I have recently had a fox based PV and battery system installed. It works fine and I am pleased with it. I have been using this forum to help me understand how the app works, I found a great guide for setting up schedules and have successfully set one up to test however I still have a couple of questions.
1 - If the times in the schedule do not cover the whole day, for example if I just specify a period during off peak times to force charge the battery, what is the default work mode adopted for periods when when a specific work mode is not specified.
2 - if i enable a schedule with, for example, the daytime mode set as 'self use', can I still use the battery time setting to quickly override an action. For example if my spouse wants to have a major baking session using the electric oven, can I still use the battery setting to prevent battery discharge during that period.
Thanks Phil
Some questions around using schedules
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Dave Foster
- Posts: 1294
- Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2022 7:21 pm
Hi, welcome to the world of solar, you'll have quite the learning curve coming 
1). If you do not set a schedule to cover a period it will default into Self-Use mode i.e. cover house load, charge battery, export to grid.
Be careful if modify the minsoc settings though, I always recommend leaving them set at 10% as the inverter will keep them set to the value of the last schedule.
2). You can't use schedules and the 'old' charge periods together they are mutually exclusive.
If you want to do this and have a single low tariff period I would recommend you do not use schedules for anything other than advanced items (like force discharge) - then use your normal charge period 1 during the off-peak time and use charge period 2 for the baking session.
If you have multiple low tariff times (e.g. Octopus cozy) then use the schedules and set force charge periods during all the low tariff periods, and ask your wife (nicely) if at all possible to bake during one of them.
You may see a lot of posts that refer to home assistant, with one of those you can do almost anything you want - they are a little bit techy to setup but very rewarding once you have.
1). If you do not set a schedule to cover a period it will default into Self-Use mode i.e. cover house load, charge battery, export to grid.
Be careful if modify the minsoc settings though, I always recommend leaving them set at 10% as the inverter will keep them set to the value of the last schedule.
2). You can't use schedules and the 'old' charge periods together they are mutually exclusive.
If you want to do this and have a single low tariff period I would recommend you do not use schedules for anything other than advanced items (like force discharge) - then use your normal charge period 1 during the off-peak time and use charge period 2 for the baking session.
If you have multiple low tariff times (e.g. Octopus cozy) then use the schedules and set force charge periods during all the low tariff periods, and ask your wife (nicely) if at all possible to bake during one of them.
You may see a lot of posts that refer to home assistant, with one of those you can do almost anything you want - they are a little bit techy to setup but very rewarding once you have.
Thanks Dave - I discovered that the 'old' charge periods weren't compatible with schedules shortly after posting. As soon as as I enabled the schedule, the 'old' charge data was cleared and I couldn't enter any new data. Thanks for clarifying what the default mode is when a time period is not covered by some specific instruction. That will save a lot of work!!!
I am hoping to get my mpan for exporting sported very soon but, given we are heading into winter and dark days, I am not expecting much export to be going on so I probably don't need to worry about force discharging. As you recommended, I will stick with the simpler method of not using schedules until the season turns.
I will give the 'home assistant' option a look though. Cheers.
I am hoping to get my mpan for exporting sported very soon but, given we are heading into winter and dark days, I am not expecting much export to be going on so I probably don't need to worry about force discharging. As you recommended, I will stick with the simpler method of not using schedules until the season turns.
I will give the 'home assistant' option a look though. Cheers.