We have a (30 month-old) 13.5kw Giv AiO – plus 4kw solar installation (>12 years old) – plus Heat Pump. We are on the Octopus Cosy Tarriff. We have a good FIT deal and are not looking to export to the grid.
Needed to import electric today for the first time and so used the import section of the Giv App – thinking I could get to dislike it fairly quickly and am looking for alternatives.
It appears I can only import in 30 minute slots and more importantly not to a set % - it’s only based on time.
Our winter use is easy – charge fully in each charging slot – but for around 16 weeks of the year I found the old app really useful and would tinker with the import % and import times depending on what the weather forecast was and what electric we planned to use during the day. This enabled me to maximise our solar use and virtually eliminate any import from the grid away from the cheap Cosy slots.
Finally, we need remote access because our son & family live in the USA and we tend to visit away from the summer months and still be able to monitor battery levels and adjust imports if the heat pump kicks in. (We reduce the house target temperature while we are away but can respond to the demand on the battery if it kicks in to maintain the set temperature)
So my question is – would any one recommend an alternative app that would allow me to set up import slots with controllable times and charge to a given battery % and be able to do this remotely??
MyEnergyOptimizer will do all that and much more. I have been using MyEO for over a year and often adjust the automated charging schedules that I set up originally, to take into account variations in my Agile Octopus tariff or the out put of my 4k solar array. MyEO cost a very reasonable £5 per month and I save much more than that every month by using it. I can’t recommend the service highly enough. Every other service I looked at, including PredBat, don’t have half the schedule commands that MyEO has.
Well as you have signed up you can still use the older app to run everything. We are still using version 4.0.4 in home and away mode. This may change in the future. I downloaded the apk from Pure, other sites are available.
There are other ways using the likes of Inverter Monitor, but only works in home mode. I suppose you could use a VPN link when away, but seems like a lot of effort to set up and would need a dedicated server. Mole.
You can do this in the new app. Select the 3 horizontal lines at the top left then select Inverter Settings. You can select Timed Charge and set a slot to start and finish at any time and also adjust the SOC it charges to.
Thanks very much gentlemen - will have a look at MEO app but also didn’t know the old app was still available or the things I used to use are still in the new app, if slightly hidden.
I got the timed charge working on the app by disabling the Smart Scheduler. I connected to the cloud servers, turned off the Smart Scheduler and then went back to the local inverter. I found that the timed charge works over the set time and doesn’t need to be updated.
I can do all that in the Giv app, I do have premium via axle & so I do export, last couple of months that’s been about 40kWh per day from solar.
The annual export income (+ FITS) covers the entire energy bill, including the gas hob, water & winter heating plus the 2 EVs which do about 300 miles a week between them.
We have downloaded giv local app. As recommended by givengergy tech guys have a look at it its an app. Nvllocal.
It needs you to log in and find the inverter on your router. But gives lots of charging slots etc
Thanks Peter - I’d actually come across Axle whilst looking for alternatives to the ~giv App on the Tinterweb - just had to check my current Octopus tariff (Cosy) would allow me to sign up (they will) and found a £25 cash back offer via Gary does solar on YouTube - so it’s on my to do list.
I have a similar set-up, with 4 KW PV, heat pump, Octopus Cosy tariff, but with GivEnergy AC3.0 battery. I have been using the Octopus Energy R&D Labs on-line automation, which allows set up of multiple periods of charge for compatible batteries. See Octopus Labs It is a beta system, so not brilliant support, and I’ve not noticed any updates over the c. 3 years I’ve been using it. But it works ok, with very occasional glitches when the Scheduler commands do not get through to my system (but the problem could be in my local connection - very little debug info available). I change the Schedule times and % settings every few months, with different settings for summer (25%), winter (100%) and spring/autumn (50-75%).
Smug Energy is a good alternative to the Giv app and doesn’t often get a mention as it is pretty new on the scene. It carries out optimisation very effectively and is by all accounts really easy to use. Full disclosure, I work for Smug’s parent company, but that does mean I know the app is compatible with GivEnergy systems. Hope this can help you on your hunt for an alternative, or others in a similar situation!
Hi Malcolm,
Your post has generated an interesting discussion and a few schedulers that I was not aware of.
I have been using Wonder Watt for around 10months and also have Monitor for Android on hot standby if the GE Software phoenix from the ashes gives up and the GE cloud interface goes down - both work well - see my write up here:
I have also written up my experience with the new GivEnergy app (much improved but…) and Axle (so far so good) in linked posts.
I hope that you find this useful.
BTW Octopus Charge Pack looks an interesting development and apparently will optimise battery charge/discharge to boot; seems that Axle has been a wake up call to Octopus.
Looks like you have plenty to choose from
Good luck and let us know what you decide to do and how you get on.
Thanks Dave
Thanks for this - I’ve got a few things to go at if the Giv App falls over - for the next few months I’ll stick with Giv, especially now I’ve been pointed to where the old system is now. I’m just about to sign up to Axle so again a reason to stay with Giv.
Will also keep an eye on the Octopus development - again at the moment that’s not a lot of interest to me - we currently get a decent FIT / we’re exporting only about 25% of our solar rather than the 50% included in our FIT and were able to run our heat pump through last winter with over 99% electric at cheap rate.
Cheers