Hi
I have a Fox Evo 10-5h with 7 panels. I'm getting to grips with how to best utilise the system to generate income. This is my current setup:
Octopus Go import: 9.5p night rate
Octopus Outgoing: 12p export rate
Octopus Power Down: 82 octo-points (10p) per kwh export + free 1 hour of electric on the weekend
Axle VPP: £1 per kwh export
Essentially I get 22p export when there is a power down event (12p export + 10p octo-points).
Or £1.12 per Axle grid event.
And I charge overnight at 9.5p every night
The problem with making the most of the setup is that I have to manually schedule the power down event and stop the nightly charge the day before the free electric hour. The Axle event is automatic (most of the time).
I'm wondering if Home Assistant or any other software can automate this? I.e. Friday there is a power down event at 7pm so it exports to set limits, and then doesn't charge overnight to make best use of the free hour on Saturday?
I hope that makes sense.
Depends on how much you wish to spend/tinker with. HA with PredBat sounds like it could be a good choice if you want.
If you do go down the HA rabbit hole, then you could suffer from an obsession
Smart plugs to turn things on during free power events etc.
That being said, it's not that hard to tinker with the FoxCloud2.0 App either.
In the FoxCloud2.0 App, you can have a power down session set to 7pm to 8pm, and after using it, just disable it for next time. If a new power down comes along for 6pm to 7pm, you can just open that schedule and edit in seconds.
As for free weekend bonus hours, charge as normal, and then have a schedule setup to discharge for 30/60/90mins as needed before the free hour?
Again these slots can be left in the scheduler, just turned off.
If you do go down the HA rabbit hole, then you could suffer from an obsession
Smart plugs to turn things on during free power events etc.That being said, it's not that hard to tinker with the FoxCloud2.0 App either.
In the FoxCloud2.0 App, you can have a power down session set to 7pm to 8pm, and after using it, just disable it for next time. If a new power down comes along for 6pm to 7pm, you can just open that schedule and edit in seconds.
As for free weekend bonus hours, charge as normal, and then have a schedule setup to discharge for 30/60/90mins as needed before the free hour?
Again these slots can be left in the scheduler, just turned off.
Hi MaterialBarracuda48
Thanks for the reply.
I've installed HA via docker so I'm ready with that but I don't want to hard wire my inverter and risk invalidating the warranty. Unless you know of a simple step-by-step process I can follow which doesn't involve taking tools to my inverter?
Thanks for the tips with the Fox app. I'll be experimenting with that.
Do you use HA?
Thanks for the reply.
I've installed HA via docker so I'm ready with that but I don't want to hard wire my inverter and risk invalidating the warranty. Unless you know of a simple step-by-step process I can follow which doesn't involve taking tools to my inverter?
Thanks for the tips with the Fox app. I'll be experimenting with that.
Do you use HA?
You might want to check out this then if you don't want to hardwire things.
viewtopic.php?p=15707#p15707
I don't use it, but worth a bash in your Docker instance to try it out.
I do/don't use HA, I use it just to look over things and see solar forecast, so overall a poor use! When I was doing simple things with Octopus Intelligent Go, to capture cheap rate electric and force a charge session for battery, it was good. I did want to expand some automations but I couldn't get them to function correctly. So I have stopped for now, but can try again at a later date. I am now using Octopus Cosy tariff, but my heat pump is just a portable one, that AFAIK has no controls for HA available.
I will check a little later in the year if an add-on has been created for my AC/heater heat pump, I can then see about making some automation.
viewtopic.php?p=15707#p15707
I don't use it, but worth a bash in your Docker instance to try it out.
I do/don't use HA, I use it just to look over things and see solar forecast, so overall a poor use! When I was doing simple things with Octopus Intelligent Go, to capture cheap rate electric and force a charge session for battery, it was good. I did want to expand some automations but I couldn't get them to function correctly. So I have stopped for now, but can try again at a later date. I am now using Octopus Cosy tariff, but my heat pump is just a portable one, that AFAIK has no controls for HA available.
I will check a little later in the year if an add-on has been created for my AC/heater heat pump, I can then see about making some automation.
Ah cool. I'm away from home at the moment but will take a look when i'm back. It'll be good to use this to get a basic understanding of HA.
Just out of intrigue. Why are you on Cosy when Go or Intelligent Go is cheaper? I guess Cosy works better if you have smaller battery storage with the more frequent lower rates thay Cosy gives you?
Just out of intrigue. Why are you on Cosy when Go or Intelligent Go is cheaper? I guess Cosy works better if you have smaller battery storage with the more frequent lower rates thay Cosy gives you?
Cannot use IOG currently, as charger and car not present.
Agile which I have been on for a while, was getting unreliable lately, often some days not getting under 30p kWh. If Autumn is windy, then Agile will plunge down, I did see previous Winter days, where nothing when under 60p kWh on windless days.
OG is a choice, and vs. Cosy it pans out to around 20kWh a day is the meeting point, above 20kWh Cosy wins.
Trying to use the portable heatpump AC over gas as much as possible (anything under 15.6p kWh average means heatpump wins) If I was to run it 24/7 then I could use 30kWh on that alone.
So as I didn't trust Agile, and didn't want the risk this year, I stepped over to Cosy, and will use that over running gas (and to boost it when needed)
Agile which I have been on for a while, was getting unreliable lately, often some days not getting under 30p kWh. If Autumn is windy, then Agile will plunge down, I did see previous Winter days, where nothing when under 60p kWh on windless days.
OG is a choice, and vs. Cosy it pans out to around 20kWh a day is the meeting point, above 20kWh Cosy wins.
Trying to use the portable heatpump AC over gas as much as possible (anything under 15.6p kWh average means heatpump wins) If I was to run it 24/7 then I could use 30kWh on that alone.
So as I didn't trust Agile, and didn't want the risk this year, I stepped over to Cosy, and will use that over running gas (and to boost it when needed)
30kw a day is a lot for a heat pump. I have a build-in AC unit and it uses around 600wh but I guess a portable one will use more.
I was on Agile for a while but as you said, the prices went sky high and it wasn't viable anymore. Although i'm looking to expand my storage to 20kwh soon so it might be worth it then. If I could go 3 or 4 days without grid charge then I could make the most of the cheap / negative rates that come around roughly twice weekly.
I was on Agile for a while but as you said, the prices went sky high and it wasn't viable anymore. Although i'm looking to expand my storage to 20kwh soon so it might be worth it then. If I could go 3 or 4 days without grid charge then I could make the most of the cheap / negative rates that come around roughly twice weekly.
It's 1.3kW in heat mode, 1.7kW in AC mode. So has the potential to add up to a fair bit over 24hrs.
Running the AC over Summer, daily totals would be reaching +20kWh without too much effort, and one almost 30kWh day when it was super hot.
I plan to lean into the heat pump vs. gas usage, it's cheaper than gas by a bit, with the gap potentially widening in the future. Hoping to get full house heat pump, ideally of the AC/Heat variety in the future.
Running the AC over Summer, daily totals would be reaching +20kWh without too much effort, and one almost 30kWh day when it was super hot.
I plan to lean into the heat pump vs. gas usage, it's cheaper than gas by a bit, with the gap potentially widening in the future. Hoping to get full house heat pump, ideally of the AC/Heat variety in the future.
I'm thinking of a similar route. Trying to electricity everything and stepping away from gas. With everything going up I think investing in more electric storage isn't a bad idea. Also thinking when I get an electric car that i'll get a 2 way charger so i can make use of it's battery storage which can be anything up to 80kwh which is huge.