FoxESS Community - Owners & Installers Forum

After getting the force charge working again due to the mode scheduler randomly switching it off, I now have a new problem. The mode scheduler all looks correct (looking on app and on website). But I noticed yesterday evening when it should have been in a forced discharge period, my smart meter showed it was drawing from the grid.

In the evening, I have three forced discharge periods to get the battery down to 10% in time to recharge fully overnight. At 8pm It discharges for 2 hours or until 48%, then at 10pm for 1 hour to 24%, then at 11pm for 30 minutes till 12%. When not discharging because it has reached the level, it then used to supply the house from the battery as expected (see pic 1 from 27/2/26).
But since then, when it's not actually discharging, the battery doesn't supply the house - the inverter instead draws from the grid, at the expensive rate (see pic 2 from 3/3/26 - between the three yellow peaks on the right above the line it is now dark blue instead of yellow - it's using the grid, not the battery). This is not what I want, and not what I set it up to do.
Is this another problem from the latest software update? It certainly coincides date-wise. It doesn't seem to be a mode scheduler issue as that all looks correct. It's discharging during that period, but then when it reaches the cut-off threshold it then doesn't behave correctly.

Any ideas please?

I have a 5kW inverter and 2 x EP11

Some people are reporting firmware has been forcibly upgraded and apart from a battery reboot, which kills the EPS circuit, it worked fine for them.

However not everyone and they get weird scheduling issues until they shutdown and restart their inverter and batteries.

In fact, it's still not charging properly either. Again it's kind of doing the right thing according to the mode scheduler, but if you look at the early hours of the morning of graph 1 above, you'll see the EV charging at 7kW, and the battery at 5kW.

Compare that with this graph for this morning (below). While the EV is charging, the battery isn't so much - it only really gets going when the EV stops.
Are you saying the best thing is to try and restart the battery and inverter? Is there a particular order or process to do that?

Presumably Fox are aware of these issues and are working on a fix? Not everyone monitors their systems closely, expecting, not unreasonably, that once they are set up they will work. A lot of customers are going to face higher than expected electricity bills soon if their batteries haven't been working as expected.

5kW inverter, 2 x EP11, EPS

You may need the reboot on your system, but you should go to your Inverter menu ideally and check the Import/Export limits are set correct, and the Battery charging/discharge limits are correct.

It seems your system has limited grid Import, this will be why your battery was limited and then increases as the car charge finishes.

There are Youtube videos by Will made if you need help in finding?

andrewv wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2026 1:41 pm Are you saying the best thing is to try and restart the battery and inverter?

Has worked for others

andrewv wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2026 1:41 pm Is there a particular order or process to do that?

Yes, but I've only skimmed over it in the user manual, I've never actually had to do it yet.

Check here: https://www.fox-ess.com/resource-suppor ... ual?cid=35

andrewv wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2026 1:41 pm Presumably Fox are aware of these issues and are working on a fix? Not everyone monitors their systems closely, expecting, not unreasonably, that once they are set up they will work. A lot of customers are going to face higher than expected electricity bills soon if their batteries haven't been working as expected.

Given the pastes from customer service emails turning up in this forum I'd say so.

Yes, sudden power bill spikes definitely suck, at least these days they show up in the power company apps pretty quickly, unlike in the past when everything was quarterly, or worst yet some companies in the past lost meter readings so you wouldn't find out for 6 months.

Thanks for the replies. Yes please - could you point me towards Will's video? Presumably this will say what the correct values should be?

andrewv wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2026 2:00 pm Thanks for the replies. Yes please - could you point me towards Will's video? Presumably this will say what the correct values should be?

Here are all his videos, so you can look up other things.
https://www.youtube.com/@iameccles/videos

More directly...




I have an 80Amp fuse, so my Import power is 18,400 Watt, your export limit will be on your G99 document, unless you have G98

The values do depend on your hardware, but for now, if you post what you see... values can be verified.
If they are correct, then you will need to check your schedule is correct for import.

These are the instructions given to me for a reboot

viewtopic.php?p=13266#p13266
Shut-Down Sequence – (Switch OFF)
1. Turn OFF the PV supply at the consumer unit (3).
2. Turn OFF the AC isolator at the consumer unit (3).
3. Switch the AC Isolator at the inverter to OFF (2).
4. Switch the DC Isolators at the Inverter to OFF (2).
5. Battery off

Wait for Inverter screen to go off, wait 20-30 seconds.

Then I do all of that in reverse

MaterialBarracuda48 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2026 2:22 pm These are the instructions given to me for a reboot

No wiki for these kinds of tidbits?

Searching forums in general can be hit and miss, but wiki pages can be a structured summarisation of long threads.

evilbunny wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2026 2:35 pm

MaterialBarracuda48 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2026 2:22 pm These are the instructions given to me for a reboot

No wiki for these kinds of tidbits?

Searching forums in general can be hit and miss, but wiki pages can be a structured summarisation of long threads.

Nope, just my brain that is like a search engine and remembers posts and finding them.
I did a long time ago suggest a sticky thread of FAQ's but nothing was created.

And searching is hard, as the forum will block results for common values like "battery" "inverter" so you have to get creative.

MaterialBarracuda48 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2026 2:40 pm And searching is hard, as the forum will block results for common values like "battery" "inverter" so you have to get creative.

If you think that's hard, try searching for even shorter words like SoC

On-Grid
ExportLimitPwr 30000W
ImportLimitPwr 9200W
ExportLimitCur 100A
ImportLimitCur 100A

Battery
MaxChgCur 40A
MaxDischgCur 40A

It is that 9200W that's limiting the battery charging while the EV is also charging? What should that be? I have a 100A main fuse.

andrewv wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2026 3:58 pm On-Grid
ExportLimitPwr 30000W
ImportLimitPwr 9200W
ExportLimitCur 100A
ImportLimitCur 100A

Battery
MaxChgCur 40A
MaxDischgCur 40A

It is that 9200W that's limiting the battery charging while the EV is also charging? What should that be? I have a 100A main fuse.

Bingo!

Up that value to 23000 W
Mines 80 Amp x 230V = 18400 W

Here is a thread you should take a look at viewtopic.php?p=12967#p12967
If you have a G99 as shown in the thread, then you should in theory set your export limits accordingly also.

Great, thank you. I will try that and see what happens tonight - it should at least charge correctly now.

I'll also try resetting the whole unit later and see if that helps with the incorrect forced discharging.

You should be ok on the Import side of things at least, yesterday I was pulling 14.9kW from the grid (out of my max 18.4kW)

EV running
Battery charging
Cooking at same time

It charged at the correct rate last night - battery and EV at the same time.

But yesterday evening it was still running off the grid during the force discharge periods when it had reached the SOC level, instead of from the battery.

So I restarted the system this morning, and now have "grid lost fault".

Any ideas please?

5kw inverter, 2 x EP11, EPS

andrewv wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2026 9:00 am But yesterday evening it was still running off the grid during the force discharge periods when it had reached the SOC level, instead of from the battery.

That's actually a current issue in their software and/or servers and/or firmware.

OK, system back up. Will see what the force discharge does this evening...

I sent an email enquiry to Fox ESS after installing the new Fox app on my phone:
"Following an update of the FoxESS app, I am still unable to get the system to switch to self-use mode after discharge is complete.
The default mode is self-use however this only kicks in when there are no active schedules. Therefore, if my scheduled discharge is between 4pm and 7pm with cut-off 30%, the battery SOC reaches 30% at (say) 6pm and then goes into grid-use until 7pm. This is peak rate from my electricity supplier so it is costing me significantly. It has only recently become a problem, before March everything was working fine.
Is there anyway we could revert back to previous software/firmware on my Fox inverter?"

Their reply was:
"Of course the battery will stop discharging and into grid use because the cut off soc has been set to 30 and the capacity hits 30 at 6pm, the battery will not do anything until it gets out of the set time(7pm) so at that time the only power source the load can get is from the grid. To avoid this you can set the discharging time shorter to let the battery get out of the discharging period earlier."

I replied:
"Sorry this is not convenient as I want to stop discharging when I get to 30% SOC not at a set time that I will need to change daily depending on the starting SOC for the discharge session and my system load."

No reply for over a week now.
Fox ESS clearly do not have a clear understanding of customer needs if they think it is acceptable to draw from grid during peak hours. There should be a discharge cut-off SOC limit for discharging schedule as well as min-SOC which can be set lower (I usually leave this at 10%), this way the system will draw from the battery after reaching cut-off instead of the grid.

@Kiran84 The hardest thing will be someone will want the schedule to shut down at xx% SoC and another will want it to obey the time specified.

You only real choices are to use alternative methods, example Home Assistant can be programmed to switch work modes if time = xx:xx to yy:yy and SoC = less than xx%, then do change work mode.

That is a pretty silly reply from Fox. Why would someone want to force discharge to a certain level (selling), then immediately buy back at a more expensive price? This is what my system is doing in the evenings now.

And the more important point is that the system used to work one way (running off the battery once it had reached the desired SOC when force discharging). So surely it should be kept the same way?

Nearly three weeks after breaking my system in three different ways (disabled force charging, changing import power level and force discharging switching to grid import after reaching SOC), the last of these problems is still happening, costing me money.

@ MaterialBarracuda48
It will work for all if there is a min-SOC setting for forced discharge, simply set min-SOC equal to discharge cut-off to draw from grid and maintain battery SOC up to the end of the schedule.
Or in most cases, set min-SOC to 10% to go into self-use mode after min-SOC has been reached.
Any objections?

Although this can be done in HA, it shouldn't have to be and most users wont have access to HA. This is a stupid problem that should never occur.
I maintain that Fox-ESS do not understand their customers needs if they think this change is acceptable.

Kiran84 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 17, 2026 10:27 am @ MaterialBarracuda48
It will work for all if there is a min-SOC setting for forced discharge, simply set min-SOC equal to discharge cut-off to draw from grid and maintain battery SOC up to the end of the schedule.
Or in most cases, set min-SOC to 10% to go into self-use mode after min-SOC has been reached.
Any objections?

As mentioned, there will be some that want it to change modes once it reaches the SOC, and others that don't want it to do that. Please one customer, upset another. If they are working on changing the system logic, to me more like HA, where you can be more granular with the system logic, that would be brilliant, as this would keep both camps happy.

Not fighting with you, just seeing both sides is all.

Kiran84 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 17, 2026 10:27 am @ MaterialBarracuda48
Although this can be done in HA, it shouldn't have to be and most users wont have access to HA. This is a stupid problem that should never occur.
I maintain that Fox-ESS do not understand their customers needs if they think this change is acceptable.

I agree, people should not have to use HA or some other methods. If Fox can work on better Firmware logic/settings then this can be sorted out, maybe it is a work in progress kind of thing happening right now.

I do hope they can roll something out in FW and or SW.

I can understand how some people will want something to work one way and some another.

But I'd say that forcibly changing the way something works, without warning, is an absolute no-no. If they want to introduce extra functionality, then they shouldn't do it at the expense of existing functionality. And let's face it, they're not deliberately introducing extra functionality here, they've done this by accident.