edf battery offer

mmmmikey

Hi - right now, I'm exporting 95W to the grid whilst running from the battery. That is, I am seeing exactly the effect 01642 describes. Clearly this will be hugely significant for many (probably most?) users.

I suspect that haven't noticed this effect before because I only had a smart meter installed on Friday so I haven't been able to see it. It hasn't stood out from the overall usage figures because I have multiple part charge/discharge cycles during the day, and most of the power used from the battery is early evening so I use it before it "leaks out". Overall, I am getting the kind of benefit I expected but it seems that is probably because it's better in some other area to compensate for this.

I also wonder if this is a new problem?

One way or the other, I will be on the phone to PowerVault on Monday and will post any update here. This has the feeling of something that should be fixable by PowerVault tweaking an internal setting but lets wait and see.

Thanks for highlighting this, Mike

1961Nick

I’m pretty confident the solar/pylontech combination doesn’t have any material leak to the grid other than the few seconds lag when a high load switches off. Background consumption seems to be identical whether we’re running from storage or from the grid.

I’m hoping the new smart meter gives me accurate figures for battery export.

mmmmikey

1961Nick wrote: »

I’m hoping the new smart meter gives me accurate figures for battery export.

My EDF SMETS2 meter in house display seems to be giving a very accurate export reading on the live display. I've tested this with a couple of known loads. Much more accurate import/export display at low loads than I've had before. I guess that this is spot on because it is coming from the meter itself. I can't see the cumulative export breakdown yet because the meter hasn't downloaded all of its settings yet (or so the story from EDF goes - watch this space).

Solarchaser

Also not seeing that kinda leakage on my sofar

mmmmikey

1961Nick wrote: »

I’m hoping the new smart meter gives me accurate figures for battery export.

My smart meter is now working and/or I've sussed out how to use it, so I can now update my previous post on this. There is a surprising amount of technical data available.

The In House Display has icons to show whether the live power is import or export and this is displayed to the nearest Watt - seems quite sensitive as I can see it change as I switch low power loads on and off. This is all the IHD shows for export, there are no daily totals, etc.

For export, the meter itself can display:

Total Export
Total Real Export
Total Export (Capacitive)
Total Export (Inductive)
Total Apparent Export

The meter can also display the following parameters live as you are exporting (or importing):

Voltage
Current
Power Factor
Frequency
Active Power
Reactive Power

The Total Export is probably all that's of practical benefit but the geek inside me means I've started brushing up on my AC power theory to remind myself what all these parameters are. A-level physics was some years ago now

scouselegends

Hi, did you find out if this constant draw/export was an error or if it was to be expected with the EDF deal?
Cheers

mmmmikey

scouselegends wrote: »

Hi, did you find out if this constant draw/export was an error or if it was to be expected with the EDF deal?
Cheers

Hi - still working on it, but looks like just a question of adjustment. I am collecting data for PowerVault at the moment, then they will adjust. I believe that the adjustments have all worked OK for 01642.

01642

Sorry for the late reply it was just an error that could be corrected but their is something more important I have spoke to other people and the battery is been miss sold its sold as 4.1kw useable they do not give that at best about 3.5kw it might not sound much but when you work £ to kw its around £750 on the edf offer, I do have proof put cant upload the photo as my account is new but anyone who has this and wants proof you have been miss sold make sure the battery is fully flat for this test then set a forced charge then when full then do forced discharge, start the charge for 00.00 as the discharge display for the day will of been rest on the portal. if anyone would like the picture let me know then you can upload for me

mmmmikey

01642 wrote: »

Sorry for the late reply it was just an error that could be corrected but their is something more important I have spoke to other people and the battery is been miss sold its sold as 4.1kw useable they do not give that at best about 3.5kw it might not sound much but when you work £ to kw its around £750 on the edf offer, I do have proof put cant upload the photo as my account is new but anyone who has this and wants proof you have been miss sold make sure the battery is fully flat for this test then set a forced charge then when full then do forced discharge, start the charge for 00.00 as the discharge display for the day will of been rest on the portal. if anyone would like the picture let me know then you can upload for me

Hi

I can understand your frustration and follow the logic of what you're saying, but to balance this a bit, I think it's worth making a couple of observations....

1. Just as mpg figures quoted for cars are based on standard tests (assuming nobody cheats) and are intended primarily as a basis for comparison bwteen different manufacturers, so are usable kWh figures for batteries. In real life, the actual mpg for your car you get personally could be a fair bit different from the quoted figures. That doesn't mean the figures are of no value - they still serve the purpose of allowing you to compare the fuel economy of different cars from different manufacturers. In a similar way, the 4.1kWh that PowerVault quote for the battery (more on this below) will be based on industry standard tests - probably something like a set discharge rate at a certain temperature. When you do your forced discharge test you'll get an indication of the battery performance but it's difficult to compare that with the quoted figure without knowing the full details of how quickly it's discharging, what the temperature is and how that compares with the standard test. I have found, from my own practical experience, that I get more kWh out of my PowerVault before it runs out by using a simple, resistive load like a 500w convector heater than I do if I discharge it by switching on and off things like the vacuum cleaner, kettle, toaster, etc. So you should see the 4.1kWh as the most you could hope to get out of the battery in ideal conditions and a way of comparing it with other batteries rather than a cast iron guarantee of what you will personally get in your circumstances. Whether you think this is clear to you in the marketing, etc. is of course another question.

2. The 4.1kWh quoted is for the batteries themselves, which are only one part of the PowerVault. PowerVault really have to quote the figures in this way for consistency with other systems where you buy the battery and inverter/charger separately, otherwise you wouldn't be able to compare. There are efficiency losses in the inverter/charger, so you would expect to put a bit more than 4.1kWh into the charger to get 4.1kWh into the battery, and similarly if you take 4.1kWh out of the battery you'd expect to get less than 4.1kWh out of the inverter, which is what you are measuring. Based on posts on the battery thread you'd probably expect this loss on the way out to be of the order of 5%.

All things considered, if you're getting 3.5kWh out of the PowerVault that's probably actually a sign that it's perfroming well, although to be fair to you I can fully understand why you might feel a bit short changed if you hadn't understood this when you bought it or felt misled by the marketing.


EDIT: as an afterthought, have you raised your concerns with PowerVault and if so what did they say?

01642

It does state 4.1 is usable though Powervault did that test at them times themselves to give me the reading for capacity and have admitted it’s ment to be 4.1 after saying I was going to contact my credit card company they have told me to wait a week to see if they can fix it but the fact is I have spoke to other people that aren’t getting the capacity and they can’t fix this for them