Lost option for Force Charge

[spmaid]

I noticed last week the option to select a force charge (as in not use the battery) disappeared from the WebGUI, and now I note it has gone from the mobile app too. Anyone else seeing, or know why? I would use this if I thought I didnt quite have enough to get through the night, so I'd use grid between say 00:30 and 04:30 but didnt want a battery charge, or, if I am needing to charge the car over night to prevent taking from battery. All I can do now is force charge from grid and annoyingly, as I had set it to 'force charge' it is now stuck and I can't see anyway to now change this! Why would they remove this?

Any pointers? (other than complain to the rather unresponsive service team)

[canton7]

See

Code: Select all

https://www.facebook.com/groups/foxessownersgroup/permalink/1862360824146091/

• Both times set to midnight: Charge period disabled
• Times set but "Enable charge from grid" disabled: battery won't discharge but won't charge from grid. The same as checking "Enable force charge" previously
• Times set and "Enable charge from grid" enabled: battery will charge from grid. Same as checking both "Enable force charge" and "Enable charge from grid" preciously

[spmaid]

Thank you for that, sorry, I don't go anywhere near Facebook I shall have a play this evening. Seems an odd UI change, although, the terminology before wasn't great either.

[rhodesmjr67]

Seeing the same issue, I have raised a support ticket, but I'm not holding my breath. My inverter still seems to be working as before i.e. charges car from grid overnight on cheap Octopus tariff, but does not top up battery, so we can store the solar.

[calum]

It's not an issue as such, in that you can still set it to charge (or NOT discharge), they've just changed the interface for that in an odd way.

From a user experience POV I think it's terrible design, but you can still do what you could before.

[graham]

I didn't think this issue of not discharging mattered to me at the time, but thinking about it, maybe it does.

So, I see that if I set either of the "Enable charge from grid" toggles for some set period, the battery will charge from the grid and not discharge in that period. But is it possible to set it to neither charge nor discharge for some period, i.e. retain whatever charge is has at say 00:30 hrs and supply the load only from the grid until say 05:30 hrs? I'd then want to charge from the grid from 05:30 to 07:30 or the preset max SoC, whichever comes first.

The reason I ask is perhaps not of great importance: it's just that it seems inefficient to draw power from the battery only to put it back from the grid, when the load might be simply be supplied directly from the grid anyway. As an aside, it seems to me that the inefficiency in charging to max SoC first, e.g. starting from 00:30, and then discharging after, is the same as discharging and then re-charging, just a bit less obvious.

Graham

[canton7]

Set a time, do not enable the toggle, as described above. Then it won't charge from the grid, and won't discharge.

[graham]

Set a time, do not enable the toggle, as described above. Then it won't charge from the grid, and won't discharge.

Ah, that's easy, if a bit less than obvious. Thanks

Graham

[grantwr]

Thanks all for this info, it helped me a lot to understand it.
This little table helped me visualise the settings.

[Paul Wildsmith]

I need advice with an associated question regarding the soc settings.

The first soc I think it's clear, whatever it's set to, say 10%, the battery won't discharge further than that.

But for the soc on gird. Is that the value the grid will charge to, or the max it will charge to? For example, if 10% will it only charge of the battery drops below 10%, or it will only charge up to that amount?

I don't want to unnecessarily charge from the grid of ill get some solar later.

[calum]

There's two min SoC settings, one is "On grid" which is how low the battery can go while you are connected to the grid. There is also an "off grid" setting for use where you have the inverter set up where there's no mains connection, or if it's been configured to work in EPS mode.

If you want to limit the amount the battery will charge from the grid because you want to "leave room" to store PV energy later, you want to use the MaxSOC setting (which only applies when charging from the grid - the system will always charge the battery to full from the panels if it can).

[CliveRichardson]

If you want to limit the amount the battery will charge from the grid because you want to "leave room" to store PV energy later, you want to use the MaxSOC setting (which only applies when charging from the grid - the system will always charge the battery to full from the panels if it can).

Where do you find this setting? I think it used to be with the battery SOC setting in the app but now it does not show, either in the app or on the web page in the battery settings. Is it hidden somewhere else?

[calum]

I've always had to change it from the front panel of the Inverter itself (at least until I got it connected via the RS485 serial port to my Home Assistant, but that's a whole other discussion!)

You can see where it is in the front panel menu in section 8.2 of the user manual (PDF link).

[colui77]

Dears,

I have the same problem as you mentioned. And I set up the Charge from grid setting for the battery. As soon as the time of charging arrive, my house is disconnected from the grid because it goes over-consuming. I have a contract for 4.5 KW and I assume the battery will try to charge with an higher power... Is there a way I can limit the power being taken from the grid?
Thanx

[Dave Foster]

Dears,

I have the same problem as you mentioned. And I set up the Charge from grid setting for the battery. As soon as the time of charging arrive, my house is disconnected from the grid because it goes over-consuming. I have a contract for 4.5 KW and I assume the battery will try to charge with an higher power... Is there a way I can limit the power being taken from the grid?
Thanx

Yes there is a way, buy it can only be done from the inverter menu (unless you have agent access to the cloud) - the item you are looking for is called 'Max Chg Cur' under Settings, Battery - this is the maximum dc charge current the inverter will use to charge the batteries - the default is usually 35A (the maximum it can charge at).

To work out how much power that is, you need to know you battery voltage which you can see in the Inverter menu in 'System, Battery' - If you want to limit the charge to 3kW then divide 3000W by the battery volts and it will give you the current, i.e. a typical battery volts of 220V would be 3000/220 = 13.63A - so round it up and set it to 14A.

[colui77]

Dears,

I have the same problem as you mentioned. And I set up the Charge from grid setting for the battery. As soon as the time of charging arrive, my house is disconnected from the grid because it goes over-consuming. I have a contract for 4.5 KW and I assume the battery will try to charge with an higher power... Is there a way I can limit the power being taken from the grid?
Thanx

Yes there is a way, buy it can only be done from the inverter menu (unless you have agent access to the cloud) - the item you are looking for is called 'Max Chg Cur' under Settings, Battery - this is the maximum dc charge current the inverter will use to charge the batteries - the default is usually 35A (the maximum it can charge at).

To work out how much power that is, you need to know you battery voltage which you can see in the Inverter menu in 'System, Battery' - If you want to limit the charge to 3kW then divide 3000W by the battery volts and it will give you the current, i.e. a typical battery volts of 220V would be 3000/220 = 13.63A - so round it up and set it to 14A.

You were so kind and precise!
Thx
L.C.

[TheDomOfThree]

Dears,

I have the same problem as you mentioned. And I set up the Charge from grid setting for the battery. As soon as the time of charging arrive, my house is disconnected from the grid because it goes over-consuming. I have a contract for 4.5 KW and I assume the battery will try to charge with an higher power... Is there a way I can limit the power being taken from the grid?
Thanx

Yes there is a way, buy it can only be done from the inverter menu (unless you have agent access to the cloud) - the item you are looking for is called 'Max Chg Cur' under Settings, Battery - this is the maximum dc charge current the inverter will use to charge the batteries - the default is usually 35A (the maximum it can charge at).

To work out how much power that is, you need to know you battery voltage which you can see in the Inverter menu in 'System, Battery' - If you want to limit the charge to 3kW then divide 3000W by the battery volts and it will give you the current, i.e. a typical battery volts of 220V would be 3000/220 = 13.63A - so round it up and set it to 14A.

Exactly what I was looking for. I use Home Assistant so I have an access to those settings via Modbus. I am trying to create automation that will prevent battery discharge to EV when zappi will start charging the car (Octopus Intelligent GO)... Side bonus is that every time Octopus will charge my car during the day, battery should also top up on cheap electricity...