Setting up and tuning Solar Assistant Automations

[klondike]

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Octopus

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Aims of the Automations

My aim was to produce simple Solar Assistant automations that will make use of the Solar forecast (currently only in the Beta software) to top up the battery during the overnight cheap slot such that the power imported along with energy from the solar panels leaves the battery fully charged to maximise the high return export starting a 4pm through
to 7pm. That requires some knowledge of your system. If you have not read  Precursor to setting up Solar Assistant automations for SunSynk inverters already I suggest that you start with that.

Adding an Automation

In the Solar Assistant GUI click the Power tab



At the bottom of the page there is a Button named  Add Automation



Clicking that brings up



Clicking Rule Table results in a dropdown list of automations and with each permitting up to two selections for when the selected action takes place.




The Work Mode timer

This is the set of time slots and options present on the SunSynk LCD screen.


Use timer is checked and I never alter that although it can be changed in an automation.

Each of those timeslots has a number from 1 to 6 which will be needed in some automations in addition to the Time of Day specified in the automation.

Line 1 - this is simply there because I have seen in many reports that you should start with 00:00 as running through from line 6 to line 1 may lead to problems. So I just started with 00:00

Line 2 - this is the Octopus Flux cheap import period

Line 3 - just a filler to...

Line 4 - Octopus have started offering free use hours usually from 2 til 3

Line 5 - Filler

Line 6 - Filler

SunSynk has no forced export through its GUI and the Workmode Automation which achieves that has no need of specific slots.

Should you choose you can edit this as if you were using the inverter GUI

Power I left to default.

State of Charge are all set to my maximum discharge value of 14%. In practice I try to ensure this never drops below the 20% default it had at installation.

The cheap rate period charge box is ticked removing the need for an automation (see below).

Missing is the Solar export when battery full which I assume everyone would want once their DNO is issued. Rather that relying on the inverter GUI I explicitly set it in this automation.

Automation #1 - Solar export when battery full
When Time of day      Set Solar export when battery full
12:00am to 11:59pm    Enabled

Originally I used automations to control charging but I had an occasion where there the charging failed to start. My fix was to use the built in forced charge function instead and set a compromise default in that overridden by an automation to set the charge level depending on the solar forecast. The issue was caused because there is no retry as such when a command fails. I initially just duplicated the command a little later but after discussions with tech support realised there is a better way to achieve the equivalent - by not treating a setting as a one off event but coding the automation specifying the whole time period a given setting is needed. Should the setting fail the command will be issued again the next time the code loops through the automations.


Forced import automations

The automation can be done in two individual automations and mirrors how it would be achieved through the inverter LCD screen GUI.

I only use this if Octopus announce a free energy period.  It is normally disabled.

Note that this uses Slot 3. You will need to
adjust this if not using Slot 3.

Automation #3 - Capacity point 3

When Time of day      Set Capacity point 3
11:00am to 11:59am    100 %
12:00pm to 12:59pm    14 %

Automation #4 - Grid charge point 3
When Time of day        Set Grid charge point 3
11:00am to 11:59am      True
12:00pm to 12:59pm      False

This is my automation that sets the battery charge level depending on the solar prediction available in the Beta software. I now let the inbuilt Grid Charge function do the charging.

Automation #8 - Capacity point 2

When Time of day  And when PV energy remaining today Set Capacity point 2
0 kWh      to 5.0 kWh                                                                  100%
5.0 kWh   to 6.0 kWh                                                                    90%
6.0 kWh   to 7.0 kWh                                                                    80 %
7.0 kWh   to 8.0 kWh                                                                    70 %   
8.0 kWh   to 9.0 kWh                                                                    60 %
9.0 kWh   to 10.0 kWh                                                                  50 %
10.0 kWh to 11.0 kWh                                                                  40 %
11.0 kWh to 12.0 kWh                                                                  30 %
0 kWh      to 100 kWh                                                                   69 %

I use 69% as the default so any setting will be shown in the automation log.


Forced Export during high export rate period

Automation #7 - Work mode

WhenTime of day    And when Battery state of charge Set Work mode
12:00am to 3:59pm    0 % to 100 %                                  Zero export to CT
4:00pm to 4:19pm    85 % to 100 %                                  Selling first
4:20pm to 4:39pm    65 % to 100 %                                  Selling first
4:40pm to 4:45pm    45 % to 100 %                                  Selling first
4:46pm to 6:59pm      0 % to 40 %                                    Zero export to CT
7:00pm to 11:59pm    0% to 100 %                                   Zero export to CT



Some notes.
The automation potentially runs for the entire slot. The solar export rate needs setting to ensure the inverter can export from full down to the desired endpoint designed to last through to 2:00am.  This is setting is covered in  https://letschat.club/index.php?topic=6087.0

Zero Export gets set at the end of the high rate export period even if it didn't complete in time.


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