Battery discharge scheduling

[Eddee24]

Hi all,

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this but hoping someone can help. I'd like to use the mobile app to tell the battery to NOT discharge between certain hours. Essentially, I want to save a percentage of the battery power to use over the more expensive electricity times - what is the easiest way to do this?!

I have it set to charge between certain hours, but unsure on the settings for telling it to not discharge.

Thanks for the help in advance!

[Dave Foster]

Hi all,

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this but hoping someone can help. I'd like to use the mobile app to tell the battery to NOT discharge between certain hours. Essentially, I want to save a percentage of the battery power to use over the more expensive electricity times - what is the easiest way to do this?!

I have it set to charge between certain hours, but unsure on the settings for telling it to not discharge.

Thanks for the help in advance!

How are you setting the charge, using the charge periods or the scheduler ? - the reason for the question is you can do it with both but you can’t use both at the same time so I need to know how you currently charge.

[Eddee24]

Hi,

So currently I just select “Quick Settings Here” and then “Charging Time” and I just have one thing set to charge from grid during the cheap part overnight. But I could move that to the mode scheduler if it’s better there.

[Dave Foster]

Hi,

So currently I just select “Quick Settings Here” and then “Charging Time” and I just have one thing set to charge from grid during the cheap part overnight. But I could move that to the mode scheduler if it’s better there.

No those charging periods are just fine.

To set your batteries to not discharge, just as for charge set a time period (16:00-19:00) but leave the 'Enable charge from grid' switch disabled. When the switch is off the batteries will not charge from grid and they will not discharge either.

[Eddee24]

Ah great I’ll give that a go.

Just checking, that they’ll still charge from the solar with that time period set? Just not discharge or charge from grid?

[Dave Foster]

Ah great I’ll give that a go.

Just checking, that they’ll still charge from the solar with that time period set? Just not discharge or charge from grid?

Yes doing it this way will allow the batteries to charge from solar (if available...) but not grid

[Eddee24]

Hi,

So this has held the battery power at 54% and it isn’t discharging. However, I am generating 5kw via solar and it is all being fed to the grid, not the batteries. Any idea why?

[Dave Foster]

Hi,

So this has held the battery power at 54% and it isn’t discharging. However, I am generating 5kw via solar and it is all being fed to the grid, not the batteries. Any idea why?

Are you in Self-Use workmode ?

[Eddee24]

Yes, self-use and I’ve never changed that.

[Dave Foster]

Yes, self-use and I’ve never changed that.

Remind me what inverter model is it ?

[Eddee24]

If I go to the invertor in the app it says model is AC1-5.0-E-G2 if that helps?

[Dave Foster]

If I go to the invertor in the app it says model is AC1-5.0-E-G2 if that helps?

ok, yes that should work fine - it is likely to be low battery temps, If you look in the V2 app at Device, Battery what is the Temperature (approx middle of the screen - below 10C will be heavily reduced charge power)

[Eddee24]

So I’ve turned the charge period off and it is now sending everything to the battery - so temp doesn’t seem to be the issue?

[Dave Foster]

So I’ve turned the charge period off and it is now sending everything to the battery - so temp doesn’t seem to be the issue?

Hmmmm, i've never seen that (apart from on a KH inverter with old firmware) - can you check your firmware versions in the V2 app Device, Inverter and click on the serial number under the picture of an inverter.

[Eddee24]

Version_Master is 1.21, then you've got Version_Slave is 1.02 and Version_ARM is 1.32

[Dave Foster]

Doh forget that, i've just realised why - your inverter is an AC (not a hybrid) in which case you don't have any on-board generation, everything is external - in which case it will stop charging (as it thinks it is grid=external).

As a test can you see if you have a workmode 'Backup' (Quick Settings) - if you do, set it to that and see if it continues to charge (it definitely won't discharge)

[Eddee24]

Ah no, I only have self-use and Feed-In Priority.

Does that mean what I'm trying to achieve isn't possible?

[Dave Foster]

Ah no, I only have self-use and Feed-In Priority.

Does that mean what I'm trying to achieve isn't possible?

It means it might be difficult as we're now testing to see what will still work on an AC .

Do you have access to scheduler (i.e. it's not greyed out) - when you use scheduler it will disable your normal charge periods as you can't use them together.

The next test is to set the battery via scheduler to 'idle' - to do that you have to set a schedule so create a slot pick the times for the next hour, set the workmode to Force Discharge, minSoC to 10%, FDSoC to 10%, MaxSoc (if it has it) to 100% and FD PWr to 0

This sounds counter productive as it is setting a force discharge but it will be at zero power which on a hybrid will hold the batteries and still allow charge - whether this works on an AC1 will be an interesting test.

[Eddee24]

Yep I can do all of that so have set that up.

I assume if I leave the 0100-0500 charge from grid enabled in the quick settings "Charging time" this should still work? As I don't have any other things set for that time period via the mode scheduler.

[Dave Foster]

Yep I can do all of that so have set that up.

I assume if I leave the 0100-0500 charge from grid enabled in the quick settings "Charging time" this should still work? As I don't have any other things set for that time period via the mode scheduler.

So the million dollar question is does it charge the battery whilst it is like that.

You won't be able to use the old charge period if you use this, you'll have to set a schedule for Force Charge minsoc 10%, FD soc 10%, maxsoc 100%, FD pwr 0

[Eddee24]

Hmmm. Annoyingly the answer appears to be no.

I'm currently generating 1kw, using 0.3kw and 0.7kw is going to the grid, with only 30w going to the batteries.

[Dave Foster]

Hmmm. Annoyingly the answer appears to be no.

I'm currently generating 1kw, using 0.3kw and 0.7kw is going to the grid, with only 30w going to the batteries.

ok, it was a nice try but it seems to view external generation differently - For now best to disable the scheduler and turn back on your old charge period.

As your firmware is quite old, i'm thinking it would be a good idea to get it updated to latest as there have been lots of bugs fixed, and some of these might be what is stopping your system from charging (and it might also get you backup mode). The latest versions are Master 1.31 and Manager(ARM) 1.48.

On the V2 app you can raise a support task to get a firmware update, click 'Me' then Contact Us, then Support and ask ask for an inverter firmware update - raise a ticket, it will probably be next week before they get to it, but then we can try again with the new firmware.

[Eddee24]

Thanks for you help anyway.

I've submitted the request so hopefully after the update it may work.

[Eddee24]

So I’ve now been updated and I have backup available within the quick settings for work mode, however it isn’t available within work mode in the scheduler?

I also have a work mode called “peak shaving” which actually sounds like what I want to do, but it wants an import limit filled in and I have no idea what that would be!

[Dave Foster]

So I’ve now been updated and I have backup available within the quick settings for work mode, however it isn’t available within work mode in the scheduler?

I also have a work mode called “peak shaving” which actually sounds like what I want to do, but it wants an import limit filled in and I have no idea what that would be!

Make sure you fully close and restart the app, if Backup still doesn’t show in scheduler it will probably be there tomorrow, sometimes the cloud itself needs to recognise you have updated and are on a new protocol version.

I know what to expect from a normal hybrid with solar attached, but you’ll now need to repeat some of the tests already done.

So start with the backup workmode as that is easiest to test - wait for there to be enough solar generation to start charging the battery (this might be the bigger problem for the next few days!), then put it into workmode backup - it won’t discharge in this mode and (it should) continue to charge the battery - don’t forget it can take 5 minutes for the data samples to update your app display.

If that works great, but if not then can you retry this next test -
set the battery via scheduler to 'idle' - to set a schedule slot create a slot for the next hour, set the workmode to Force Discharge, minSoC to 10%, FDSoC to 10%, MaxSoc (if it has it) to 100% and FD PWr to 0

Ideally one of those methods will continue to charge the battery, fingers crossed.

The peak shaving mode is usually used in Europe where users are not allowed to take too much import power from the grid at certain times of the day, you set the power limit and threshold soc, when the battery is above the threshold soc it will use the battery but only when the power limit is exceeded.