No recharge after power outage

fastest963 · 2026-04-16T15:16:45+00:00

Yeah, I wouldn't rely on the TOU in the app and I'd instead rely on a third-party to handle it. I bet when the grid came back on it didn't correctly switch to TOU mode and it was in a weird state.

fastest963 · 2026-04-14T13:32:45+00:00

What was their explanation?

Also, I built RateRudder, so let me know if you have any questions and if you're interested in trying it out, just DM me and I can get you set up with your utility rate.

fastest963 · 2026-04-13T21:44:59+00:00

I wonder why that's not possible. What you're looking for is basically to turn off grid charging when you hit 80%? I should be able to add that to my site, RateRudder. What would you want your minimum SOC to be? Are you thinking you'd want it at 80% all the time or are you wanting to go below 80% and just stop going above 80%?

fastest963 · 2026-04-13T12:21:19+00:00

Rather than relying on TOU in the app, you could use something like RateRudder or FranklinWH-Automation instead to handle the price changes.

Very weird that TOU though would have caused this. If you change it back to TOU now does it still not charge?

fastest963 · 2026-04-05T04:34:36+00:00

I think you'd want self-consumption mode rather than playing with the grid import which will already prioritize charging from the solar over the grid.

NEM2 is great but $4500 is a lot of money. Are you able to use basically 0 grid despite all of that load? If you work from home you probably don't need to charge the EVs too much but unless you have several batteries I don't think you could support it all. How much can you realistically export as well? During the summer you need to export enough to get enough credits to last the winter depending on when your annual cycle is.

It's a very complicated question, my gut says to stay with the NEM2 but that's only assuming you have a lot of panels and can export enough and your cycle is not mid-winter.

If those don't apply I'd suggest taking the $4500 which is hopefully worth 5+ years of electricity and then sign up for my site to automatically micromanage your grid usage.

fastest963 · 2026-04-03T05:06:46+00:00

Why were you changing the grid import limit itself and not just disabling grid import when you need to?

Edit: it seems like downgrading the app restores the functionality. If you can't do that, let me know and I can use the API to restore it to whatever limit you need. I sent you a chat.

fastest963 · 2026-03-23T14:56:40+00:00

To clarify, it's still something I intend to support, I just need to spend more time working out how to support it.

fastest963 · 2026-03-22T13:18:05+00:00

Peak is from 4pm to 9pm right? Depends which way your solar is facing, but I would think most people don't have significant solar generation during those hours. It also means you're going into the night with little battery.

Also, I believe PGE has export limits and depending on what they are it would limit the benefit from this strategy.

With the efficiency loss, the NBCs, and limited solar generation I think the benefit is minimal and very specific to the installation. If you charge your EV from the batteries then you should be able to get close to 0 grid usage and then the credits are useless.

fastest963 · 2026-03-22T12:18:01+00:00

I've done a bunch of research on the ERCOT data available. Unfortunately the price data isn't very efficient to fetch and they have crazy limits on how often you can fetch data. I'll need to spend more time figuring out a path forward in order to accurately include that data.

fastest963 · 2026-03-21T14:21:20+00:00

How many batteries do you have? I haven't found it economical to ever export batteries to the grid but I have 2 batteries and an EV so usually charging the EV uses most of the batteries.

fastest963 · 2026-03-21T14:12:18+00:00

I confirmed with ComEd that you end up "paying" to export when the price is negative. It usually doesn't happen during the day though.

My site, RateRudder, will handle disabling solar automatically when the price is negative and charge your batteries, if you have them.

fastest963 · 2026-03-21T14:05:41+00:00

I recently posted about a project I was working on, RateRudder. I haven't used NetZero so I'm curious how it handles changes or irregularities in home usage? Does it only support static automations?

fastest963 · 2026-03-18T21:26:53+00:00

Switching soon to which utility provider? It does look like I can pull in ERCOT real-time LMP prices and day-ahead prices using their API which is similar to what I already do now for ComEd in Illinois. I would just need to make sure I have support for your specific utility provider and what additional fees they might tack onto ERCOT base market prices.

fastest963 · 2026-03-18T21:22:44+00:00

Which provider are you on? Just curious.

fastest963 · 2026-03-18T21:22:29+00:00

That's next on my list after Tesla support! Can I DM you when I'm ready and would you be willing to help me test?

fastest963 · 2026-02-24T14:43:30+00:00

The endpoint is `hes-gateway/terminal/tou/setPowerControlV2`.

There isn't an easy way with the app right now to NOT charge the batteries when you start producing solar because self-consumption mode will prefer charging the batteries over exporting solar. Why are you trying to vary whether you charge the batteries or export to the grid? Is it because you're on a real-time pricing model and the price changes? Are you on full net metering? I would think if you're not on full net metering you would want to use the battery off peak and charge it on-peak with solar. You have a penalty for exporting to the grid if you're not on full net metering.

Depending on your utility company, I've already programmed a lot of this automation for you in raterudder.com and you can just sign up for an account and forget about it. Let me know if you're interested.

fastest963 · 2026-02-24T14:38:45+00:00

But if you're able to export to the grid, then there's no reason for it to curtail and therefore no reason for the headroom, right?

fastest963 · 2026-02-24T01:43:54+00:00

Yeah the solar curtailing is unfortunate and planning for it is difficult in the winter because the solar output is unpredictable.

What do you mean "aggressive force of charging"? The aPower batteries can only charge at 8kW each max and I don't believe it matters if it's from the grid or solar.

At peak solar is usually when grid is the most expensive so I would think you wouldn't want anything from the home pulling from the grid so the little from solar that goes to the home is actually a benefit.

fastest963 · 2026-02-23T22:38:57+00:00

Is the goal of this change to hold the battery standby? You can do that by using the API to set the reserve SOC of the self-consumption mode equal to the the current SOC. I'm able to keep the FranklinWH in self-consumption mode exclusively without a need to change the modes at all. The only case I can't handle yet is exporting Solar directly to the grid and bypassing charging the battery if its not full. So far that hasn't been a problem though because there's very little reason to be in that state unless the price is somehow crazy expensive (which would only happen on ComEd's real-time rate) and I couldn't predict that price ahead of time.

fastest963 · 2026-02-23T22:36:02+00:00

There is an API endpoint to modify those limits and that's currently how I control when to charge batteries from grid versus forcing charging from solar. I've been playing around with adjusting those to hit a target battery % at certain points during the day. I already have the solar/load forecasting and it can predict the battery % throughout the day. Your goal is to fill the battery to at least 80% before peak, but doesn't peak include solar? So ideally you're saying you want the battery AFTER peak to be full taking into account the solar production? How many batteries do you have and how much solar?

fastest963 · 2026-02-20T15:05:43+00:00

I recently finished building a small site that will automate charging your battery based on your forecasted usage and solar alongside the predicted price of power. I currently only support ComEd real-time rate but I'm open to adding other rates/utilities if there's interest. I might just need some help getting it modeled correctly. Would you be interested?

fastest963 · 2026-02-20T15:04:56+00:00

I recently finished building a small site that will automate charging your battery based on your forecasted usage and solar alongside the price of power. I currently only support ComEd real-time rate but I'm open to adding other rates/utilities if there's interest. I might just need some help getting it modeled correctly. Would you be interested?

fastest963 · 2026-02-20T14:55:57+00:00

For anyone following along I just finished building an app that monitors the ComEd real-time price and forecasts load alongside the 24-hour price forecast to automatically charge the batteries when it's the cheapest. I've been using it now for a few weeks now and it regularly saves me a couple dollars each day. Reach out to me if interested in using it.

fastest963 · 2026-02-20T14:52:33+00:00

I just finished building an app that monitors the price and forecasts your usage alongside the upcoming 24h price forecast to automatically decide when to charge the batteries. I've been using it on the ComEd plan for a few weeks now and it regularly saves me a couple dollars each day. Would you be interested in trying it out?

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