Good day,
Wonder if this could become a feature of ESS, and if not, a why not would be appreciated.
I have tried to simulate this with a Cronjob, upping the SOC at set times (based on historical data) but unfortunately, it does not work as anticipated.
Generally speaking:
1) Utilities are cheaper than batteries for big loads, like when cooking.
2) Average loads over 365 days cost the most.
At night, when all are asleep, there are average watts drawn 365 days of the year that one would like to move onto batteries, the "must-have" loads of say +-500w.
Now one can add more batteries and therefor more panels, but at one point the costs to save on utilities makes no sense.
Let's say one set the Min SOC on ESS at 50%.
During the day, loads come on like for example geysers, big loads, that need to be assisted by the batteries. No problem, ESS takes care of that beautifully, optimal savings.
However, as the day progresses, less sunlight, the batts take more of the loads, with not enough time to recharge, so ideally one would like to leave the peaks on utilities, and by going into the evening with say a Min SOC of 90%, take care of the average evening loads, 365 days of the year.
Feature request 1:
As the Min SOC climbs from 50% slowly during the day, up the SOC in increments of say 10%.
For example, as the SOC reaches 61%, move the Min SOC up to 60% ... 71%, set Min SOC 70%
The 10% increments still allow for the batts to assist with bigger loads daytime.
Feature request 2: What I do for the evening loads:
To manage the evening loads, aiming to take off the average loads 365 days of the year, ignoring the peaks, I run a Cronjob to set the inverter wattage lower.
From:
5pm - Set Min SOC to 50%.
5pm - 10pm: Limit inverter watts to 200W - cooking times.
10pm - 8am, when the sun takes over: Limit inverter watts to 500w - the 365 average loads, ignoring breakfast cooking times.
9am - Set inverter back to max power, let ESS take over the rest of the day.
Settings are to be user changeable as the wattage and times will differ between summer and winter, as would the increments of upping the SOC.
As mentioned, I did this all in a Cronjob, but as I increased the Min SOC via the Cronjob, the system does not keep on feeding the grid-tied home, as the MPPT throttles back and only charges the batteries for the next +-hour. Quite a bit of wastage of good sunlight.
If manually upping the Min SOC in ESS, it works perfectly.
Thank you for reading, I hope this idea would get some serious consideration, putting Victron in a completely different league to any other manufacturer.
Regards
Jaco Reinecke
