FoxESS Community - Owners & Installers Forum

Getting to the purchase poiint when my supplier has informed me planned KH-Series 10.5 hybrid inverter software/firmware does not support forced charge and discharge, that I am
seeking on a large house solar with battery installation (KH-10.5 plus ES4300 batteries), he informs me that this premium hybrid inverter hasnt had the same upgrade to software/firmware as other
Fox ESS mainly lower capacity inverters.

Is this true ?? If so pretty disapointed after months of planning.

If so does Fox ESS have plans to upgrade the firmware of the KH series hybrid inverers, or do I need to start looking at alternative solutions.

Sorry but I don't have a definitive answer for this, the force discharge feature has only just been added to the H1 series (within the last 4 weeks).

I am told that the H3 will be following shortly, I would be astonished if the KH series doesn't receive this update but if it is a buying decision I would recommend that you email service.uk@fox-ess.com for assistance.

When you get a response, i'd be grateful if you could reply to this thread please with details.

Have sent an KH-Series software pre-purchase enquiy to Fox ESS support, will update here when I get an answer.

Just had an email reply from Fox ESS support to my pre-purchase enquiry on upgrage to KH-Series inverter software/Firmware to support scheduled forced charge / discharge of batteries.
They have confirmed that this software release is imminent (due over next 2 weeks), will be watching this space as this feature is critical to my purchase decision and ROI.

Phil Boucher

Phil Boucher wrote: ↑Mon Dec 11, 2023 11:27 am Just had an email reply from Fox ESS support to my pre-purchase enquiry on upgrage to KH-Series inverter software/Firmware to support scheduled forced charge / discharge of batteries.
They have confirmed that this software release is imminent (due over next 2 weeks), will be watching this space as this feature is critical to my purchase decision and ROI.

Phil Boucher

Great, thanks for the update

This is my inverter ... confirm latest firmware did not give me that function. It did add 'peak shaving' and it did subtract the ability for the foxesscloud to work properly with the inverter. Local control (panel and modbus) are fine. Well, actually I've had some inverter operating system freezes/reboots (not the whole inverter rebooting or anything that takes my power down) since this new firmware.

My support ticket on that was closed without a reply. So far my support experience has not been very good, though they did send the firmware update within a pretty short time of me asking.

UK_KH_User123 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 8:47 pm This is my inverter ... confirm latest firmware did not give me that function. It did add 'peak shaving' and it did subtract the ability for the foxesscloud to work properly with the inverter. Local control (panel and modbus) are fine. Well, actually I've had some inverter operating system freezes/reboots (not the whole inverter rebooting or anything that takes my power down) since this new firmware.

My support ticket on that was closed without a reply. So far my support experience has not been very good, though they did send the firmware update within a pretty short time of me asking.

The UK service manager gave an update yesterday - i'll post it below -

One other update - the force discharge option for the K Series is still not available, that is scheduled for release (requiring firmware update) in mid January. The H3 will be a couple of weeks behind that. I won't be available to answer messages until Monday now, so just a heads up in case I am tagged into replies. Thanks.

I’m in a similar position (pre-purchase) and contacted ESS support who emailed back today saying force charge is now supported but with no release date for force discharge firmware.
Is anyone with a 10/10.5kW K series inverter able to confirm that the force charge is now working please?
Thanks

Janney77 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 15, 2024 5:20 pm I’m in a similar position (pre-purchase) and contacted ESS support who emailed back today saying force charge is now supported but with no release date for force discharge firmware.
Is anyone with a 10/10.5kW K series inverter able to confirm that the force charge is now working please?
Thanks

It’s been expected anytime now, a firmware release for the K series has landed today - i’m just waiting to hear whether this has the feature

Dave Foster wrote: ↑Wed Jan 17, 2024 3:07 pm

Janney77 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 15, 2024 5:20 pm I’m in a similar position (pre-purchase) and contacted ESS support who emailed back today saying force charge is now supported but with no release date for force discharge firmware.
Is anyone with a 10/10.5kW K series inverter able to confirm that the force charge is now working please?
Thanks

It’s been expected anytime now, a firmware release for the K series has landed today - i’m just waiting to hear whether this has the feature

It’s confirmed the firmware released today introduces Force Discharge on the K series

I was delighted to find that my KH10.5 inverter (installed 2/4/24) had the firmware to allow forced charge and forced discharge of my batteries.
The only issue I have is that whilst the forced charge runs at 10kw, the app (Android version) only allows a forced discharge of up to 6kw.
This seems particularly strange when there is no limit to the export direct from the PV output (which does sometimes exceed 6kw).

Does anyone know how to get round this limit, or who has set it?

AlanHarwood wrote: ↑Wed Apr 17, 2024 6:13 pm I was delighted to find that my KH10.5 inverter (installed 2/4/24) had the firmware to allow forced charge and forced discharge of my batteries.
The only issue I have is that whilst the forced charge runs at 10kw, the app (Android version) only allows a forced discharge of up to 6kw.
This seems particularly strange when there is no limit to the export direct from the PV output (which does sometimes exceed 6kw).

Does anyone know how to get round this limit, or who has set it?

I've just checked and seen the same thing, it has a numeric limit of 6000 on the apps or the website (I have an H1-6.0 so never really noticed) - that looks like a bug to me !

If you click on this link you should be able to log a bug report for the V2 app here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... Q/viewform

Interesting thread thanks. I'm considering buying 2 K series inverters - KH7. I'd like to store up and export too. However is regular force discharging to grid wise ( assuming its now possible)?
Won't it eat into your cycles limit? The batteries will only do 6000 cycles? What is the definition of a cycle anyway? - fully empty to full only? What about descending to 50% from 75% and the returning....is that a cycle too?

OashDave wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 2:33 pm Interesting thread thanks. I'm considering buying 2 K series inverters - KH7. I'd like to store up and export too. However is regular force discharging to grid wise ( assuming its now possible)?
Won't it eat into your cycles limit? The batteries will only do 6000 cycles? What is the definition of a cycle anyway? - fully empty to full only? What about descending to 50% from 75% and the returning....is that a cycle too?

As long as you sell your battery power for a reasonable profit it is worth doing, and the bigger the battery pack the better as the cycles will last longer as well.
Just make sure you do your maths carefully as it's likely when you take purchase and install cost into account the batteries cost approx 10p per kWh.
Octopus Flux is paying around 29p per kWh so whilst not a huge profit it is still a viable thing to do. Over the last winter here in the UK there were a number of 'saver sessions' where you were paid as much as £1.75 per kWh to export at peak times and that is definitely worth having.

On the cycles count a full cycle is from fully charged to minsoc (10%) and back again, so if you only discharge to 50% and charge to 50% you have only used half a cycle.

The problem with cycles is as your battery ages the cycle capacity reduces, when new it is 100% to 10% (90% per cycle), after 10 years more likely 80% to 10% (70% per cycle) so the amount of power you release per cycle is decreasing with time.

Most battery manufacturers are moving away from cycles to battery throughput, this is basically the number of kWh's the battery charges or discharges - so for example if you charge it by 5kWh and then discharge it by 5kWh you will have used 10kWh in throughput. This is much more accurate than cycles as the throughput is consistent across the batteries lifetime.

Foxess quote 'guaranteed throughput' for all their batteries in the warranty documents.

Thanks Dave. I reported as you suggested, and it's fixed now.

I spoke too soon. I successfully changed the maximum discharge power to 10kw using the web page, but when I later tried to alter the timings on the Android app, it told me I had to reduce the maximum power back to 6kw.