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Setting the time periods for generation - Octopus Plus

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 10:40 am
by AdamFox
Hi all
Customer is looking to use Octopus Plus electricity tariff and as such would want to run the inverter from battery at specific times.
Is there a way to program the inverter to only run from battery at certain times? In the same way it can be told when to charge the battery.
Or is there an input command port that could be attached to a time switch to enable the battery output from an external time switch?
Many thanks in advance.

Re: Setting the time periods for generation - Octopus Plus

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 2:24 pm
by calum
If the inverter is in "Self Use" work mode it will prioritise powering the house from the solar, if that's not enough it will use the battery, and only when that is exhausted or cannot provide enough power, will it draw from the grid.

As an aside, I am not sure that there is an Octopus "Plus" tariff, might they be looking at "Flux"?

(List of Octopus "Smart" tariffs here: https://octopus.energy/octopus-smart-tariffs/)

Re: Setting the time periods for generation - Octopus Plus

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 2:46 pm
by Dave Foster
As per Calum's post - yes they can do all of that you asked, the very latest version of firmware for the Hybrid inverters also allows the user to set a strategy which is perfect for tariffs like Octopus flux.
They are basically time schedules that allow you to use the battery at certain times (self-use), then switch to grid export when the feed-in payment is high, charge at times the tariffs are low and if you want to they will even allow the battery to discharge back to the grid.

Re: Setting the time periods for generation - Octopus Plus

Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2023 9:20 am
by AdamFox
Thank you Callum and Dave. The firmware on the inverter is
Master : 1.60 Slave : 1.02 Manager : 1.6
Are these the correct ones for the new functionality?
And if so, where would I find the new functionality?
Many thanks

Re: Setting the time periods for generation - Octopus Plus

Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2023 9:52 am
by calum
Right now I believe the latest versions (which you need to get this new functionality) are

- Manager: 1.70
- Master: 1.63
- Slave: 1.02

You can read up more on the Force Charge work mode here https://github.com/TonyM1958/HA-FoxESS- ... -work-mode