Solis Inverter, how to take advantage of Octopus free electricity?

[simonstroud]

I have a Solis S5-EH1P3.6K inverter and 10x400W panels, and some 6KhW pylontech batteries, and I have always left my system to charge the batteries, and then feed excess to the grid. This works pretty well.

However Octopus are offering 2 hours of free electricity tomorrow(7AM to 9AM), and I figure I should really charge up my batteries during this time, as given the UK weather is so poor at the moment. my batteries are likely to be down to their minimum by 7AM tomorrow morning.

My question, how is the best way to achieve this? Is there a way to do it remotely? (I don't want to by climbing around in my loft space at 6:55AM!!) Does anyone already do this?

Thanks.

 

[45North]

Depends.
What kind of battery charger do you have?
Does it have a remote function?

 

[jgh]

You need control-access to the Solis. That could be because you asked them to enable it for your inverter
(by serial number) via their website - or it could be because you have Home Assistant set up and communicating
with it.

If you've not arranged one of those, you're likely a bit late for tomorrow morning!

Then you set a timed-charge start time, stop time, and current.
And remember to clear it before Monday.

(you could clamber into the loft tonight, and do it on the front panel, too)

 

[rpdom]

Yes, some form of remote access is required. That might already be set up. You can do that through the Soliscloud App or website. Look for Inverter Control. Solis EU have some Youtube vids showing how to set charge times. Don't set any discharge times - that forces your battery to discharge to grid.

My batteries are 100% full as I'm on Octopus Agile and prices have been below zero most of the night. I've used 30kWh so far this morning, my house is really warm and I'm slightly in profit on the day.

Thanks for the reminder about the free session. I hadn't allowed for that in my charge times.

 

[jgh]

Oddly, https://grid.iamkate.com/ does not show negative wholesale prices over the night.

 

[Gray17]

Hi im with Octopus and havnt been notified of free electric, what tarriff are you on? Feel ive missed out, as you say weather as it is my batts arn't charging much at all either so even 2 hours better then nothing!

 

[simonstroud]

You have to sign up for octoplus I believe to get the free electricity.

As for my inverter, I have remote access enabled, and managed to schedule the settings to charge at 60A for 2 hours between 7AM and 9AM and it got my batteries charged to 80% for free ;-)

 

[kommando]

Just be aware of the Deye fiasco before you enable remote access. My Solax inverters are all isolated from the internet as they get installed as I expected the issue to be a problem in the future.

R

Post in thread 'CHINA kills all non Sol-Ark branded DEYE unit in the USA this morning.'

Nov 23, 2024

I found this video by Dave Jones of EEVblog here of a 5kW Deye teardown ... and he mentions that the main micro is an Advance Chip

Advchip
AVP32
F335QP176S

and a secondary micro? with S320 F2802 on it.

But there is actually an eeprom on the rear, though he didn't mention any number.

That's the first thing I'd change ... just fit a new blank one ... though that is unlikely to fix it. Really would need to remove one from a good board ... copy it and program one the same to fit. It possibly could be as simple as that.

• rogerdw

• 

Russia is also a bad actor looking to mess up UK infrastructure so even my SMA inverters are not online.

 

[Gray17]

Thanks for reply, will have to look into that, was it a 1 off or every night for 2 hours free?
Only issue i have is being retired means your home most of the time, a lot of Octopus tarriffs give you cheap power for 5 or so hours on a Nght but ramp up the daily cost per kw for the other 19 hrs, being at home means it costs me more then i gain in the 5hrs cheap then the 19hrs more expensive!
Dilemma!

 

[AshleyL]

Just be aware of the Deye fiasco before you enable remote access. My Solax inverters are all isolated from the internet as they get installed as I expected the issue to be a problem in the future.

R

Post in thread 'CHINA kills all non Sol-Ark branded DEYE unit in the USA this morning.'

Nov 23, 2024

I found this video by Dave Jones of EEVblog here of a 5kW Deye teardown ... and he mentions that the main micro is an Advance Chip

Advchip
AVP32
F335QP176S

and a secondary micro? with S320 F2802 on it.

But there is actually an eeprom on the rear, though he didn't mention any number.

That's the first thing I'd change ... just fit a new blank one ... though that is unlikely to fix it. Really would need to remove one from a good board ... copy it and program one the same to fit. It possibly could be as simple as that.

• rogerdw

• 

Russia is also a bad actor looking to mess up UK infrastructure so even my SMA inverters are not online.

If Russia does that in the name of the war, I don't think China will be happy about it.

 

[rpdom]

Thanks for reply, will have to look into that, was it a 1 off or every night for 2 hours free?
Only issue i have is being retired means your home most of the time, a lot of Octopus tarriffs give you cheap power for 5 or so hours on a Nght but ramp up the daily cost per kw for the other 19 hrs, being at home means it costs me more then i gain in the 5hrs cheap then the 19hrs more expensive!
Dilemma!

Occasionally Octopus announce these free electricity sessions when the wholesale price is really low. Those of us on Agile rarely benefit from it. I think I've saved about 35p total since they started.

I'm home all day as well, but I use the cheap overnight to charge my batteries which then power my house through the expensive times. I always try to make sure I've got at least 60% charge at 4pm to cover the really steep 4-7pm period.

 

[simonstroud]

I'm not on agile, as to charge my batteries when the weather is poor, for free is absolutely worth it. I will consume very little energy from the grid today.

From their FAQ on the free electricity offer.

Whether it's worth taking part largely depends on what the energy prices are doing at that time.

If it's a negative price period, your power is already better than free, so you'll get billed your power at your negative prices and won't be credited for any Free Electricity.

However, if your price is above zero, you're welcome to take part and benefit from our super-green sessions.

 

[mjatkey]

I have a Solis S5-EH1P3.6K inverter and 10x400W panels, and some 6KhW pylontech batteries, and I have always left my system to charge the batteries, and then feed excess to the grid. This works pretty well.

However Octopus are offering 2 hours of free electricity tomorrow(7AM to 9AM), and I figure I should really charge up my batteries during this time, as given the UK weather is so poor at the moment. my batteries are likely to be down to their minimum by 7AM tomorrow morning.

My question, how is the best way to achieve this? Is there a way to do it remotely? (I don't want to by climbing around in my loft space at 6:55AM!!) Does anyone already do this?

Thanks.

Here you go plenty of video's on line of how to set charge and discharge timers on the Solis.

Request API Access - SolisCloud

If you wish to download this article as a PDF, please scroll to the bottom of the page or click HERE. Request API Access - SolisCloud Our API Access is available now for end users. Its currently not available for installers. ...

solis-service.solisinverters.com

Once set up you can do it from the APP as well.

 

[simonstroud]

So what's the best way to disable this, with as few clicks needed to enable it again in the future?

Kind of related, embarrassingly, I forgot to take screenshots of the settings before I started tinkering. I will give myself 10 lashes this evening for that. The Solis naming isn't that great, so I'm not 100% sure if I have put things back correctly.

There is no single work mode parameter, there are 3 pages that have some interactions with each other, which isn't great. Are these correct to charge the battery before exporting to the grid?

Self Use Mode:

Feed In Priority Mode:


Off Grid Mode:


Thanks

 

[mjatkey]

So under self use take Charge Discharge set option



Put in your times and charge discharge current, hit ok and away you go.

Its all in the videos on Youtube.

To disable any charge or discharge just set window to 00:00 00:00.

 

[simonstroud]

I set the times to 00:00 and 00:00 however something still wasn't right, as today it was sunny, and the inverter has just exported all my generation, and left me with no battery :-( Any charge up I had on Sunday was pretty much lost... Not sure what setting would have caused this...

 

[jgh]

Check you're actually running in Self-Use mode, just in case...

 

[rpdom]

The Self-Use mode switch is enabled, which is correct. Just make sure all the other mode switches are disabled. Annoyingly is is possible to enable more than one mode, which leads to confusion and unexpected behaviour.

I usually leave Time of Use Switch enabled, and Allow Charging from Grid Switch enabled, but I do use the timed charge almost every day. Just turning off the Time of Use will disable the timed charge/discharge, but leave the Charge From Grid on so that your batteries can top up a little if they get down to their Force Charge SOC.

 

[mjatkey]

I set the times to 00:00 and 00:00 however something still wasn't right, as today it was sunny, and the inverter has just exported all my generation, and left me with no battery :-( Any charge up I had on Sunday was pretty much lost... Not sure what setting would have caused this...

Best bet open a ticket with Solis, they can sort it remotely if needed.