certain amount.
Not as nice as being able to say how much charge you'd like it to have at the end still.
Thanks for getting back to me, ok, I guess a blend of timed force charging and slow charging via "self use", with a high soc setting will have to do.
Best regards
Paul
Best regards
Paul
Had my battery installed yesterday and I am surprised to see so much inconsistent information (and behaviours apparently) on how scheduling works.
For instance in my case I forced charged from midnight to 6AM to use cheapest rates and I have set Max SOC to 80% and FCSOC to 80% and it worked correctly. I can confirm the setting stayed to 80 and 80 and didn't reset to 100.
The only thing I am trying to figure out is if FCSOC is supposed to also "terminate" the Forced Charge mode as opposed to just waiting for the charging window to complete. It would make a lot of sense to decide that once a certain SOC is reached, the battery should go back to Self-Use instead of waiting until the time window expires.
For instance in my case I forced charged from midnight to 6AM to use cheapest rates and I have set Max SOC to 80% and FCSOC to 80% and it worked correctly. I can confirm the setting stayed to 80 and 80 and didn't reset to 100.
The only thing I am trying to figure out is if FCSOC is supposed to also "terminate" the Forced Charge mode as opposed to just waiting for the charging window to complete. It would make a lot of sense to decide that once a certain SOC is reached, the battery should go back to Self-Use instead of waiting until the time window expires.
I think It's because as they add functionality with firmware updates, behaviour changes, so old advice is only applicable to people with old firmware.
I'm intrigued it worked for you, so I have a kh10 inverter, firmware is 1.58 master, 1.01 slave, 1.58 manager. With fox cloud 2 app just updated to latest version. With forced charge, no matter what I set as the forced charge cutoff percentage, and the max soc, it saves it fine, but come the next morning it's always charged to 100% and overriden the settings I entered
If it works for you, maybe I just need to contact fox and get the latest firmware, thankyou for the heads up
Paul
If it works for you, maybe I just need to contact fox and get the latest firmware, thankyou for the heads up
Paul
Mine is a H3-10.0-Smart. I was running on the installed firmware (1.20 Manager 1.32 Master) when I posted above. I now cheekily update it myself to get the 5 sec polling (1.23 Manager, 1.36 Master) but the battery still charges to the set Max SOC correctly. I also can confirm that the FCSOC cutoff does NOT stop the mode, so it’s like a redundant limit that I can’t see a purpose for. Basically when the battery gets to 80% as I set it to, it then sits idle not charging nor discharging until the window expires. A bit dumb tbh.
I use that very same FCSoC to HOLD my battery at 100% until my cheap period expires, so all my house load is supplied by the grid at the cheap rate. So to me, it is working exactly as intended, and if it was to swap modes once it reaches the FCSoC value, it would break functionality for a great many people.rky wrote: ↑Sat Jan 17, 2026 1:08 am I also can confirm that the FCSOC cutoff does NOT stop the mode, so it’s like a redundant limit that I can’t see a purpose for. Basically when the battery gets to 80% as I set it to, it then sits idle not charging nor discharging until the window expires. A bit dumb tbh.
What you really need is Home Assistant running your Inverter: If time is xx:yy to xx:yy AND FCSoC is at/or above xx%, then set Work Mode to xxxxxx I am a bit new to HA, but I am sure that you can set such a rule, happy to be corrected if I am talking rubbish.
I absolutely agree. Home Assistant is the way to go. All I’m saying is that Max SoC and FCSoC Cutoff are seeming to aim at the same functionality and it does not make sense. If one ( I’d say Max SoC) charged to the limit and held it there idle as per your use case and the other (FCSOC) also terminated the mode change then you could choose which one and avoid a complex Home Assistant integration. Unless you can explain to me their actual difference?
I use that very same FCSoC to HOLD my battery at 100% until my cheap period expires, so all my house load is supplied by the grid at the cheap rate. So to me, it is working exactly as intended, and if it was to swap modes once it reaches the FCSoC value, it would break functionality for a great many people.
What you really need is Home Assistant running your Inverter: If time is xx:yy to xx:yy AND FCSoC is at/or above xx%, then set Work Mode to xxxxxx I am a bit new to HA, but I am sure that you can set such a rule, happy to be corrected if I am talking rubbish.
From what I understand the FCSoC is for charging battery from Grid AC to DC.
Max SoC is for allowing the PV to go beyond the FCSoC limit IIRC.
So FCSoC of 80% should allow Grid to charge battery to 80%
Max SoC of 100% should allow PV to charge the final 20% if the sun is shining.
I could be wrong, but that's how I interpret those two settings.
Max SoC is for allowing the PV to go beyond the FCSoC limit IIRC.
So FCSoC of 80% should allow Grid to charge battery to 80%
Max SoC of 100% should allow PV to charge the final 20% if the sun is shining.
I could be wrong, but that's how I interpret those two settings.
Right. If that’s the case, it still is not something relevant to use for night charging.MaterialBarracuda48 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 17, 2026 12:29 pm From what I understand the FCSoC is for charging battery from Grid AC to DC.
Max SoC is for allowing the PV to go beyond the FCSoC limit IIRC.
So FCSoC of 80% should allow Grid to charge battery to 80%
Max SoC of 100% should allow PV to charge the final 20% if the sun is shining.
I could be wrong, but that's how I interpret those two settings.
I think that there is more than one way to achieve the results with the Inverter.
If you was to set a Self-use say from 00:00 to 16:00, with Max SoC 100% FcSoC at 80% and try to use this mode... it should in theory see SoC as let's say 23% at 00:00, the 80% it takes from your settings and forces a charge from grid, until it acheives 80%, then it should wait for PV to increase from 80%-100%.
Not sure I follow. Self-Use mode does not use FCSOC but FDSOC which is limiting the discharging of the battery.
It doesn't make sense I know, but in the past my battery has charged from the grid in Self-use mode (older FW granted)
Let's say the SoC was 64% and the FDSoC was set to 80%, IIRC from my previous experience it began to pull from the Grid to charge my battery.
I will look back in posts to see if I have it here.
ETA: Looked back at a time when the system was not working right, the Inverter was changing mode from Self-use to Force charging. Maybe then the only solution is Home Assistant to swap modes when SoC reaches 80% from Charge to Self-use.