Release 363 - Octopus Agile window 'hold charge' functionality

admin

Release 363 is now available.

Main feature here is the introduction of Octopus Agile window 'hold charge' functionality for gapped (non-charge slots), which is ideal for ASHP and EV owners on agile.

https://community.wonderwatt.com/d/96-wonder-watt-release-notes

Mat

As you can select individual half hrs to use for charging, will there be a way to select individual half hrs to not discharge? Or set a price for when the grid as apposed to the battery should be used to power the house? Also, if a half hour slot is selected, say at 1am and the next is at say 10.30pm the same day, wouldn't the battery hold from 1.30am untill 11pm?

admin

Mat

As you can select individual half hrs to use for charging, will there be a way to select individual half hrs to not discharge?

Not currently, we're trying to achieve that with this Hold Charge functionality.

Also, if a half hour slot is selected, say at 1am and the next is at say 10.30pm the same day, wouldn't the battery hold from 1.30am untill 11pm?

No, the battery hold only is in place for any non-charge slots within your Agile Charge window. In other words, if you have an Agile Charge window from 00:00-06:00 (with Hold charge ON) and only one cheap slot at say 1:00-1:30 is selected, the hold charge starts at 00:00-01:00, then your charge happens, and the hold charge will continue from 1:30 until the end of your configured charge window, which is 6:00AM.

Makes sense?

Mat

admin yep makes sense 👍

Mat

Inferior-opposite here! Just playing with the hold feature and I thought I would be seeing the battery hold until the 1130 slot I set and then go back on hold after that slot. The slot was set that was the cheapest so I know the command went through. 🤔

admin

Mat Thanks for that, might be an edge case we've overlooked, where we need to issue a hold charge straight at the beginning of the charge window.

Will look into it!

Mat

admin cheers. To confirm the charge slot started when it should at 1130. I didn't know if it had anything to do with setting the session up so close to when I wanted it to start.

Mat

admin sorry me again, id set the charge to 45% but it's carried on past that. The GivEnergy app shows that the slot has been inputed but that the 'charge upto' is still on 100%

admin

Mat The SOC you set there is basically a minimum threshold setting (SOC less than) - a condition that needs to be met for the charge slot to start, not a "charge up to".

Mat

admin got ya. Every day's a school day. On a hold, does that also stop the solar going into the battery and into the house if its sunlight hours?

admin

Mat

On a hold, does that also stop the solar going into the battery and into the house if its sunlight hours?

Yeah, solar will basically go to the house in this mode (or flow grid side if there is excess) and won't go into battery.

Mat

I used the hold feature last night between 3 charge slots. The log on ww shows the hold command but the house was still drawing from the battery apart from during a few random minutes.

admin

Mat It looks like it's working, this may have to do with the way we implemented 'hold charge'.

We're simply setting the charge target percentage to current SOC. And it does look that there are still some fluctuations going on, but on the whole, it looks like the battery stays at or around the SOC.

This mechanism works quite well on Growatt, but for Giv, it may be better to effectively reduce the discharge power to 0 during a hold-charge slot.

johalareewi

Just signed up to WW and tried out the hold feature last night. Didn't seem to work.
Will post screenshots later but have to pop out right now.

admin

johalareewi We'll have a look through the logs. What is your WattID? (You can find it in the Advanced section)

And the Giv logs would be useful too, please.

johalareewi

admin neighboring-volume

What data do you want to see from the GE inverter logs?

Mat

admin so what you're saying is that because my nighttime usage is low, the battery is still trickling? Max load is around 200w ish. There's always something on though as I have a ventilation system running although there's less than 40w from what I remember. The test would be to do washing or something during the night and see what the battery does?

admin

Mat The test is, does your battery get to the end of the hold period on the state of SOC as it was? Not whether it may well charge and discharge little bits.

But maybe we should explore 'pausing' the battery and reducing discharge rate to 0 if we can.

johalareewi

admin But maybe we should explore 'pausing' the battery and reducing discharge rate to 0 if we can.

The GE mobile app has a quick button to stop battery charge/discharge.
Guess this sends a command to the inverter so it should be available to wonderwatt via the API.
GE quick buttons allow
Force battery charge
Force battery discharge
Pause battery
Play (restore normal use)

Mat

admin I assumed the battery was in total hold mode during hold periods domg nowt until the next charge period or the end of the schedule is reached.

johalareewi

That does explain the strange fluctuations during the longer hold periods.

Battery would kick in and out at 'random' intervals.

That isn't a problem for my normal use but tonight the EV will be charging so I will see if the hold feature preserves the GE battery and forces the EV to charge from the grid during the hold periods.

admin

johalareewi Just wanted to see we sent the right instructions really. But it looks like we did from your graph, so thanks for that.

Yeah, would be interesting to see how the instruction to keep SOC at the current percentage will deal with the EV charging.