Hello everyone
As a fairly new Fox owner, I've had fun this week playing with the various scheduling options via the App and API - and found lots of helpful info on this forum - thanks!
One thing I've realised is that I can get my installation to trickle-charge overnight by using SelfUse mode and increasing the minSoc to the desired percentage. This seems to charge at approx 0.8kW. The alternative of course is to force charge at around 5kW.
Each evening I am calculating how much charge I need overnight to serve the next day according to the residual SoC in the batteries, likely energy needs the following day and how much sun there's going to be. Then, if I have if I have enough time during my offpeak tariff, I think using SelfUse/minSoc to create a longer trickle charge might be preferable over force charging, as it's probably better for the batteries long term?
Anyone else doing this? Thoughts?
Trickle charge vs Force charge
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Dave Foster
- Posts: 1295
- Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2022 7:21 pm
The BMS is quite good at managing things, but a few people (including me) do some kind of battery management - usually using home assistant which does all the maths for you and can control it precisely.
I've found over time that you can charge at full power but if you allow it to charge at 4A (or 5A) from 94% SoC it helps with battery balancing, and it's minimises the temperature increase you get when charging at high SoC's
The minSoC setting forces the BMS to request a maintenance charge (usually at 4A) which is a good charging current when the batteries near full - so if you can get your calculations right - that's a good strategy.
I've found over time that you can charge at full power but if you allow it to charge at 4A (or 5A) from 94% SoC it helps with battery balancing, and it's minimises the temperature increase you get when charging at high SoC's
The minSoC setting forces the BMS to request a maintenance charge (usually at 4A) which is a good charging current when the batteries near full - so if you can get your calculations right - that's a good strategy.