Can I set ESS to use battery from before sunrise rather than from after sunset?

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ffmg Suspended asked Jan 18, '24

Can I set ESS to use battery from before sunrise rather than from after sunset?

I was wondering if there is a way to force the system to start using the battery from about 4 am until the battery goes down to a certain percentage?

Currently, I am able to recharge my batteries during the day with my panel, more often than not, I have too much power and I feed it back to the grid.

My issue is that I don't seem to use my battery as efficiently as I think I could.

In my case, my geyser is on a timer and turns on between 4am and 5am, (so we can shower for work), of course there is no sun then, so I draw off the grid.

But I still have enough battery power, I could easily use that until the sun comes up ...

I can't set my Battery SOC too low as we might lose the grid during the night, (it happens often in South Africa).

So, I want to set some kind of rule, if my battery is over 70%, (for example), and it is after 4am, then I can use my battery all the way to 40%, (for example).

Currently I have my ESS set to "Optimized with Battery Life" and set to 70% minimum SOC

But the battery is used from sunset until the limit is reached, I would like it the other way around.

To only use it from a little before sunrise so that when it reaches 70% then the sun should be able to take over. That way, if there is a grid failure, I can use the battery rather than it being down to 70% already.

Is something like that possible? Any suggestions on how I could do it?

I understand that, at the end of the day, whether I use the power in the evening or in the morning the power is used, but in South Africa we often lose power, so I would rather use the battery when the sun is just about to rise rather than when it has just set and I do not know if we will then lose power for then next 10 hours.

ESS ess settings ess discharging

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Modifications Space

Node Red Space

Answer 1 · 2024-01-18T08:56:59Z

matt1309 answered · Jan 18 at 08:56 AM

Hi @FFMG You could use node red or some other automation to dynamically adjust your min SoC between those time frames and then adjust back to 70% after that time period.

You could get really complicated with your criteria in node red or keep in simple.

I dont think there's a specific victron node to edit minSoC but you can install MQTT node or the exec node to edit it directly via dbus (happy to give more details on either option if you want to go that route)

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ffmg commented · Jan 19 at 08:17 AM

Thanks again for your help and pointing me in the right direction, it was rather easy to set it up ... I am soooo glad I discovered this ...

I have added 2 manual input boxes in case I want to set it manually, but I have it on a schedule. I will probably remove them once I am sure it is running as expected.

Later, I might add some conditions if the grid is/was off or something like that, (because I would then want to charge as much as possible).

But for now I will let it run just with the 2 schedules and see it if fits my use case.

I would also like to add a simple log in my dashboard just to log when things are changing and if they are not changing give a reason.

But that's for another day ... I just thought I would give a final update here.

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matt1309 ffmg commented · Jan 19 at 06:05 PM

Looks awesome!!

I dont use node red dashboards or input boxes. I have a similar feature but i have the equivalent of input boxes for my node red functions stored in home automation software (openhab is my program of choice).

Node red then periodically queries the home automation software. I only do this because accessing the homeautomation app was easier for me than logging into node red. Essentially the same as your input boxes really.

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ffmg commented · Jan 18 at 09:18 AM

Thanks for the reply, you mean NodeRed the programming language??

I never even knew that it was possible ...

I would love to have a bash at it if I could, do you know if there is some kind of document I could look at to get me started

... then I might have a ton of questions.

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ffmg commented · Jan 18 at 09:20 AM

Sorry, to comment again, after a bit of search I can see it is Node-Red the programming language ... I will definitely have a play around and get back to you with questions

Thanks for letting me know about it :)

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matt1309 ffmg commented · Jan 18 at 09:34 AM

Node red is more like a tool. The language it uses in javascript (hopefully that'll make searching easier).

A lot of what you need will be dragging/dropping based on your description, but give a few youtube videos a watch and shout if you need a hand.

I think you'll need to install the MQTT node into the node red on gx device as i dont think it's preinstalled. And then you can access the minSoc using the MQTT

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ffmg matt1309 commented · Jan 18 at 12:48 PM

Thanks a lot, yes I have installed it and I am following a few tutorials, (from Victron and others).

It is a very powerful tool indeed, I am sure it will solve my immediate query but it is also a great tool to have should I need to set something else.

Thanks a lot for mentioning it :)

I will be sure to start another thread should I have any questions.

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