No, @bash, you haven't offended.

Having brought up two very bright children whose debating skills have grown VERY quickly, one of the things I had to impress on them was that if they made an absolute argument (such and such is ALWAYS like this), I would only need to find a single exception to disprove their assertion. However, the moment they started using words like "normally", "probably", "usually" and so on, my debating job got exponentially harder. In effect, I then had to stop finding a hole in their argument and start making my own argument.

It worked and they have now, as adults, both comfortably surpassed me in pretty much every way.

Posted by: @bash

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I see ourselves on this forum as kind of trailblazers for the electrification of UK homes. I can't imagine there are many people who have installed 45kwh of battery only storage, largely by themself, or who have setup a complex Home Assistant network to automate their energy demands.

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I know our system isn't for everyone.

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I think the same in many ways, and a part of that is the benefit that comes from our having experimented a bit. Interestingly, even if my choice to go with Agile may not have been the financially optimum - and to be frank I don't think I could accurately determine that one way or another since on a different tariff our daily routines would change - I certainly see a tangible value in having learned what I can and can't do with it. You're right that this complexity is not for everyone, but proving it can be done increases the pressure on companies to bring to market commercial products that really do manage that interplay between different bits of kit.

Posted by: @bash

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I am however, although incredibly interested, a bit overwhelmed with setting up Home Assistant to monitor everything! Hats off to you, as I can imagine to get your level of automation, it must have taken considerable time and well beyond my skill set.

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Although what I've done with Home Assistant is not as complex as people think it is (a collection of simple bits of integration rather than one behemoth that requires a doctorate in a technological discipline to even approach), I do not for a moment expect what I've done to be a mainstream answer for most people. I do, however, expect companies within the industry to recognise that running a heat pump, a battery, some solar PV, an EV and a ToU tariff should be done as an integrated solution, not five independent ideas, and I keep using HA as the drum to bang in demonstrating that it's not rocket science to achieve.

You, by pushing the boundaries of what kit could be expected in a domestic setting, are providing more strength to the same argument, which brings us back to your point about the forum being a place for trailblazing.

Posted by: @jancold

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I do have a problem with EV charging as both the ASHP and Zappi are on one CU seperate from the house CU and if the Intelligent charge was set to be during the day the battery would be used.

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This is a common problem since, if you want the wallbox to be able to charge from solar PV when some is being produced then the wallbox has to be wired in in such a way that the inverter will see it as load. Unfortunately, the inverter will also try to supplement that supply from PV with supply from battery before grid.

My way of dealing with it is to set the battery’s minimum state of charge to 90% whilst the wallbox is doing its thing. Since I use Home Assistant, this is pretty straightforward to automate, but there’s no reason it couldn’t be done manually or by synchronising schedules.

@majordennisbloodnok I was aware of this problem but my workaround is ok as I don't do many miles and normally only charge once a week or so. And solar does not make much sense for me with the excessive shading from the trees

To be frank, @jancold, your electrical knowledge is way agead of mine so I fully expected that’d be the case. It was only in order to put forward my solution that I replied at all.

Glad you’re happy with your solution and jealous of all that storage.

@majordennisbloodnok Though shalt not covet they neighbour’s battery capacity! (But if you do, get behind me in the queue😉) Toodles.

I set our EV to never charge outside of the overnight tariff window (unless on the rare occasion I want to top up the car from the home batteries).

Posted by: @toodles

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@majordennisbloodnok Though shalt not covet they neighbour’s battery capacity! (But if you do, get behind me in the queue😉) Toodles.

I think the quote “my need is greater than yours” might apply here…

Posted by: @bash

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I set our EV to never charge outside of the overnight tariff window (unless on the rare occasion I want to top up the car from the home batteries).

For us, it depends when the cheapest time is. It’s certainly normal that night will be cheaper but we’ll certainly charge the car during the day if:

• the car’s battery low and we need to go out again soon-ish
• the car could do with charging and the rate is going to be lower during the day than the night
• we’re producing PV at more than 1.5 kW and the car has capacity (filling the car from solar is normally more cost effective than exporting at 15p and then importing again once you take into account the round trip losses. In this scenario it’ll charge on the Eco+ mode so if PV drops below minimum then charging will pause.
• the import rate goes negative and there’s any capacity available in the car (at which point we’ll charge at the full 7kW rate.

@majordennisbloodnok 😆

Posted by: @majordennisbloodnok

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To be frank, @jancold, your electrical knowledge is way agead of mine so I fully expected that’d be the case. It was only in order to put forward my solution that I replied at all.

Glad you’re happy with your solution and jealous of all that storage.

Posted by: @jancold

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 I have just got a house battery and switched to the IOG tariff.

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The Solis was set up according to the IOG cheap rate to charge and also (which I found was wrong) the discharge times. I found out they should be left empty.