How to Trigger Force Discharge to Grid from Battery for Solax Inv.

abeezar

Hi
I would like to know how I can do "Force Discharge" for a Solax Inverter / Battery System.
Using SolaxXcloud App -> Basic->Work Mode-> Force time of use -> it allows 2 charge times. I am failing to see how I can do a force discharge.
Any Solax user that can help.

Regards
AB

Reed_Richards

I'm sorry I cannot answer the question.  I am at a loss to understand why you would want to do this.  

abeezar

Reed_Richards said:

I'm sorry I cannot answer the question.  I am at a loss to understand why you would want to do this.  

My batteries get full around 2 pm...so I can export 30-40% to the grid.

mickyduck55

abeezar said:

Reed_Richards said:

I'm sorry I cannot answer the question.  I am at a loss to understand why you would want to do this.  

My batteries get full around 2 pm...so I can export 30-40% to the grid.

Im with Reed_Richards here, Full batteries is a good position to have and if you don't force the 30-40% discharge then the next day the battery will be 30-40% fuller so you will be exporting by say 11 am  instead of 2 pm... it should in theory make no difference except on the first day that you do it?
What battery capacity do you have and how much storage over usage kWh?

Reed_Richards

When your batteries are full then any more electricity you generate should be automatically be exported to the grid by the inverter so there is no need or point in discharging the battery.  My inverter has a software setting that enables me to limit export to the grid but there is no point in using that.  If your inverter is not doing as it should then check the settings.

I suppose if you generate more electricity than you are allowed to export, your battery is full and it gets cloudy but you are confident the sun will come back later then you could use your battery to top-up your export to the maximum allowed then recharge the battery when the sun comes out again.  But that's risking the sun not coming out again and a lot of manual intervention is required for not many extra pennies.  Or I suppose you might get paid more for electricity exported at 2 pm than at 3 pm or 4 pm but I am not aware that happens anywhere; if it did happen it's more likely to be the reverse as late afternoon electricity is usually more valuable than early afternoon electricity.

   

QrizB

Reed_Richards said:

I'm sorry I cannot answer the question.  I am at a loss to understand why you would want to do this.  

A bit of a niche case, but if you are on Octopus Outgoing Agile and have excess battery capacity (so "spare" stored kWhs that you wont need for your own overnight use) you might want to force a discharge in the evening peak. Looking at today's rates, If I had a battery bank or V2G (I don't) I could be paid 18p for a kWh if I export it at 1830 tonight rather than the 7p I would get during daytime.

Reed_Richards

QrizB said:
A bit of a niche case, but if you are on Octopus Outgoing Agile and have excess battery capacity (so "spare" stored kWhs that you wont need for your own overnight use) you might want to force a discharge in the evening peak. Looking at today's rates, If I had a battery bank or V2G (I don't) I could be paid 18p for a kWh if I export it at 1830 tonight rather than the 7p I would get during daytime.

I was speculating along those lines in my later post but the OP indicated they wanted to force the discharge as soon as the battery was full - which makes me think they have some kind of fault without realising it.  

abeezar

Hi
When the battery is full ... PV starts exporting,  that's correct
Also I have a battery capacity - 17.4(usable 90%) , so on certain days / times, I want to export when the Octopus Outgoing Agile rates are more favorable. ( Usually at peak times)

Reed_Richards

Okay, so we have cleared that up. 

I had a look at the instructions online and I can see why you are struggling.  There was mention of setting charging and discharging start and stop times but whether discharging was forced or just based on your domestic requirements wasn't clear to me.  Forced discharging is a bit "niche"; I'm not aware that my inverter can to it at all.  

QrizB

Does the Solax use a current clamp to measure import/export? If so you could probably fool it into thinking you are importing power to force a discharge. I don't know enough about the Solax works to give make more specific suggestions but experimenting with the current clamp is unlikely to break anything.

Also, how are you finding Octopus Outgoing Agile? It seems to be paying quite a bit more, on average, than the 5.5p/kWh you get on the non-Agile tariff but does that work out OK in practice? (I'm looking for a SEG tariff for a recently-installed non-FIT system.)

abeezar

Solax uses a modbus meter. So I cannot control externally.

It's been 2 months..since I installed the Solar PV. I am on Octopus flexi tariff.  Batteries got installed last week.
The reason I have not switched to Agile is because I am still figuring out ways to control force discharge and stop discharge.
Looks like force discharge is not possible at present. 
Stop discharge - lets say I am on Agile.Battery is at 40% soc @11.00 am. I want to stop discharge ..switch to grid until 4pm and between 4pm to 8pm use battery. The way I think it will work is I change the dod to 40%..and at 4pm change it to 10%. .using the solaxCloud app . Is there any better way to control this .