I seem to be importing 3-6KW per day, I wonder if this is normal, my installer isn't being too help at the moment
I have a 10KW battery, 6KW hybrid invertor and 15 panels.
I've had the solar for about 2 months now and I was importing and exporting about the same in £, I contacted my installer who came round and said the CT clamp wasn't fitted correctly so they repaired it but it doesn't seem to have made much difference so I'm wondering if I'm expecting too much from the system, I was sold that I'd export so much in the summer that it would pay for winter but at the moment I am breaking even
My installer didn't tell me about setting a schedule up to force export at the peak time, which i've now set up and whilst i'm exporting a good amount at that time, i'm still importing a lot at the rest of the day even though i'm set to self use
Can you post some screenshots from your app (swipe left on the main page) for a good sunny day and an over cast day (you can change the date at the top) - that should show your typical usage vs generation to give you a better view.
these are the screenshots from the Octopus app and the Fox app, they don't seem to tie up
Attachments:
You are definitely generating a lot of power which is being exported straight to the grid, the power you are using overnight appears to be your normal base load and the battery is not being used to run the house - so something wrong there.
For the same time periods can you screenshot the app but scroll the screen up so I can see the graph and battery soc please.
Can you also let me know what your ‘Battery Reserve Capacity’ and ‘System Min SOC’ are set to (click ‘ Quick Settings Here’ on the app for those/
For the same time periods can you screenshot the app but scroll the screen up so I can see the graph and battery soc please.
Can you also let me know what your ‘Battery Reserve Capacity’ and ‘System Min SOC’ are set to (click ‘ Quick Settings Here’ on the app for those/
Both are set at 20%
I appreciate your help, thank you
I appreciate your help, thank you
Attachments:
The inverter traces appear to show correct operation, it doesn’t look like you use much power in your house the 18th suggests 10.5kwh and the 17th only 4.3kwh - do they seem credible values.
The stats also intriguingly show your grid import is very low on both days, yet your octopus shows a small trickle of power being used that is not being recorded by the inverter stats which suggests that your CT clamp may be mis-reading.
The CT clamp is not perfectly accurate - possible 1-2% different from your smart meter but that level of inaccuracy suggests a problem - perhaps the wrong CT clamp used or it is placed too close to another CT clamp (such as an EV charger) that is affecting it. Would you be able to take a couple of pictures of your meter cupboard - one that shows the overall cupboard and it’s contents, the second a closer shot of the CT clamp (usually a small white or black clamp clipped to the live feed from the smart meter).
The stats also intriguingly show your grid import is very low on both days, yet your octopus shows a small trickle of power being used that is not being recorded by the inverter stats which suggests that your CT clamp may be mis-reading.
The CT clamp is not perfectly accurate - possible 1-2% different from your smart meter but that level of inaccuracy suggests a problem - perhaps the wrong CT clamp used or it is placed too close to another CT clamp (such as an EV charger) that is affecting it. Would you be able to take a couple of pictures of your meter cupboard - one that shows the overall cupboard and it’s contents, the second a closer shot of the CT clamp (usually a small white or black clamp clipped to the live feed from the smart meter).
See attached photos, thank you
The daily use seems accurate, i have a large format printer at home, some days its on and some days it isn't
The daily use seems accurate, i have a large format printer at home, some days its on and some days it isn't
Attachments:
Ok it doesn’t get much simpler than that for a meter cupboard, the CT clamp is the correct type and located in the correct place.
I can see why they would have got the CT orientation wrong, you would normally expect the arrow to be pointing in the opposite direction but as it is reading correctly they must have crossed the wires over at the inverter when it was installed so that also answers that mystery.
So other than the slightly high grid use it appears to be working fine and on sunnier days is exporting well to the grid.
Can you check your inverter firmware versions for me, in the app click on ‘Device’, ‘Inverter’ and click the serial number under the picture of the inverter and post a screenshot of that page with Status, work mode, model and firmware versions listed.
I can see why they would have got the CT orientation wrong, you would normally expect the arrow to be pointing in the opposite direction but as it is reading correctly they must have crossed the wires over at the inverter when it was installed so that also answers that mystery.
So other than the slightly high grid use it appears to be working fine and on sunnier days is exporting well to the grid.
Can you check your inverter firmware versions for me, in the app click on ‘Device’, ‘Inverter’ and click the serial number under the picture of the inverter and post a screenshot of that page with Status, work mode, model and firmware versions listed.
Ok that’s good your firmware is up to date - there was a new feature introduced that allows you to set the bias so that the inverter pushes back a bit more power to the grid from the batteries - this avoids the trickle of power you are seeing overnight by filling in from the battery.
Have a read through this thread which explains it https://foxesscommunity.com/viewtopic.php?t=1637
It’s normally set by an installer but there are instructions on this post on how to do it on the V2 fox cloud website that is still in beta https://foxesscommunity.com/viewtopic. ... e458#p9024
Have a read through this thread which explains it https://foxesscommunity.com/viewtopic.php?t=1637
It’s normally set by an installer but there are instructions on this post on how to do it on the V2 fox cloud website that is still in beta https://foxesscommunity.com/viewtopic. ... e458#p9024
Thank you for your help, I will have a look at those, just one final quick question
When the CT clamp was fixed,it wasn't that it was round the wrong way,it was the cable going into the invertor wasn't connected properly, could that still be the issue?
When the CT clamp was fixed,it wasn't that it was round the wrong way,it was the cable going into the invertor wasn't connected properly, could that still be the issue?
No it’s definitely reporting correctly all the metrics are in the correct phase - it’s not the easiest to read the graph but you get used to it.
i.e. your grid (blue) is below the ‘0’ line during the day which is correct for export, your load (red) is also below the line which is correct, you have some battery charge (yellow) below the line and some battery discharge above the line and you can see the battery respond to load (as an example on the 18th you have 3 large ‘red’ load spikes around 6pm and 3 equal sized battery discharge spikes) so it’s measuring and working correctly.

i.e. your grid (blue) is below the ‘0’ line during the day which is correct for export, your load (red) is also below the line which is correct, you have some battery charge (yellow) below the line and some battery discharge above the line and you can see the battery respond to load (as an example on the 18th you have 3 large ‘red’ load spikes around 6pm and 3 equal sized battery discharge spikes) so it’s measuring and working correctly.