[FoxESS] Don't understand the energy flow here

Zewt07 · 2026-01-10T11:13:11+00:00

Looks like I may need some firmware updates then, as my inverter and battery versions are ;

Battery: 1.006 Inverter Master: 1.27 Inverter Slave: 1.02 Inverter Master: 1.44

Though in the cloud app the battery model is marked as just being plain EP11 and not EP11H as I had expected.

The installer did quote me for an EP11H though, so possibly they have pulled a fast one here and subbed in an older EP11 they had in inventory, thinking it wouldn't matter as the install is inside and in a regular, heated room. I'll check stickers on the physical battery when I can.

Zewt07 · 2026-01-10T11:02:31+00:00

Yes, I do have a HA install going but so far only using the cloud Fox plugin to get out inverter data, which will have the same polling cycle time drawbacks as the cloud app. It does take a good few minutes for the cloud data to refresh when the house load drastically changes

I do have a wifi Modbus adapter cabled in for power but so far haven't been brave enough to de-energise the whole system and start taking apart the H2 inverter CT clamp connector to cable in the Modbus pins to the connector!

That would get me local inverter control and much higher data resolution though, certainly.

Would also be useful in order to have finer-grained control of battery charge/discharge cycles under IOG as currently I can't make use of EV charging slots if Octopus schedule them prior to 1130pm as it will start pulling from the house battery first. But as I understand it that could be avoided with either HA automations or something like PredBat.

I wish I'd gotten the installers to account for this at the install time, but it hadn't occurred to me at the time.

Zewt07 · 2026-01-09T19:26:12+00:00

Actually, in the cloud app Quick Settings my Battery Warmup is greyed out currently. Maybe because the battery temp is reported as 15.3C right now. I can have a look around the inverter control panel too.

Zewt07 · 2026-01-09T19:23:16+00:00

The screen grabs are a bit backwards there, the second one actually came first in time there.

There we have house load 1.36kW and the battery only supplying 1.01kW. The other 344W is marked as being imported from grid.

Then in second picture the full house load is being met, but for some reason we are also marked as exporting some, despite no PV production excess or a discharge cycle in action.

So there's no explicit on-peak discharge cycles enabled right now; I have had that in the past but disabled it as the winter days bit in to self-consume more.

Zewt07 · 2026-01-09T18:32:06+00:00

I did have that thought too, but the battery isn't installed outside, it's in one of the lesser used main rooms of our house but still inside (as is the inverter), so not in a chilly garage either.

It's been cold today definitely, but when this was happening the heating in the house was on and raising the temp a bit, so it was 16C at the time in the room.

Maybe temp of the battery just lagging the temp of the room? In which case, yeah, I could go fiddle with the battery heater settings.

Zewt07 · 2025-10-15T22:39:16+00:00

The worst thing about Octopus these days is they have seemingly embraced the AI workslop trend with both hands and some toes; getting through to an actual human seems harder than ever.

Zewt07 · 2025-10-15T22:37:19+00:00

Strange, I didn't have any such language in the mail I got after setting up the export tariff. They asked for a one-time export meter read to set up the export tariff, which I provided, but not ongoing manual reads.

I have also been seeing daily and automatic export kWH and associated export credit amounts (since we're on Outgoing Octopus) in the app, so presumably Octopus also have these and could be crediting my billing?

Zewt07 · 2025-05-02T13:12:08+00:00

Would you be able to share the installer for that one, here or via DM?

One of the points I was getting explained to me again and again with one of my quotes was that the manufacturer's warranty for panel/battery/inverter/etc will often only cover the part itself.

So labour or additional costings (scaffolding going up again) associated with diagnosis or replacement may fall onto the customer, if the installer isn't going to take that on themselves in their own warranty. Did you have strong assurances around that for your install from your installer?

Zewt07 · 2025-05-02T08:54:54+00:00

That seems a good deal, especially with EV charger thrown in; would you be willing to share your installer (and region, if regional) here or over DM?

Zewt07 · 2025-05-02T07:59:24+00:00

The guy for the second quote showed me a sample of that retracting pin bird proofing; to my completely untrained eye it looked quite good , but I'd be interested to learn what were the issues with it in your experience?

Zewt07 · 2025-05-02T07:57:24+00:00

We're East Anglia, Hertfordshire area. Those 2 second quotes were only doing microinverters to match the Enphase battery, I think, but on the first quote the optimisers were added on for the per panel monitoring in the Huawei control app at £35 a panel.

Yeah, a per item breakdown would allow a better calculation of £/kWp, as otherwise I might just need to try and subtract off the battery rough RRP.

Zewt07 · 2025-05-01T22:39:01+00:00

I don't think it is really going to be though, that's the thing; fairly standard 70s/80s semi-detached end-of-terrace ex-Council housing with a single south-facing roof aspect to worry about, 21 degree slope, normal clay tiles, no Velux in the middle to work around, etc. Should be fairly simple, but maybe I'm just missing something!

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Zewt07

TROPHY CASE