Mode Scheduler force charge/discharge - am I doing this right?!

[DavidInHythe]

Hi all,

I'm very new to this, and have just had the firmware updated on my battery/inverter, to allow Mode Scheduler to work. I have a Forced Charge set up between 2am and 5am, Force discharge between 4pm and 7pm, and a floating force charge (currently set 12pm to 1pm) to cover free electricity sessions (Octopus, of course).

The discharge from 4-7 appeared to work the other day, but I can't seem to get the force charge to work. I've attached screenshots from both web and mobile app - can anyone confirm it all looks reasonable, and if so, what my next steps might be?

Many thanks!
David.

[Dave Foster]

I can’t see anything wrong with your Force Charge settings, the FDSoC and FDPwr are not used by it (but must be set with a credible value).

I heard this morning there may be problems with latest firmware and schedules not working, but i’m also wondering whether it may be this setting which has been a problem for quite a few users recently - if you read this post and check to see what your importpowerlimit is set to. viewtopic.php?p=9414#p9414

[DavidInHythe]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the swift reply - I checked my panel, and export current was set to 100A as expected, export power was actually set to 15000W! Import current was also 100A, but import power was only 100W, so I changed that to 5000W.

We'll see what happens in the next free session! In the mean time, I set a schedule for Feed-In priority, which at very least diverts solar to the grid, and stops charging my battery! (I need the battery to be in need of a decent charge in advance of the free session!)

All the best, and thanks again - I'll report back hopefully in the next day or two.
David.

[DavidInHythe]

Hi Dave, and all...

Quick update - Force Discharge appears to be working perfectly; combined with my solar output I got up to 6kWh export between 12-1pm yesterday!

Force Charge though is a different story. I think I have it set correctly in Mode Scheduler - I also read online somewhere that it may also be beneficial to add a short Self-Use schedule immediately afterwards, to force it back into Self-Use mode? So attached are my Mode Scheduler entries, and a screenshot from the app of power in/out last night.

One thing to note is that I did schedule my dishwasher at 2am also, on a 60C "quick" wash ("quick" means 1hr 45min!). Could that be screwing up what's happening? Happy to try it again tonight without the dishwasher?

Cheers for any ideas!
David.

[DavidInHythe]

I'm an idiot, sorry - I just realised I cut off the time part of the graph... the two or three spikes close together occurred between 2am and 3am - hope that helps!

[DavidInHythe]

I'm really an idiot! And sorry for the confusion... Yesterday's 6kWh during the free session was a force charge, not discharge of course! So now I'm even more confused... Why would a force charge work during the day (I had other loads turned on, immersion heater, kettle, etc), but not at night?!

Confusedly,
David.

[Dave Foster]

If it charges during the day but not at night it may be because the import power is still set too low, particularly if the inverter can see other loads such as an EV charger or water heater.

If you're export power limit was 15000 watt, change your import power limit to 15000 watts as well - it can't do any damage as the inverter can only output / input at it's maximum rated power, but if you have other loads in the house it will throttle the battery charge because of them.

[DavidInHythe]

Cheers again for that advice, I'll check import and export are both set to 15k, and will also try not to have any heavy loads scheduled tonight!

Will update as and when I can, but really appreciate the help so far!

[DavidInHythe]

Hi Dave,

Still no charge, but I did notice that battery usage for the regular background load on the house dropped to 0, so everything was coming from the grid... Looks like my original screenshot from the other night shows the same, but worth the dishwasher running the other lines on the graph distracted me! Here's the one from last night, scheduled force charge from 02:00 to 04:59.

Cheers again!
David

[Dave Foster]

It’s definitely seeing the schedule as it shuts down battery use so we know the schedules are running.

I had heard that the latest firmware for KH and H inverters caused problems with schedules, but also just heard that FDPwr on latest firmware is being used to control charge as well as discharge power - sorry can’t confirm that yet, i’m trying to find out more (it might simply be a bug)./

You started the thread with i’ve just had my firmware updated so it’s worth trying with FDPwr set to confirm it, you can’t set FDPwr on the website but you can in the app - try setting your force charge schedule with an FDPwr of (say) 4000 watts and lets see what happens tonight.

[DavidInHythe]

Hi again Dave,

Thanks so much once more! I had noticed that FDPwr was available in the app for all modes, but only for force discharge on the web (which makes more sense). Will update that for tonight, and let you know here! Have you considered setting up a "buy me a coffee" fund?! I'd definitely buy you a coffee, beer, or whatever!

Cheers,
David

[DavidInHythe]

Hi Dave,

Can you believe it, that worked!!!

Thank you so much for all your suggestions and help! Just to confirm, this was setting the FDPwr to 5000W (had to be done in the app, as it's greyed out in the web version for force charge).

Cheers, and all the best!
David.

[Dave Foster]

That’s great and confirms what I had been hearing on latest firmware. I’m still not sure whether that is a bug or has been added as a feature (arguably a long overdue one) but at least we know for sure - happy charging

Would you post your firmware versions for my reference please - you can see them in the app Device, Inverter, click on the serial number under the inverter image, and it is the Master, Slave and ARM versions.

[DavidInHythe]

Dave,

If course, no problem, and if this thread helps even just one other user I'll be happy! I guess if it's an intended feature they'd need to ungrey the options from the web version and make it mandatory... Possibly even change the wording from FDPwr!

Here's my inverter F/W info, let me know if you need anything else (I'll try to get this all added to my profile!)

Cheers again for all the help!
David

[StBenedicts]

I can also confirm that FD Power controls both Force Charge & Force Discharge in the latest version of the app.
I have a H1-5.0-E-G2 running Master 1.40, Slave 1.04, ARM 1.56