What you need to do is change the Powerwall to “Time-Based Control” when you want to charge it… This will then allow it to charge at a higher rate (I’ve seen mine go up to about 5kW). Be aware when testing, it doesn’t seem to go straight up to that level, it seems to stay at 1.7kW for a while, and then go up… so you won’t see it straight away.
For info, on my setup… I don’t know if you need to, but I created a Fixed Utility Rate Plan for the Time-Based Control, to ensure that it wouldn’t care about what time it was charging (as I want to control it from HA).
I then have an automation that, when it sees the Intelligent Slot active, will change the Backup Reserve to 100% and the Operational Mode to Time-Based Control.
I have only just had my Powerwall installed this month, so not yet finished everything I want to do. I plan to use Solcast to help predict the solar production for the next day, and use that to guide my automation as to what to set the Backup Reserve to (rather than just 100%). However at this time of year, and with an ASHP, I’m doing ok leaving it at 100% most of the time.
Saying that, by the summer, I will probably move over to Octopus’ Tesla Energy Plan, and all of this won’t be needed.
How are you thinking you’ll vary based on solar predictions? I’ve exported 2.5kWh today so far as the battery was full whilst the sun was out.
It seems to be a fine line between being able to fully charge the battery with solar and not, which would cost me far more than just charging at the Intelligent 10p rate.
I think I’d fully charge from the 11:30 to 5:30 window, then figure out what to do during the day.
I seem to be getting Intelligent windows from about 6pm to 11am each day! (I just plugged my car in and it’s given me a window from lunchtime today to lunch tomorrow, a full 24 hours at 10p! )
So does the Octopus Intelligent Slot = On from 23:30? I’m trying to balance both ensuring the Powerwall is charged appropriately each morning (it hasn’t been recently) with making use of the IO charging slots. As a result I’ve ignored the charging slots until I have home assistant up and running.
I’m just wondering if it’s easier to do a simple If/THEN Automation?
alias: If IO=ON, PW=100%
description: >-
Changes the Powerwall mode to backup when the Intelligent Octopus charge slots
switch on.
trigger:
- type: turned_on
platform: device
device_id:
entity_id: binary_sensor.octopus_intelligent_slot
domain: binary_sensor
condition: []
action:
- device_id:
domain: number
entity_id: number.powerwall_backup_reserve
type: set_value
value: 100
- if:
- type: is_off
condition: device
device_id:
entity_id: binary_sensor.octopus_intelligent_slot
domain: binary_sensor
then:
- device_id:
domain: number
entity_id: number.powerwall_backup_reserve
type: set_value
value: 11
mode: single
I’ve been using James’ Integration without (major) issues for over 2 months now… Love it!
Last night the scheduled off-peak rate was extended to 06:00 because my car needed the extra time to complete its charge. However, even though Octopus Intelligent Slot correctly turned off at 06:00, my house batteries ignored this and continued to charge so by the time I realised what was going on, I manually switched them to discharge.
I was wondering how reliable Octopus Intelligent Slot was - sounds like it is apart from when you have new charging slots? I’m attempting to circumvent this by monitoring my Pod Point and being strict on the battery charging in the usual off peak time slot.
I’m having some issues with numbers not adding up.
Today I’ve charged up from Off-Peak and run off my Powerwall battery all day so far.
As you can see here:
When I check the Daily Peak entity it shows right:
Given that the screenshot shows the Intelligent slot turned off before your Lux AC, it looks likely that the Intelligent Integration worked fine and it was something in how you control/trigger the Lux AC that went wrong. Looking at your later message, possibly an issue in the script that was the issue.
In my experience it has been 100% reliable since I started using it a few months ago… always matching my intelligent slots, no matter when they are (early evening, overnight, extended mornings etc), allowing my car and home battery to charge whenever the slots are made.
However, if you are attempting to make your car only charge during the “core hours” of 23.30 - 05.30 to be double sure, then you don’t really need to use this integration - though, you aren’t then taking advantage of Intelligent, nor allowing Octopus to attempt to flatten out demand levels.
Weirdly, HA corrected itself later in the day so the figures matched.
My comment was more that under the Energy Dashboard it was reporting I’d used 13.16kWh of Peak Energy.
But when I check the ‘Daily Electric Peak’ entity itself, it was showing only 0.1kWh
Using the plugin to charge the battery (and other things) around the house outside of the regular slots so making full use of the plugin! Just making sure that the estimated figures given to me in the energy dashboard are close to perfect so I can compare with my actual energy bills
Still can’t figure it out, but it seems to be right today so far so hopefully it was just a glitch in the matrix?
What sensors are you using for peak and off peak elec usage? I assume these are sensors you have made yourself?
Must admit I hadn’t thought of creating peak and off-peak usage sensors for the energy dashboard, makes sense though to see the split. I just have the one sensor for usage, but then I created a tariff sensor ensure the price is correct at any time.
I follow the instructions further up this thread to create the sensors, then it automatically tells me how much I use each day for Peak & Off-Peak, and means I can hopefully match what the energy dashboard predicts to my Octopus bills.
Sounds good @Pete_Matheson, I missed that idea… will go back up and find it.
My energy dashboard matches my octopus bills well, as it will use the tariff sensor I have created, to dynamically change the rate. But I do like the idea of being able to clearly see the peak/off-peak split.
This morning my car stopped charging at 7.09am when it reached 90% full.
The Octopus App is still showing my slot for 7pm last night to 11am today.
The plugin also still thinks that I’m currently on off-peak energy.
Am I right in saying that if my car isn’t charging then I’m going to be charged at peak rates?
If so, I guess I need to add some logic in somewhere to check the car is charging outside of off-peak hours? (And to round it to the nearest half hour?)
Did you change the charge rate/amps that your charging at?
I’ve noticed that if I change the amps from my regular drip feed to a faster rate, the car stops charging when it hits the energy limit.
So they appear to be running on time x charge rate = kWh and it stops once you’ve hit that limit.
But you should still be getting the cheaper rate IF the slot is still showing as on. Hope that all makes sense!
Everywhere else I’ve read says that you get billed Peak rate unless your car charges in that 30m window.
So if my window is until 11am.
My car stops charging at 9.15am
I’ll have cheap rate until 9.30am but from 9.30 onwards it’s peak rate.
I checked this with Octopus on Twitter and they confirmed that’s how it should work.
(I’m yet to get my first bill from them to be able to confirm it though!)
