Ronski's Solar & battery DIY build with whole house backup

Ooops!

We've all been there, see bigmike20vt's post today in the EV thread.

I've got mine programmed to charge in all IO periods and it will not discharge once charging is complete so I'm fully on grid during cheap hours. Is that the way forward?
 
I used to have my system set to charge in the 12:30 to 5:30 slot using Victrons built in charging, but it would charge at maximum power of 8kW, I thought it better to do it more gradual, so I just set my free electric schedule at a lower rate, but it doesn't take into account house load.

Its easy enough to modify, its basically the reverse of my discharge algorithm where I want to discharge to 15% SOC charge by midnight, instead I want to reach 100% by 05:00, and allow 30 minutes to balance the cells.

Just need to get around to adjusting the code.

I'll take a look at what bigmike20vt did.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
I get the want for an integrated charger but it doesn't really matter. You can pole the Octopus API in NodeRed can't you? If so, you can trigger the battery to charge on the Octopus dispatching entity.
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Could you give me a pointer where to find information on this dispatching entity please? Been having a Google and its a bit information overload. Does the dispatcher entity show when a cheap slot is on normal Go (00:30 to 05:30) as well?

Ideally I'd like to learn how to do this in Node Red on the Victron system, but I could use HA and use that to get the information to the Victron system. Also been trying to find out how to current the current kWh price from the API, but no joy.
 
@b0rn2sk8 I've now got that installed in HA assistant, and its fetching the info.

When you have a IOG cheap session outside the 23:30 to 05:30 period does the "binary_sensor.octopus_energy_electricity_<snip>_off_peak" entity change to off peak?

I don't seem to have a dispatching entity at the moment, perhaps that only becomes available when it detects I'm on the IOG tariff.

Edit:

Did find this on Github.

If you are on an intelligent tariff, then rate information will be adjusted to off-peak rates when a dispatch is discovered during the period. This off peak rate will be dependent on your car charging. As the integration has no knowledge of if your car is charging, this value might be incorrect. This is indicated via the `is_intelligent_adjusted` attribute.
Click to expand...

So it may change to off peak, but if the cars not actually charging we we'll be getting charged full price? Surely current import price would reflect that?
 
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I got this from a couple of nights ago.
PmhOH8Q.png


Plugged car in about 1930, Zappi detected and Octopus worked out an early charge time then, so the bottom history line of the dispatching entity (which is from the Zappi element of the Octopus integration, I have 3, one for import, one for export, and one for the Zappi registered with Octopus -
iUoieyu.png
) shows cheap 7p rate from 1930, but the standard off peak entity stayed at cheap from 2330-0530.
 
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I think it’s boiler place disclaimer, e.g. if you get charged peak rate because you’ve followed the signals in the integration, don’t blame me.

As I mentioned above, I just follow the dispatching entity and it’s been 100% reliable in terms of matching up to my bill and the extra 7p slots.

Per your point above, that entity is only available when you are on the tariff.

Here is mine from yesterday:

vSHX8b0.jpeg


Edit: @1pudding1 you might want to edit/remove that image as it contains your octopus account number.
 
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Also to add to the above, you can ‘play the game’ to get slots in the day by plugging in first thing in the morning.

I’ve done a few short journeys this week in the evenings so rather than plugging in at night to recharge the 2-3%, I’ve set my ready time to 11am and plugged in before I go to work (commute via train).

I’ve had 30 mins to 90 mins during the day each day. Which helps keep the battery topped off for heat pump use or as earlier in the week, a savings session.
 
Had my Zappi installed Thursday night, and I've got to say the MyEnergi experience so far has been dreadful, incredibly poor user experience so far.

As you some of you will know I'm more geek than luddite having used, programed and built computers since my school days in the eighties. Yet I've failed miserably, had issues setting up the app, it got stuck in a setup loop, so had to finish the setup on the Web. I've set charging schedules yet it charged straight away (may well have been in Fast mode), so I stopped that and then it didn't start charging on the schedule. Admittedly I haven't read and digested the instructions (I'm a man!!), but it shouldn't be that hard. During the App setup it asks when and how much cheap periods are so they can save me money, but that seems irrelevant, as I have to setup schedules in the charger.

So this is what I had set, actually the duration was 5:30 as at first didn't realise it was duration, so it should have started charging at 00:30 and stopped at 6:00am this morning, it didn't do either.

I woke up at 1:15am so checked and it wasn't charging, I just clicked Fast in the app, when I woke at 6:15am it was still charging.

Its been a busy morning, and not had time to investigate further, but this is what I have in the App, and I've check on the Zappi and its the same there, so what am I missing, why did it not stop and start??? I have removed the schedules from the car yesterday, I could reinstate these and leave the charger on fast mode, but that's not going to work for IOG.

I need to get this sussed out before I further complicate things with IOG, all I want at the moment is for the car to charge in the off peak time slot 00:30 to 05:30.

I will setup an account on the MyEnergi forum and have a whinge there, but I've other things to be doing at the moment.

 
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I cant remember exactly, but does it need to be in Eco or Eco+ for the schedules to operate? So if its 'Stop' mode, the schedules have no effect. Similarly and opposite, if its in fast mode, the schedules have no effect and it charges regardless until the car is full or something else tells the Zappi to stop, which could explain what you saw with the Zappi?

You're right though, its not the most intuitive app and system, but getting it registered with IOG should make life simpler, just stick it in Eco+, get rid of all schedules in the car and app, and just let IOG control the Zappi. Plus, on the actual Zappi unit, bump up the amount of grid export needed before it charges the car to more than you installed solar array if you want it to export it rather than charge the car.
 
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Well, the fun continues, I actually managed to lock my self out whilst setting a lock pin!!!

But it wasn't me, I setup both options to be locked, set the timeout to 30 seconds, next in the list is the pin, entered a pin but didn't confirm the entry as I wanted to save the pin in my password manager, looked back at the screen and it had gone dark, pushed a button, and had to enter the pin, which didn't work.

Cue Google on how to reset the pin, turn off the power to the Zappi, turn back on, now have 30s before it locks (yes it really is that easy/bad), turns out the pin was back to the default 44444.

So I've now set the export margin to the maximum of 10kW, so that should stop it charging off of solar, the mode is set to Eco+.

Now to test if the schedule works, which it does.

1pudding1 said:
getting it registered with IOG should make life simpler, just stick it in Eco+, get rid of all schedules in the car and app
Click to expand...

I have to alter my house battery discharge & charging algorithms before I go on IOG, I'd also like to keep the charging schedules for overnight, so if I don't get a slot I know the car will be charged - I've no idea how often, or how reliable getting extra slots are, will IOG automatically charge in the off peak time period anyway???
 
I can’t help with the Zappi schedules but once you are in IOG, you’ll get a schedule whenever the car is plugged into the charger. It will only charge to the IOG schedule and will not charge at any other time unless you boost it in the octopus app or disconnect the charger from IOG
 
I found the Zappi app totally useless aswell so just let Octopus Intelligent Go handle it all now.

Mind you, that isn't straightforward either - sometimes I'll get a window of say 22:00-05:30 and it just keeps going after 05:30 for some reason. Other times it might stop 30 minutes short.

I'm also having problems with the CT clamp being inaccurate and reporting too high, so it thinks when I'm drawing 5kW charging my batteries and 7kW for the car that its actually more like 14kW and is throttling the car charging so it isn't filling the car in the time Octopus allocate.

I also had to manually set the export margin to 8kW as the first time I force discharged on the evening with the car plugged in it took it all. :rolleyes:

Its great when it works. :cry:
 
Surprisingly my Zappi CT is pretty accurate, it shows 59.2kWh, Victron shows 61.8 kWh and the Smart Meter in HA shows 59.672 kWh.

Victron has always been 5% over on import and export annoyingly.

The schedule in the Zappi really needs a mode attached to it, it would be so much clearer then.

I'll sort my discharge/charge routines out then move over to IOG
 
For your Zappi, as mentioned above, I don’t think the schedules will work unless a mode other than ‘Stop’ is selected.

Mine is set as follows, and has never not done what I expected it to;

Charging Mode - Eco+
MGL - 60% (but I’ve had this a lot higher too)

Then in the Boost Setting I have the 6hr window that works for my rates.
 
HJnAVWrl.jpg


This is the screen from the octopus app once you've registered your zappi. Tell it the % to add, ready by 0530, and it'll create the zappi car charger schedule and turn on the charger. If, like in my screenshot, your car can't be charged within the 6hr window due to a large% asked for, it might give you extra slots earlier at the cheap rate, in order to try and fully charge your car the asked for %.

I've not had it keep going past the charge window thankfully. Have the batteries and all controlled by Predbat in HA, works beautifully.
 
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