FoxESS Community - Owners & Installers Forum

Just had my pv system installed today. I requested the EP11 with heater which the installer said was available and I confirmed this morning that's what was being installed.

How is it supposed to work? I can't see any options in the fox app for heating and the battery temperature hasn't gone above 3°c since they switched everything on this afternoon. Is there anything I need to do or do I need to wait for any reason?

Morning,

For the heater controls to appear in the app you need the fox v2 app to be on the latest version so check the app store. You'll also need the latest inverter and battery firmware to be installed by your installer.
Once this is done you'll see the heater controls under devices > battery at the bottom of the screen near mode scheduler.

Might also be worth posting a picture of the model details sticker on the side of the battery so i/we can confirm you do have a heater model as there is a great deal of confusion about which have and don't have a heater currently.

Also worth noting that this option only appeared in the app over the last week or so and appears to be buggy on initial release so don't worry if it's not working perfectly until the next batch of fixes are released.

Looking at the feedback from Fox here: viewtopic.php?t=1127 your model number will have a H in it if it does have a heater like EP11-H

Hi Will,

Thanks for your reply.

Is there any way to check the firmware versions in the app or is this only available on installer mode?

I'll post a photo of the sticker when I get home tonight, I'm pretty sure it didn't have a -H on it though so I'm not totally convinced it's the heated one.

Don't mind too much if it's just firmware but want to make sure it's the right model.

Many thanks
Scott

You can see the firmware when you login to the cloud desktop version https://www.foxesscloud.com/

Hi Will,

I have asked the installer to check the firmware versions.

This is the sticker on the battery In the desktop version is shows version on battery master as "1.005" is that the firmware? Can't see where else the firmware version would be listed

Many Thanks
Scott

That doesn't look like a H model so no heater. Current firmware for the EP is 1.006 so nearly up to date. Your inverter firmware will also need to be the latest but if on the latest and no battery controls then it's highly likely you don't have a heater model.

Hi Will,

I've contacted the installer to see if they can get all the firmware up to date. Hopefully they can sort it out if its not the right one! Definitely need that heater in this weather!

Installer has been updating the firmware today, alas still no controls for heating so I'm assuming it's not the heated model. I'm hoping the installer will be able to sort it

Ok so firmware fully updated and heating looks to be working now! Its a little confusing how its works and was properly hidden in the app and I only found it by chance. It was under the "Quick Settings here" menu!
It seems that they're just quietly replacing them with the heated version without changing the model name as the EPs on the Fox website all advertise a heater but aren't given a different name. https://uk.fox-ess.com/ep-batteries/

So as you mentioned the heating function is very buggy!

It only seems to heat from the grid between the hours you set ( I assumed it would be able to heat from it's own capacity throughout the day as well)

And a couple of times after heating it doesn't discharge at all and only pulls from the grid until I turn off the heating function then it kicks in again.

Fingers crossed they improve this soon!

Hello, found this thread via Google and think I'm in the same boat as Scott.

Had my system installed a week ago - the fitter informed me that I've got the EP11 with heating element (wasn't what I was quoted for, but the quote was generated before the EP11-H was on the market). For what it's worth the label on it looks the same as Scott's.

I've got the 'Battery warmup' options on the app, but as far as I can tell it doesn't seem to be functioning. I've set the schedule for 'warmup slot in low price' to coincide with my off-peak rates overnight, but it never seems to warm the battery. And in this cold weather that means it will only charge at about 850 W!

I've had the inverter (H1-G2) firmware updated from 1.21 to 1.31, but that doesn't seem to have made any difference. The BMS firmware is 1.005.

@Scott - is your battery heating now functioning? What inverter do you have, and with what firmware version?

I guess I'm wondering if it's just a matter of waiting for the software/firmware to mature, or if I should be pro-actively asking anything of my installer to get it to kick into life.

Following up on this, in case it helps anyone else in future.

I raised it with my installer, who consulted with Fox. There were two main actions that now mean I have a functioning battery heating system (just in time for the weather to warm up ):

1. Most importantly, a BMS firmware update from 1.005 to 1.006. When the firmware update was applied my battery actually stopped working, and it took two rounds of power cycling the inverter and battery to get everything back (first power cycle brought the battery back, but no battery heating option at all, second power cycle restored the battery heating option).

2. Secondly, the 'warmup slot in low price' time settings cannot span midnight, i.e. if you want 23:30-05:30 you'll need to use two slots: 23:30-23:59 and 00:00-05:30. This is the same behaviour as the Mode Scheduler, but unlike the Mode Scheduler it didn't throw an error and instead just silently failed.

With these fixed the battery heating kicked in. Happy days.