Hey
Does anyone have a strategy for when Octopus (or any others) offer free electricity, especially in the day.
Right now, my battery is charging via the grid for free and my solar is generating 1.7kwh.
Rather than my solar topping up my battery, is there a way to say:
Between 12-1pm
Battery - charge from the grid
PV production - export to the grid
Any advice would be great
As I understand it from a limited knowledge of electricity, and what I've seen in my own system, at any one time electricity can either be flowing in from the grid, or flowing out to the grid, but not both. So there's not a way to accomplish your suggestion. Best case scenario is what you're already doing.
2.580kW solar panels - 6 x 430W
H1-3.7-E-G2 inverter
EP5 5.18kWh battery
H1-3.7-E-G2 inverter
EP5 5.18kWh battery
You have to think of it like a water pipe, the water can only flow in one direction at the same time and so you cannot export and charge from grid at the same time.
The real strategy will come down to whether you charge your batteries overnight, and how much you get paid for export vs how much you are saving by charging the battery - for example as I have an EV tariff I can charge the battery overnight for 7p/kW and during the day my export is 15p/kW, that means that during the 'free sessions' I have to guarantee that I use more than twice as much power as I am generating in solar or it's not worth doing and better to get paid for the PV export.
I have a home assistant that controls my house and switching everything on (washer etc..) I can usually take a maximum of 12kW in a free hour, whereas I could generate over 5kW of export - so even then it's a close call as to whether its worth it.
The real strategy will come down to whether you charge your batteries overnight, and how much you get paid for export vs how much you are saving by charging the battery - for example as I have an EV tariff I can charge the battery overnight for 7p/kW and during the day my export is 15p/kW, that means that during the 'free sessions' I have to guarantee that I use more than twice as much power as I am generating in solar or it's not worth doing and better to get paid for the PV export.
I have a home assistant that controls my house and switching everything on (washer etc..) I can usually take a maximum of 12kW in a free hour, whereas I could generate over 5kW of export - so even then it's a close call as to whether its worth it.