Stop GivEnergy Battery Drain when EV Charging. I show you how.

[@roppenheimer12]

Things are a bit more complex if you are using Intelligent Octopus which can program charging slots outside of the 23:30 - 05:30 window. I'm using Home assistant with the GivTCP, Intelligent Octopus and the VW WeConnect HACS integrations so that battery discharge is disabled during car charging slots.

[@daniel_coe]

Soumds like a good way to do it.

[@hkartoo]

Appreciate it if Richard could say a bit more about how the integration works.

[@caseysace]

Not sure if this was an option but its a partial solution regardless. ot sure if this was an option when the video was uploaded, but with a GivEnergy inverter you can pause the battery between specified times. If you're on Octopus Go, pause the battery from 12:30-3:30 then have it charge from 3:30 until 4:30. The EV won't draw from the battery during those 4 hours as it's either paused or charging. You may need to tweak the length of the pause time depending on how many kWh your battery has stored going into the off peak window. Your base load during these hours should be no more than a few 100w, so you'll pay the off peak rate to run your appliances without needlessly cycling your battery during these hours. If you have an ASHP your milage on usage might vary

[@daniel_coe]

Thanks for the comment, that's good information

[@geoffchaplin2123]

Thx, new to this and just had installation. Simple and effective advice Thx

[@daniel_coe]

Glad it helped

[@John-FourteenSix]

The GivEnergy EV charger is not available, so what EV charger would you suggest to use with a GivEnergy Inverter/Battery. Thank you.

[@daniel_coe]

Well, I have a Hypervolt. But if you have solar and a water tank and perhaps an Eddi already, I would probably choose a Zappi.

[@tommendoza1812]

Hi Daniel, just subscribed, i have a zappi, 7.2 kw array with either a givenergy going in, or if i can wait maybe a libbi. If I have the hybrid system fitted will the same method work I assume with the zappi not draining the battery at night? I’m assuming so

[@daniel_coe]

Don't know about the zappi, that might be the same, if it's not the same brand as the battery.

[@tommendoza1812]

@@daniel_coe I went with the giv energy, being delivered today

[@MrKlawUK]

this will still take from the battery though eg if you ended the day with some decent solar excess but the next day isn’t going to be as good - this won’t let the battery keep that, the 20% will mean it can be sent to the car? Is there no way to stop it discharging at all during X time?

[@daniel_coe]

I think the battery companies just need to add a new setting, allowing no discharge between certain hours or a certain level, as your house may still need some power. Otherwise, I bet if you had your charger, battery, and inverter from the same company, it should be more compatible and allow you to do it. With givenergy, you can amend the discharge rate in watts of the battery. But it's a manual setting and not timed. So you could set a small discharge rate, but a hassle at the moment.

[@Barry-xg1rd]

Thanks for these videos Daniel. As others have discussed, I assume you can get away with reducing the timeslots the battery charges in summer or remove all together? I noticed you July month was the best with close to 10kwh grid draw, did you avoid charging the battery from grid for the full month? I have a very similar setup but only had it a few weeks. Thanks again

[@daniel_coe]

Yes, we didn't charge the battery at all overnight during the summer. I then gradually started charging it a bit as summer ended all the way up to 100 percent every night n winter.

[@arseh326a]

Anyone found a way of preventing any and all battery discharge between cheap tariff period? I'd like my batteries charged to whatever levels I select, but I downt want home / EV charger load to be drawn from them at all during that time. For reference I have a solar array, solaredge inverter with 3 x givenergy Ac3.0, 3 x givenergy 9.5 gen 2 batt. Also a MyEnergi Zappi EV charger and hub etc. Thanks for the vid!

[@daniel_coe]

I don't think there is another way, other than the way I demonstrated. Unless, of course, there is a button to stop all battery discharge in your batteries app. But the problem with doing this is your house will still need some electricity from the battery overnight when in a low power state, my house still takes around 200 to 300w per hour overnight.

[@jimgardner6394]

Doesn’t work for me! I have the timed charge setup between 00:30 and 04:30 as I'm on Octopus GO and I also set to 100% so I have a full battery at the start ofthe day. I have a Zappi charger and also set that to an overnight charge to make use of cheap rate. HOWEVER when I plug the cable in during the afternoon (ready for the overnight charge) the car starts charging immediately drawing the power from the battery! That means whatever charge was built up during the day starts to deplete and I enter the evening period with no solar and also not enough battery to get me through the evening and have to draw from the grid at peak rate!!

[@daniel_coe]

Did you manage to sort this out? It could be a CT clamp the wrong way round. I would have thought that setting a state of charge on the battery should always hold it there and keep it topped up.

[@jimgardner6394]

@@daniel_coe I am getting an electrician out to look at it. I think when the install was done an extra CT clamp needed to be fitted

[@ahmedpatel9977]

Hi Daniel, I have a similar set up to yourself. I have a AC coupled GivEnergy 9.5 home storage Battery. I have just had a Hypervolt EV charger fitted. I was wondering if it’s configured correctly as at the moment it drains my home storage battery when set to super eco-mode. Thank you for all your videos as I find them very helpful and informative.

[@daniel_coe]

It will drain when set to super eco if there's not enough solar. Although on mine it takes extra from the battery as well sometimes. It likes to ramp up and use what it can, but it seems bad at the moment of dropping back down to only use as little battery as possible

[@ZZR600E3]

Hi, I'm not on Octopus or any tariff like that but interested in trying this when I'm home at lunch times and plug the car in (hybrid) so I can leave a minimum amount in the battery during a 1.5-2 hour window. Thanks for sharing the info. I noticed you had Eco mode enabled, how does this work or change the behaviour of the inverter please as the description is minimal and it's either on or off etc? I don't want to turn it on without knowing the expected behaviour at this time of year as what we can generate is minimal and wasted if just discharged back to the grid

[@daniel_coe]

Eco on the hypervolt just takes power from excess solar. But if you meant the givenergy eco mode. I really don't know. When it was commissioned it wasn't set to any mode. But eco should be the default mode. I think it just tries to use as little grid as possible and keep itself balanced.

[@ZZR600E3]

@@daniel_coe when I set the schedule, it turned eco on by itself so I think the are linked. Possibly you can deactivate the schedule just by turning off eco then. Have you tried the Solcast API yet for weather/generation prediction? Set that up today as well through the dashboard to get an idea of how useful the data is.

[@daniel_coe]

Yes I love using solcast, very handy

[@peterjones6322]

I presume my Givenergi battery like EV batteries should not be kept at full charge to prevent stress and affect life I would like to limit my battery to 80% change when I go on holidays. Are you aware of how to do that ? I have only found a way to increase the reserve.

[@daniel_coe]

I don't t think there is a way to do that. If you find out let me know

[@arseh326a]

I've noticed if I set the discharge timer to hours outside Intelligent octopus, i.e. during the daytime, with the Home Demand setting, my batteries won't charge at all during that time from solar generation. It just throws it elsewhere, export for example.

[@DavieParkes]

Does the battery not discharge at all (mainly to the house) during the times you set? Can a battery charge from the grid and discharge to your house/ car at the same time?

[@daniel_coe]

On the first point, overnight, I believe the battery keeps itself topped up over those hours, so house draw is done through the battery. Can you charge and drain at the same time? Unsure. I don't think so, as the arrows showing power flow only go one way or the other on the apps.

[@DavieParkes]

@@daniel_coe I set ours to charge during cheap go rates and it does indeed charge the batteries however during this time all the house power takes from the grid too whilst the battery charges. For instance if I set charge from 12 to 4am and the battery fully charged by 2am the house will continue to pull from the grid until 4am is reached (the charging period). Seems like this could be added through software from GivEnergy.

[@stuartburns8657]

​@@DavieParkes I've noticed this behaviour as well. Pretty annoying, as despite a low base load, it's easy to see 600-800w usage, even though it finished charging. I wonder if it's linked to if you've defined your smart tariff times

[@scrumfisher]

I don't have solar or EV charger at the moment. Setting are as for Octopus Go but battery discharges to power the house as soon as charging is finished (about 03:30). I got on to Octopus (25 min wait) and having gone through settings concluded it was minimal. Obviously not a big load at 3:30, but what will happen when my charger is on line Incidental, my setting page on the app is nothing like yours Regards B

[@daniel_coe]

Yes, my battery powers the house once I have stopped the overnight charging at 4.30am. You'd then want to stop ev charging at the same time the battery finishes charging. Which would be the same end time as the cheap rate electric.

[@scrumfisher]

@@daniel_coe Thanks for the reply Daniel, but my key point is that in spite of the settings, the battery powers the house (and possibly the future EV charger) as soon as the charging is finished i.e. 3:30. So I am running down the battery whilst the cheap tariff is still available.

[@serraios1989]

Thank you for that. Following the recent app update I have noticed that the home screen showing the %charge doesn’t refresh every 10 seconds. Does anyone else have the same issue?

[@daniel_coe]

You can always pull down from the top to get a refresh it should refresh eventually.

[@philiponsolent7232]

It used to be very reliable but I've found that since they updated the app, the information is intermittent and sometimes the display just says no SOC data, or the battery symbol is empty. I found I have to click the away button and then return to home.

[@hamptonchivasa]

Not sure how that stops the EV charger from draining the battery. Seems all you have set up is for the battery to charge to 20%. The charger can easily drain that 20%. You have not set discharge times

[@daniel_coe]

So overnight, it will keep it topped up to 20%, for example, and not take everything. During the day, I set it to super eco and only run off solar or eco and use some of the battery for a while, then top the battery back up with Solar. So , I'm just borrowing from the battery for a while. At the moment, I can't see any other way of doing it.

[@definemoron]

​@@daniel_coe I've sent an email to the technical team about just this, the inverter losses when dealing with that amount of power will soon add up. We need to have a mode of charging where discharging is turned off while force charging so that they are two separate terminations, rather than a chain.

[@theundertaker8273]

I'm very disappointed about octopus, moved to them with hope to use octopus go tarrif but lazy engineer said there is no space for new smart meter where is not true and he left my property. They said they need A4 paper size space I have even A3 and was refused. :(

[@daniel_coe]

That's crazy. My electric smart meter is not that big at all. They did say I might have trouble with the gas and electric meters talking to each other as they are a fair distance away from each other, but there was no problem in the end.

[@theundertaker8273]

@@daniel_coe I have new gas meter but electric is main one. I think he was just lazy a sent complain will see

[@001ml]

I have been having this problem as well, but I am not on Octopus Go, I am on Octopus Intelligent and I don't think it will work for me. The reason is that Intelligent stop/starts the charging process within and without the cheaper rate time. Intelligent gives you cheaper rate charging between 11:30 and 5:30am, but it can also charge outwith this period. within this period, if the car charges the power is drawn from the battery as the charger cannot differentiate between the battery and the grid. However, because it is within the cheaper rate time period the battery will replace the power taken from the battery by the charger by drawing from the grid. The problem I have is that Intelligent can charge the car outwith the set time period. If this happens the battery will not replace the power because it is outside the set charging time. The workaround I have come up with is to have the car finish charging by 5:30. I have only tried this a couple of times, so far, but it seems to work. I can see that there will be other problems the further we get into winter. For example: in winter it is recommended that you leave your EV plugged in so that the car can automatically draw power from the grid to keep the battery warm, but after 5:30 this will be at the (much) higher rate. Any suggestions regarding this would be appreciated. Keep up the good work.

[@daniel_coe]

I can see from your comment that intelligent could be a pain. We charge my wife's original i3 nearly every night now. Last winter, we did try and preheat the battery before leaving to see if it helped get more out of the battery. The first problem was the added cost of doing it, and secondly, we saw no extra benefit in more miles out of the battery, so we don't do it anymore. Admittedly, newer EVs might be different. Our i3 is now 8 years old.

[@gethynhoward]

Did you get a resolution to this? I am on IO and looking at the givenergy battery with solar but don't want to end up where IO and the benefit of the battery and solar isn't being realised as don't work together.

[@001ml]

@@gethynhoward Do you have an EV? This is only a problem if you are charging an EV. The battery will charge no problem from 11:30 as long as you set it to charge from then. My workaround of ending the EV charge at 5:30 seems to be working.

[@superafroYCC]

Out of noseyness, what’s the heating system?

[@daniel_coe]

Valiant gas boiler with a large water tank