On-grid domestic battery storage

chamelion

EVandPV said:

chamelion said:

This is really useful, thanks! Any idea if there's an API I can use where I can grab data like battery charge / discharge rate?

You'll get all that on the web portal with an export to excel option but there's also a script that talks to the Lux .....
https://github.com/celsworth/octolux

Hoping I can reverse engineer this to suit my needs! I've basically got my own home monitoring system via domoticz, ideally I want to continue being able to graph my house load + import load, and this would now also include battery discharge rate so I know how much my house is using overall - import + battery + pv. Excel exports won't be real time enough, I'd prefer being able to talk to the battery system and get data back... 

Zarch

chamelion said:

EVandPV said:

chamelion said:

This is really useful, thanks! Any idea if there's an API I can use where I can grab data like battery charge / discharge rate?

You'll get all that on the web portal with an export to excel option but there's also a script that talks to the Lux .....
https://github.com/celsworth/octolux

Hoping I can reverse engineer this to suit my needs! I've basically got my own home monitoring system via domoticz, ideally I want to continue being able to graph my house load + import load, and this would now also include battery discharge rate so I know how much my house is using overall - import + battery + pv. Excel exports won't be real time enough, I'd prefer being able to talk to the battery system and get data back... 

You won't need to reverse engineer anything on the Lux, Chris has already done the hard work.
https://github.com/celsworth/octolux

Also on the Pylontech batteries.
https://github.com/celsworth/lxp-pylon-utils

Plus, i've heard on the energy grapevine that Lux are working on a legit API.  This is one of the reasons I went with the Lux.

EVandPV

chamelion said:

Hoping I can reverse engineer this to suit my needs! I've basically got my own home monitoring system via domoticz, ideally I want to continue being able to graph my house load + import load, and this would now also include battery discharge rate so I know how much my house is using overall - import + battery + pv. Excel exports won't be real time enough, I'd prefer being able to talk to the battery system and get data back... 

The Lux graphing on the web portal is also pretty comprehensive.

mickyduck55

Guess this is some software glitch... certainly northing happening at my home to cause an export of 1.2 Kw at 04:55 unless someone is plugging something into my outside socket 

chamelion

Hi folks,
couple of questions for those of you with lux's if you don't mind!

1) Is there a 'no battery export to grid' option? i.e. I'd never want to have the battery discharging more than my usage minus solar - which would result in me exporting energy to the grid. If solar is higher than my house usage, that's fine - solar can export assuming my battery is fully charged, but the battery wouldn't start supplying the house. 

2) Scenario: i'm on octopus agile, peak rates are 4pm - 7pm. I've read about the 'forced discharge' option on luxs - is that clever enough to say that hey, at 4:30pm i'm actually generating loads of solar energy that covers the full house use, so don't force discharge - and in fact CHARGE if the battery charge level is <100% and i'm generative excess via my panels? But then at 5pm if the sun sets and my house usage goes higher than generation, then to start supplying just enough power to make up the delta (but not higher as that would result in export). 

Thanks folks!

EVandPV

chamelion said:

Hi folks,
couple of questions for those of you with lux's if you don't mind!

1) Is there a 'no battery export to grid' option? i.e. I'd never want to have the battery discharging more than my usage minus solar - which would result in me exporting energy to the grid. If solar is higher than my house usage, that's fine - solar can export assuming my battery is fully charged, but the battery wouldn't start supplying the house. 

2) Scenario: i'm on octopus agile, peak rates are 4pm - 7pm. I've read about the 'forced discharge' option on luxs - is that clever enough to say that hey, at 4:30pm i'm actually generating loads of solar energy that covers the full house use, so don't force discharge - and in fact CHARGE if the battery charge level is <100% and i'm generative excess via my panels? But then at 5pm if the sun sets and my house usage goes higher than generation, then to start supplying just enough power to make up the delta (but not higher as that would result in export). 

Thanks folks!

If I'm understanding your questions correctly .....

1) Does this automatically. There is a "fast zero export" setting but I haven't bothered with it as the amount of export while the battery is charging from pv is tiny. Once the battery is at 100%, any surplus pv goes to the grid as per normal. Once the sun dips, the battery will kick in without exporting anything. It's all pretty seamless.

2) Haven't actually used force discharge as we're on FIT but I suspect it wouldn't do what your asking. You'd need to disable forced discharge which you could do remotely from the app or web portal.

chamelion

EVandPV said:

chamelion said:

Hi folks,
couple of questions for those of you with lux's if you don't mind!

1) Is there a 'no battery export to grid' option? i.e. I'd never want to have the battery discharging more than my usage minus solar - which would result in me exporting energy to the grid. If solar is higher than my house usage, that's fine - solar can export assuming my battery is fully charged, but the battery wouldn't start supplying the house. 

2) Scenario: i'm on octopus agile, peak rates are 4pm - 7pm. I've read about the 'forced discharge' option on luxs - is that clever enough to say that hey, at 4:30pm i'm actually generating loads of solar energy that covers the full house use, so don't force discharge - and in fact CHARGE if the battery charge level is <100% and i'm generative excess via my panels? But then at 5pm if the sun sets and my house usage goes higher than generation, then to start supplying just enough power to make up the delta (but not higher as that would result in export). 

Thanks folks!

If I'm understanding your questions correctly .....

1) Does this automatically. There is a "fast zero export" setting by I haven't bothered with it as the amount of export while the battery is charging from pv is tiny. Once the battery is at 100%, any surplus pv goes to the grid as per normal. Once the sun dips, the battery will kick in without exporting anything. It's all pretty seamless.

2) Haven't actually used force discharge as we're on FIT but I suspect it wouldn't do what your asking. You'd need to disable forced discharge which you could do remotely from the app or web portal.

thanks! for the 2nd one - basically i'm asking what the 'priority' is for the power flow. 
sorry if i'm overcomplicating I know scenario 1 below is correct. what i'm trying to work out is what happens with scenario 2 and 3.

Scenario 1:
house usage - 500 watts
PV generation - 1000 watts
result: i'd expect battery to charge at 500 watts, and when at 100% this gets directed to exports. 

Scenario 2:
house usage - 500 watts
PV generation - 300 watts
cost of electricity = HIGH
result: I'd love to be able to programme time of day (i.e. 4pm-7pm) where if there's battery charge remaining it should be providing 200 watts to the house so i have net 0 import. If the battery is depleted, it should not charge in this period. 

Scenario 3: coupled with scenario 2 above
house usage - 500 watts
PV generation - 300 watts
cost of electricity = LOW, e.g. 10am on a cloudy day
result: If there's battery capacity, presumably battery will provide the house that 200 watts by default. but is there a way i can say "hey, don't use the battery here, in fact, CHARGE!"



In any scenario, I know that if there's surplus solar, it would first go to the battery then to export. 

Zarch

You can do whatever you want with the Lux....... force charge, force discharge, be idle.

You can do through the menus...... you can also do it with the Octolux scripts that Chris Elsworth wrote.
He also created some rules in the code to force charge (and even force discharge) if you want.

You can sort of see what's going on by reading the code. This one for cheap agile slots.
https://github.com/celsworth/octolux/blob/master/doc/rules.example.agile_cheap_slots.rb

EVandPV

chamelion said:

EVandPV said:

chamelion said:

Hi folks,
couple of questions for those of you with lux's if you don't mind!

1) Is there a 'no battery export to grid' option? i.e. I'd never want to have the battery discharging more than my usage minus solar - which would result in me exporting energy to the grid. If solar is higher than my house usage, that's fine - solar can export assuming my battery is fully charged, but the battery wouldn't start supplying the house. 

2) Scenario: i'm on octopus agile, peak rates are 4pm - 7pm. I've read about the 'forced discharge' option on luxs - is that clever enough to say that hey, at 4:30pm i'm actually generating loads of solar energy that covers the full house use, so don't force discharge - and in fact CHARGE if the battery charge level is <100% and i'm generative excess via my panels? But then at 5pm if the sun sets and my house usage goes higher than generation, then to start supplying just enough power to make up the delta (but not higher as that would result in export). 

Thanks folks!

If I'm understanding your questions correctly .....

1) Does this automatically. There is a "fast zero export" setting by I haven't bothered with it as the amount of export while the battery is charging from pv is tiny. Once the battery is at 100%, any surplus pv goes to the grid as per normal. Once the sun dips, the battery will kick in without exporting anything. It's all pretty seamless.

2) Haven't actually used force discharge as we're on FIT but I suspect it wouldn't do what your asking. You'd need to disable forced discharge which you could do remotely from the app or web portal.

thanks! for the 2nd one - basically i'm asking what the 'priority' is for the power flow. 
sorry if i'm overcomplicating I know scenario 1 below is correct. what i'm trying to work out is what happens with scenario 2 and 3.

Scenario 1:
house usage - 500 watts
PV generation - 1000 watts
result: i'd expect battery to charge at 500 watts, and when at 100% this gets directed to exports. 

Scenario 2:
house usage - 500 watts
PV generation - 300 watts
cost of electricity = HIGH
result: I'd love to be able to programme time of day (i.e. 4pm-7pm) where if there's battery charge remaining it should be providing 200 watts to the house so i have net 0 import. If the battery is depleted, it should not charge in this period. 

Scenario 3: coupled with scenario 2 above
house usage - 500 watts
PV generation - 300 watts
cost of electricity = LOW, e.g. 10am on a cloudy day
result: If there's battery capacity, presumably battery will provide the house that 200 watts by default. but is there a way i can say "hey, don't use the battery here, in fact, CHARGE!"



In any scenario, I know that if there's surplus solar, it would first go to the battery then to export. 

2) This is the default working mode. If there's not enough pv, the battery will discharge to support the pv. Once it's depleted, it won't charge if there's no surplus pv and it won't grid charge unless there's a schedule set.
3) A grid charging schedule will do that (there's 3). The battery won't discharge until the end of the schedule.

chamelion

EVandPV said:

chamelion said:

EVandPV said:

chamelion said:

Hi folks,
couple of questions for those of you with lux's if you don't mind!

1) Is there a 'no battery export to grid' option? i.e. I'd never want to have the battery discharging more than my usage minus solar - which would result in me exporting energy to the grid. If solar is higher than my house usage, that's fine - solar can export assuming my battery is fully charged, but the battery wouldn't start supplying the house. 

2) Scenario: i'm on octopus agile, peak rates are 4pm - 7pm. I've read about the 'forced discharge' option on luxs - is that clever enough to say that hey, at 4:30pm i'm actually generating loads of solar energy that covers the full house use, so don't force discharge - and in fact CHARGE if the battery charge level is <100% and i'm generative excess via my panels? But then at 5pm if the sun sets and my house usage goes higher than generation, then to start supplying just enough power to make up the delta (but not higher as that would result in export). 

Thanks folks!

If I'm understanding your questions correctly .....

1) Does this automatically. There is a "fast zero export" setting by I haven't bothered with it as the amount of export while the battery is charging from pv is tiny. Once the battery is at 100%, any surplus pv goes to the grid as per normal. Once the sun dips, the battery will kick in without exporting anything. It's all pretty seamless.

2) Haven't actually used force discharge as we're on FIT but I suspect it wouldn't do what your asking. You'd need to disable forced discharge which you could do remotely from the app or web portal.

thanks! for the 2nd one - basically i'm asking what the 'priority' is for the power flow. 
sorry if i'm overcomplicating I know scenario 1 below is correct. what i'm trying to work out is what happens with scenario 2 and 3.

Scenario 1:
house usage - 500 watts
PV generation - 1000 watts
result: i'd expect battery to charge at 500 watts, and when at 100% this gets directed to exports. 

Scenario 2:
house usage - 500 watts
PV generation - 300 watts
cost of electricity = HIGH
result: I'd love to be able to programme time of day (i.e. 4pm-7pm) where if there's battery charge remaining it should be providing 200 watts to the house so i have net 0 import. If the battery is depleted, it should not charge in this period. 

Scenario 3: coupled with scenario 2 above
house usage - 500 watts
PV generation - 300 watts
cost of electricity = LOW, e.g. 10am on a cloudy day
result: If there's battery capacity, presumably battery will provide the house that 200 watts by default. but is there a way i can say "hey, don't use the battery here, in fact, CHARGE!"



In any scenario, I know that if there's surplus solar, it would first go to the battery then to export. 

2) This is the default working mode. If there's not enough pv, the battery will discharge to support the pv. Once it's depleted, it won't charge if there's no surplus pv and it won't grid charge unless there's a schedule set.
3) A grid charging schedule will do that (there's 3). The battery won't discharge until the end of the schedule.

This.... Exactly what I was looking for, thanks! 

I'm awaiting word from a supplier who said he'd get back to me on Friday. If I can get everything done for the rates he's quoted I'm going to take the plunge - it's a 9.6kwh LUX system for 3k installed. No brainer that that price given next cheapest I've found is 7.2kwh for just over 3k and not installed!