The Electric Revolution

[Rolfe]

And its convinced me we should be (as installers) pushing for a LOT more lockouts on consumer access to their settings...

People with zero knowledge of what they are doing have no business fiddling with things that can cause quite a lot of damage
(and so far on this thread the person concerned has made literally every 'electrical newbies' error in the book....)

IF they have been fiddling with the setting I think they have been- then a visit from an inspector from the DNO will be in their future sooner or later....

Presumably I'm "the person concerned". Maybe you should try reading what I wrote. I haven't fiddled with anything. I'm merely setting the inverter using the app on my phone and there is literally nothing for any inspector to be concerned about. I haven't touched the installation, I haven't even moved a CT clamp.

The solar generation only clips at 5 kw if there is no DC place to put it. If there is a DC place to put it, the excess goes there. It's perfectly legitimate, indeed common, to arrange matters so that there's capacity in the home battery to take that excess. The system never exports more than the 5 kw limit.

If you don't understand that, even after I drew you a picture, then I don't think you know as much as you claim to know.

 

[Dabop]

Presumably I'm "the person concerned". Maybe you should try reading what I wrote. I haven't fiddled with anything. I'm merely setting the inverter using the app on my phone and there is literally nothing for any inspector to be concerned about. I haven't touched the installation, I haven't even moved a CT clamp.

The solar generation only clips at 5 kw if there is no DC place to put it. If there is a DC place to put it, the excess goes there. It's perfectly legitimate, indeed common, to arrange matters so that there's capacity in the home battery to take that excess. The system never exports more than the 5 kw limit.

If you don't understand that, even after I drew you a picture, then I don't think you know as much as you claim to know.

Yes- I KNOW you are 'just fiddling with the settings on the app' but that is the point I was making- you are adjusting settings with ZERO knowledge of what you are doing- your ideas on how they work (turning off export to make a cuppa etc) are WRONG- and yes, the app allows access to the settings that as an installer I consider that end users should NOT have access to.....

Your belief that it 'clips at 5kw unless its got somewhere to go' and you have managed to stop this clipping is what is worrying me- you dont know enough to even say what your panels wattage are- but you can play around with the export limits on your inverter?????

 

[Ivor the Engineer]

And its convinced me we should be (as installers) pushing for a LOT more lockouts on consumer access to their settings...

People with zero knowledge of what they are doing have no business fiddling with things that can cause quite a lot of damage
(and so far on this thread the person concerned has made literally every 'electrical newbies' error in the book....)

IF they have been fiddling with the setting I think they have been- then a visit from an inspector from the DNO will be in their future sooner or later....

My main thought looking at Rolfe's graph was that the battery was cycling from 5-100% daily, which is likely to reduce its capacity and useful life quicker than if it was held more constant around a less stressful state of charge.

Rolfe has not claimed to have changed the export limits on the inverter: they are fixed at 5kW. All Rolfe has done is configure the system to maximise the use of the battery and to store otherwise unused (i.e., no consumed locally or exported) solar energy over the period of a day. Is this the optimal solution? Probably not. Is it miles away from optimal or even a dangerous/illegal setup? No.

What Rolfe is doing requires no knowledge of the particular panels used in her installation. It is merely about the typical amount of energy from the solar panels (X kWh, where X depends on weather and time of year), the capacity of the battery (~16kWh from graph) and the export limit to the grid (fixed at 5kW).

Flow to Battery = min[Solar Generation kW - min(Solar Generation kW, Export Limit 5kW), min((Battery Capacity 16kWh - Battery Charge kWh) / t, Maximum Flow to Battery kW)]; <------ I think this is correct!

The battery system will automatically limit its maximum rate of charge and this will not be a setting a user or installer will be able to change for safety.

Other than the large amount of battery charge cycling, could you elucidate on every 'electrical newbies' error Rolfe has made?

 

[Rolfe]

Yes- I KNOW you are 'just fiddling with the settings on the app' but that is the point I was making- you are adjusting settings with ZERO knowledge of what you are doing- your ideas on how they work (turning off export to make a cuppa etc) are WRONG- and yes, the app allows access to the settings that as an installer I consider that end users should NOT have access to.....

Your belief that it 'clips at 5kw unless its got somewhere to go' and you have managed to stop this clipping is what is worrying me- you dont know enough to even say what your panels wattage are- but you can play around with the export limits on your inverter?????

I cannot play about with the export limits on the inverter. The export limit is 5 kw and that's that. The fact is that any solar generation above that export limit will be clipped unless the house battery isn't full, all I'm doing is arranging for the house battery not to be full at that point.

I'm not turning off export to make a cuppa, I'm allowing the battery to discharge when I make a cuppa, so that the house doesn't draw mains power. It's simple, it's easy, it's entirely legal, and that you still don't get it demonstrates to me that you don't have a clue what you're talking about.

 

[Rolfe]

My main thought looking at Rolfe's graph was that the battery was cycling from 5-100% daily, which is likely to reduce its capacity and useful life quicker than if it was held more constant around a less stressful state of charge.

Rolfe has not claimed to have changed the export limits on the inverter: they are fixed at 5kW. All Rolfe has done is configure the system to maximise the use of the battery and to store otherwise unused (i.e., no consumed locally or exported) solar energy over the period of a day. Is this the optimal solution? Probably not. Is it miles away from optimal or even a dangerous/illegal setup? No.

What Rolfe is doing requires no knowledge of the particular panels used in her installation. It is merely about the typical amount of energy from the solar panels (X kWh, where X depends on weather and time of year), the capacity of the battery (~16kWh from graph) and the export limit to the grid (fixed at 5kW).

Flow to Battery = min[Solar Generation kW - min(Solar Generation kW, Export Limit 5kW), min((Battery Capacity 16kWh - Battery Charge kWh) / t, Maximum Flow to Battery kW)]; <------ I think this is correct!

The battery system will automatically limit its maximum rate of charge and this will not be a setting a user or installer will be able to change for safety.

Other than the large amount of battery charge cycling, could you elucidate on every 'electrical newbies' error Rolfe has made?

I have thought about the battery cycling, but it's not worrying me. It's an LFP, it can take it. The alternative is that it spends its entire life during the summer at 100%, and that's not good for batteries either. This way it spends quite a lot of time in the mid-range of its SOC, so it's swings and roundabouts really.

At least you have understood what I was saying. Points for that. Is the solution optimal? Depends what you mean. It's not optimal if you want to set and forget, but if you're prepared to keep an eye on it, it works fine. I worked through several strategies for managing the system and settled on this one after some experimentation, and some more experienced users on Twitter saying, you've got a lot of clipping there, when I showed off my nice "Ayres Rock" graph.

I didn't set the battery to discharge today, because October, and some clipping happened because the sun came out, but heck, I might have made 10p if I'd set it!

If I didn't discharge the battery back to the grid in the evening, seriously, it would be at 100% most of the time in summer. In the morning the sun is powering the house by the time the cheap tariff finishes, and in the evening there would only be a small amount of usage before the cheap tariff kicked in again. I decided some time ago that the battery would be emptied in the evening and recharged after midnight. That's going to happen anyway. The only difference in the summer is that discharging it again in the morning means that it's not sitting at 100% all day, but rather sitting in the middle of its capacity.

 

[Dabop]

I cannot play about with the export limits on the inverter. The export limit is 5 kw and that's that. The fact is that any solar generation above that export limit will be clipped unless the house battery isn't full, all I'm doing is arranging for the house battery not to be full at that point.

I'm not turning off export to make a cuppa, I'm allowing the battery to discharge when I make a cuppa, so that the house doesn't draw mains power. It's simple, it's easy, it's entirely legal, and that you still don't get it demonstrates to me that you don't have a clue what you're talking about.

I have an installation licence- going back two decades- you don't know even the basics of your own system- I think its bloody obvious who has no clue what they are talking about....

That's my last word on the subject- not interested in this nonsense any more from you...

 

[acbytesla]

Take a breath guys. I appreciate Dabop passion and expertise. And I understand why Rolfe doesn't think it is really a problem. I too think he is probably cycling his batteries too low for the longevity health of his batteries, but that is his choice. I try to cycle my batteries no lower than 30% charge to only 90%. But, I was not under the impression that such cycling is a safety issue.

Personally, I am more paranoid about hot spots on the panels and wiring. That's why every panel I have is fused and I make sure I view everything with a thermal camera when I clean my panels.

I would appreciate Dabop's complaint better if he was a little more precise about his safety concerns. Because I too remain unconvinced there is problem. I am not doubting his expertise, I am just unclear what the danger is.

 

[Dabop]

My main thought looking at Rolfe's graph was that the battery was cycling from 5-100% daily, which is likely to reduce its capacity and useful life quicker than if it was held more constant around a less stressful state of charge.

Rolfe has not claimed to have changed the export limits on the inverter: they are fixed at 5kW. All Rolfe has done is configure the system to maximise the use of the battery and to store otherwise unused (i.e., no consumed locally or exported) solar energy over the period of a day. Is this the optimal solution? Probably not. Is it miles away from optimal or even a dangerous/illegal setup? No.

What Rolfe is doing requires no knowledge of the particular panels used in her installation. It is merely about the typical amount of energy from the solar panels (X kWh, where X depends on weather and time of year), the capacity of the battery (~16kWh from graph) and the export limit to the grid (fixed at 5kW).

Flow to Battery = min[Solar Generation kW - min(Solar Generation kW, Export Limit 5kW), min((Battery Capacity 16kWh - Battery Charge kWh) / t, Maximum Flow to Battery kW)]; <------ I think this is correct!

The battery system will automatically limit its maximum rate of charge and this will not be a setting a user or installer will be able to change for safety.

Other than the large amount of battery charge cycling, could you elucidate on every 'electrical newbies' error Rolfe has made?

She uses incorrect terminology, doesn't know the basics of her own system and has been fiddling with settings she said she had no idea about- hardly reassuring.... (and yes, the export limit IS one of those adjustable settings in almost all hybrid inverters...)

She's also made comments about something that I have been doing for literally the last 4 decades doing both installations and designing solar powered monitoring equipment in the mining industry....

(and many inverters do have settings I would have thought should be locked away from the users completely open- thankfully the newer units are improving in this regard, but its still way too easy to access settings that the general public shouldn't have access to....)
But meh- I won't be replying to anything from her in the future, so thats over with now....

 

[Ivor the Engineer]

I have thought about the battery cycling, but it's not worrying me. It's an LFP, it can take it. The alternative is that it spends its entire life during the summer at 100%, and that's not good for batteries either. This way it spends quite a lot of time in the mid-range of its SOC, so it's swings and roundabouts really.

At least you have understood what I was saying. Points for that. Is the solution optimal? Depends what you mean. It's not optimal if you want to set and forget, but if you're prepared to keep an eye on it, it works fine. I worked through several strategies for managing the system and settled on this one after some experimentation, and some more experienced users on Twitter saying, you've got a lot of clipping there, when I showed off my nice "Ayres Rock" graph.

I didn't set the battery to discharge today, because October, and some clipping happened because the sun came out, but heck, I might have made 10p if I'd set it!

If I didn't discharge the battery back to the grid in the evening, seriously, it would be at 100% most of the time in summer. In the morning the sun is powering the house by the time the cheap tariff finishes, and in the evening there would only be a small amount of usage before the cheap tariff kicked in again. I decided some time ago that the battery would be emptied in the evening and recharged after midnight. That's going to happen anyway. The only difference in the summer is that discharging it again in the morning means that it's not sitting at 100% all day, but rather sitting in the middle of its capacity.

I think for solar what would be 'optimal' can only be determined in retrospect, or if weather forecasts could precisely predict cloud cover for the next day. You're probably much closer to optimal than most people would care about achieving.

Of course, what is optimal for an individual household is unlikely be the same as what is optimal for the entire grid. As these systems start to become a significant fraction of the energy capacity of the grid I expect either mandatory software updates so the grid can have more control, or penalising users with tiny export allowances, costly grid electricity and/or feed-in tariffs unless they agree to give up more control.

It's quite interesting reading this thread. At the moment home generation seems to bolster the belief we are islands and can be self-reliant. I think many people are going to get a rude awakening when the people in charge have to stop everyone marching in step to prevent the the bridge being destroyed!

 

[Ivor the Engineer]

She uses incorrect terminology, doesn't know the basics of her own system and has been fiddling with settings she said she had no idea about- hardly reassuring.... (and yes, the export limit IS one of those adjustable settings in almost all hybrid inverters...)

I would be very surprised if a reputable company in the UK would leave the export limit setting available to users to change outside of certain bounds. I can easily see an incompetent or in a rush installer not setting it appropriately or leaving it unlocked. The energy company would notice very quickly and either remotely adjust the export limit or send a technician out to fix the problem. Either way, at no point has Rolfe said she's changed (or even can change) the export limit. She's just configures the system to make sure there's enough capacity in the battery to store the energy from the solar panels above the export cap that would otherwise be unused in the sunnier months.

At a more general level, it should be expected (and encouraged) that users will experiment with the technology they have bought to become more familiar with it. The designers of the system (and each sub-system) should make it impossible for a user to do serious damage by adjusting settings available to them. If the user interface can be used for critical settings it should not be possible to accidently get into that mode and warnings in the installation manual should tell unqualified users not to mess with them. I don't think Rolfe is plugging in an Ethernet cable and ssh'ing in as root!

She's also made comments about something that I have been doing for literally the last 4 decades doing both installations and designing solar powered monitoring equipment in the mining industry....

Based on the graph, how would you configure Rolfe's system differently? Is the way she's configured it significantly less than optimal or even dangerous? If so, how?

(and many inverters do have settings I would have thought should be locked away from the users completely open- thankfully the newer units are improving in this regard, but its still way too easy to access settings that the general public shouldn't have access to....)
But meh- I won't be replying to anything from her in the future, so thats over with now....

Which setting(s) has Rolfe changed that she as a user should not have had access to?

 

[Rolfe]

Take a breath guys. I appreciate Dabop passion and expertise. And I understand why Rolfe doesn't think it is really a problem. I too think he is probably cycling his batteries too low for the longevity health of his batteries, but that is his choice. I try to cycle my batteries no lower than 30% charge to only 90%. But, I was not under the impression that such cycling is a safety issue.

Personally, I am more paranoid about hot spots on the panels and wiring. That's why every panel I have is fused and I make sure I view everything with a thermal camera when I clean my panels.

I would appreciate Dabop's complaint better if he was a little more precise about his safety concerns. Because I too remain unconvinced there is problem. I am not doubting his expertise, I am just unclear what the danger is.

I thought you disapproved of misgendering people. Just saying.

If you are configuring your system to hold your batteries between 30% and 90% you are being much more sophisticated than I am. I appreciate the issue, but the battery has its own inbuilt management system, and LFP batteries can take quite a lot. It's becoming clearer and clearer that EV batteries are performing a lot better as regards longevity than even their developers thought. I tend to hold my car battery in the middle of its capacity when convenient, but I don't make a fetish of it. As regards the home battery, I think it will be fine. It will see me out, as they say! If it's a really bad idea to cycle from empty to full and back again every 24 hours, a lot of people are making a terrible mistake.

 

[Rolfe]

I think for solar what would be 'optimal' can only be determined in retrospect, or if weather forecasts could precisely predict cloud cover for the next day. You're probably much closer to optimal than most people would care about achieving.

Of course, what is optimal for an individual household is unlikely be the same as what is optimal for the entire grid. As these systems start to become a significant fraction of the energy capacity of the grid I expect either mandatory software updates so the grid can have more control, or penalising users with tiny export allowances, costly grid electricity and/or feed-in tariffs unless they agree to give up more control.

It's quite interesting reading this thread. At the moment home generation seems to bolster the belief we are islands and can be self-reliant. I think many people are going to get a rude awakening when the people in charge have to stop everyone marching in step to prevent the the bridge being destroyed!

Yes, I look at the forecast in the evening and decide how to set up for the next day. Sometimes forecast sun doesn't happen, but even then I can either hold the battery at say 30% all day because that's enough to see me through the evening anyway, or cancel the export setting and let the battery have what sun there is. Sometimes sun comes when it's not forecast, and a bit of clipping happens. C'est la vie.

Octopus is experimenting with incentives to get people to use electricity during certain periods of abundance, although I have found that not worth the trouble. Last winter they had an incentive that I didn't understand that would have profited me to export the home battery at particular times of day. If they offer that this winter I'll do it - I didn't realise how it worked last year as they're not that good at explaining! I expect this sort of thing will be refined, and they're working towards a system where people's cars with VtG act as storage banks for the grid and people are paid for taking electricity in times of abundance and giving it back in leaner times. That will take a while though.

In fact it's quite the opposite of what you say. People are being incentivised to help balance the grid, and this will increase I think.

 

[Rolfe]

I would be very surprised if a reputable company in the UK would leave the export limit setting available to users to change outside of certain bounds. I can easily see an incompetent or in a rush installer not setting it appropriately or leaving it unlocked. The energy company would notice very quickly and either remotely adjust the export limit or send a technician out to fix the problem. Either way, at no point has Rolfe said she's changed (or even can change) the export limit. She's just configures the system to make sure there's enough capacity in the battery to store the energy from the solar panels above the export cap that would otherwise be unused in the sunnier months.

At a more general level, it should be expected (and encouraged) that users will experiment with the technology they have bought to become more familiar with it. The designers of the system (and each sub-system) should make it impossible for a user to do serious damage by adjusting settings available to them. If the user interface can be used for critical settings it should not be possible to accidently get into that mode and warnings in the installation manual should tell unqualified users not to mess with them. I don't think Rolfe is plugging in an Ethernet cable and ssh'ing in as root!

Based on the graph, how would you configure Rolfe's system differently? Is the way she's configured it significantly less than optimal or even dangerous? If so, how?

Which setting(s) has Rolfe changed that she as a user should not have had access to?

My installer is entirely reputable. He left me with the system and said, now it's over to you to figure it out and set it up the way you want it. He came round the other day with a prospective new customer, to show her my system, and I showed him how I had it set. No criticisms from him.

Since I got the system the capabilities of the phone app have expanded quite usefully, allowing multiple periods of charge or export, to various limits, to be set in one go and left to run. They expect that people are going to do this sort if thing.

I too would like to know how our resident "expert" would configure my system differently, and what he thinks I'm doing that is either dangerous or illegal.

People with zero knowledge of what they are doing have no business fiddling with things that can cause quite a lot of damage
(and so far on this thread the person concerned has made literally every 'electrical newbies' error in the book....)

IF they have been fiddling with the setting I think they have been- then a visit from an inspector from the DNO will be in their future sooner or later....

Come on. What damage am I risking? Please enumerate these myriad errors I have made, explain their consequences, and what you think I should have dine. What do you think the DNO inspector will object to in what I have done?

 

[acbytesla]

I thought you disapproved of misgendering people. Just saying.

I do. My apologies.

If you are configuring your system to hold your batteries between 30% and 90% you are being much more sophisticated than I am. I appreciate the issue, but the battery has its own inbuilt management system, and LFP batteries can take quite a lot. It's becoming clearer and clearer that EV batteries are performing a lot better as regards longevity than even their developers thought. I tend to hold my car battery in the middle of its capacity when convenient, but I don't make a fetish of it. As regards the home battery, I think it will be fine. It will see me out, as they say! If it's a really bad idea to cycle from empty to full and back again every 24 hours, a lot of people are making a terrible mistake.

I agree.

BTW, I just read that hard acceleration on your EV is better for the batteries.

 

[Rolfe]

It's OK, I'm not bothered.

I think what they're saying is that the test routines they used to estimate battery life were much harder on the batteries than actual real-life usage. I don't know about hard acceleration, but the variety of usage that comes naturally with normal driving patterns seems to be preferred.

As far as my home battery is concerned, I think what I'm doing as regards harvesting the clipping is somewhat better for it than if I wasn't. If I wasn't, the battery would fill from the mains overnight and be at 100% when the solar takes over at sunrise. It would stay at 100% all day, only dipping by a bit after about 8 pm as the sun goes down (my panels are slightly east-angled) before returning to 100% when the cheap tariff starts at 11.30.

OK, that's not actually going to happen, I'm going to export the battery from about 9.30 for the export payment, then charge it again on the cheap rate from midnight. So in fact it would sit at 100% for the vast majority of the time, with only a forced discharge followed by a recharge, every 24 hours. Probably not ideal. However set up to harvest the clipping, it spends most of the day between 30% and 70-80%, depending on how sunny it is. So if anything that last manoeuvre improves the battery's health chances.

 

[acbytesla]

It's OK, I'm not bothered.

It's OK, I'm not bothered.

I think what they're saying is that the test routines they used to estimate battery life were much harder on the batteries than actual real-life usage. I don't know about hard acceleration, but the variety of usage that comes naturally with normal driving patterns seems to be preferred.

As far as my home battery is concerned, I think what I'm doing as regards harvesting the clipping is somewhat better for it than if I wasn't. If I wasn't, the battery would fill from the mains overnight and be at 100% when the solar takes over at sunrise. It would stay at 100% all day, only dipping by a bit after about 8 pm as the sun goes down (my panels are slightly east-angled) before returning to 100% when the cheap tariff starts at 11.30.

OK, that's not actually going to happen, I'm going to export the battery from about 9.30 for the export payment, then charge it again on the cheap rate from midnight. So in fact it would sit at 100% for the vast majority of the time, with only a forced discharge followed by a recharge, every 24 hours. Probably not ideal. However set up to harvest the clipping, it spends most of the day between 30% and 70-80%, depending on how sunny it is. So if anything that last manoeuvre improves the battery's health chances.

I think what they're saying is that the test routines they used to estimate battery life were much harder on the batteries than actual real-life usage. I don't know about hard acceleration, but the variety of usage that comes naturally with normal driving patterns seems to be preferred.

As far as my home battery is concerned, I think what I'm doing as regards harvesting the clipping is somewhat better for it than if I wasn't. If I wasn't, the battery would fill from the mains overnight and be at 100% when the solar takes over at sunrise. It would stay at 100% all day, only dipping by a bit after about 8 pm as the sun goes down (my panels are slightly east-angled) before returning to 100% when the cheap tariff starts at 11.30.

OK, that's not actually going to happen, I'm going to export the battery from about 9.30 for the export payment, then charge it again on the cheap rate from midnight. So in fact it would sit at 100% for the vast majority of the time, with only a forced discharge followed by a recharge, every 24 hours. Probably not ideal. However set up to harvest the clipping, it spends most of the day between 30% and 70-80%, depending on how sunny it is. So if anything that last manoeuvre improves the battery's health chances.

Let's be clear. I don't know what is best. I'm not giving advice to anyone on battery management. I wouldn't be that presumptuous. I spent a lot of money on the batteries for my system. So taking care of my batteries was important to me. I believed this was the best way to manage my batteries. With the large drop in battery cost I'm much less concerned.

 

[Rolfe]

You're doing the right thing. I just think the way things are going I'll be fine anyway. You touch on another point. Battery prices are falling so much that if the capacity on mine ever drops enough to be an issue (I don't expect that for an instant, it holds far more than I actually need) by that time I could probably get a replacement quite cheaply.

Bear in mind all that happens is that a battery loses capacity. If you have a lot more capacity than you need in the first place, it's not a concern.

 

[acbytesla]

You're doing the right thing. I just think the way things are going I'll be fine anyway. You touch on another point. Battery prices are falling so much that if the capacity on mine ever drops enough to be an issue (I don't expect that for an instant, it holds far more than I actually need) by that time I could probably get a replacement quite cheaply.

Bear in mind all that happens is that a battery loses capacity. If you have a lot more capacity than you need in the first place, it's not a concern.

Exactly. My understanding is that batteries are lasting a lot longer than expected anyway.

I have a couple of 6 year old 12 volt 100ah lithium batteries that are still going strong. And no kidding, they were 5 times the price of the single 12 volt 100ah battery I bought in the spring for my RV. And they are cheaper today than they were in the spring. And sodium batteries are expected to be less than half as much. Hopefully my well battery which is lead acid will last long enough that when I do need to replace it, it will be with sodium.

 

[Dabop]

I would be very surprised if a reputable company in the UK would leave the export limit setting available to users to change outside of certain bounds. I can easily see an incompetent or in a rush installer not setting it appropriately or leaving it unlocked. The energy company would notice very quickly and either remotely adjust the export limit or send a technician out to fix the problem. Either way, at no point has Rolfe said she's changed (or even can change) the export limit. She's just configures the system to make sure there's enough capacity in the battery to store the energy from the solar panels above the export cap that would otherwise be unused in the sunnier months.

At a more general level, it should be expected (and encouraged) that users will experiment with the technology they have bought to become more familiar with it. The designers of the system (and each sub-system) should make it impossible for a user to do serious damage by adjusting settings available to them. If the user interface can be used for critical settings it should not be possible to accidently get into that mode and warnings in the installation manual should tell unqualified users not to mess with them. I don't think Rolfe is plugging in an Ethernet cable and ssh'ing in as root!

Based on the graph, how would you configure Rolfe's system differently? Is the way she's configured it significantly less than optimal or even dangerous? If so, how?

Which setting(s) has Rolfe changed that she as a user should not have had access to?

Unfortunately most current hybrids on the market DO allow users access to some settings that could lead to system damage (like battery charge current levels), max charge and discharge levels and yes, grid export levels on some.... (looking at you EG4 and Frontius....) and with no warnings during setup (all manufacturers assume (and we all know the saying about that) that the person programming it actually knows what they are doing... we already know that is not the case.. which is why I would prefer to see the settings be a 'restricted menu'...) EVERY setting can cause system damage if improperly set- some in the short term, some may take longer... and we STILL don't know exactly what this setting is that she was fooling with to 'reduce clipping' was...

She is pushing her batteries far harder than LFP should be (down to 10%!!!- they can 'handle' it, but a discharge that deep will be seriously reducing the battery service life- by anything up to half of what it could be- most manufacturers recommend 20% at MOST, 30% for a long service life... plus trotting out the 'don't keep them at 100%' nonsense- that applies SPECIFICALLY to one form of lithium cell (NCM) which is rapidly disappearing from both the EV and Powerwall markets, LFP is a completely different chemistry of lithium cell, and can be held at 100% without issue (NCM is the cells found in mostly 'some' Tesla products these days or stuff from very early in the hybrid markets being popular, LFP isn't quite as good in the energy/kg stakes, but it can accept higher charge/discharge currents, requires less thermal management than NCM (the 'burny burny ones) and also has a significantly better service life than NCM... (unmanaged NCM cells are usually around 2000 charge cycles at best, ones with active cooling might get up around 3000 charge cycles, LFP is usually quoted as 3000-5000, and the LYP like I am using is even better again (at the expense of being slightly larger/heavier than LFP) having a service life of 5000-7000 charge cycles, AND a service temperature range far better than LFP, NCM or L/A (-45C up to 85C!!!) although they are slightly more expensive than LFP, their added service life and temperature tolerance is much better for high temp areas like mine where L/A and LFP both need charge tapering in summer or risk premature failure... (pushing high currents into a LFP above 40C can effectively halve the service life again!!!)

 

[Roger Ramjets]

just read that hard acceleration on your EV is better for the batteries.

Where did you read that?