Force charge schedule but use PV first?

[beckyajones1979@gmail.com]

Hi all, newbie here!

So I have solar panels and a battery with Octopuses Cosy tariff.

Now that Octopus have 3 periods where its cheaper to charge the battery I have had to enable the mode scheduler to put 3 time periods to charge the battery from the grid.

This works great between 04:00-06:59 and 22:00-23:59 as there is no sunlight but between 13:00-15:59 I need it to chrage the battery/supply the load from PV first and then grrid.
I currently have all 3 of these periods set to force charge. How can I set the daytime period to force charge from sunlight and then grid?

I have tried this in Fox1, Fox2 and Energy Stats but I don't see any obvious setting.

Sorry if this is a really stupid question!

[beckyajones1979@gmail.com]

I have just changed this schedule over to Backup. Seems to be drawing from PV and grid to charge the battery. Does this seem right? Is it the best option?

[Dave Foster]

I think the problem you have is that your inverter firmware is slightly out of date, the latest version was corrected to allow you to charge from PV & grid, rather than disabling PV.

Can you check your firmware versions, in the V2 app click Device, select inverter and click on the inverter serial number (just below the inverter image) - that will show your Master / Manager(ARM) versions - let me know what you see and i'll check the Fox cloud for latest.

As far as backup work mode goes, that prioritises battery over export so it will use the PV to charge your battery and it won't discharge the battery either.

[beckyajones1979@gmail.com]

Hi Dave, thanks for the reply!

So backup mode kind of works for now but probably not the best solution.

Version ARM is showing as 1.70 and master is 1.63. If there is a firmware update to help with this, that would be great!

[Dave Foster]

Hi, yes those firmware versions have just missed the update - the latest is Master 1.65, (Manager)ARM 1.74

Ask your installer to upgrade your firmware as this can be done remotely, or alternatively email Fox service ' service.uk@fox-ess.com ' with your inverter serial number and ask them to update your firmware.

Once updated and you set a Force Charge it will use PV to charge the batteries and top up from the grid for the rest.