When setting up automations to optimize the use of your solar energy, choosing the right thresholds for turning appliances on and off is crucial. Here’s a guide on how to adjust these thresholds effectively.
Note: In this article, we assume you've configured your automations using the "Grid Injection" setting. If not, we strongly recommend doing so. For a detailed explanation of the difference between total production and grid injection, and their impact on your automations, please refer to this article: I don't understand the difference between "Grid Injection" and "Total Production", and how this changes the behavior of my automations?
Adjust the trigger threshold for automations used to turn on your appliances
Account for the instantaneous consumption of your appliances
Before setting your turn-on threshold, it's crucial to know the instantaneous consumption of the appliances you plan to activate. The principle is that the trigger threshold corresponds to the consumption of the appliance(s) to be switched on. For example, if you're automating a 1,5 kW water heater, make sure the grid injection threshold reflects this consumption. If the turn-on threshold is too low, when the appliance will turn on, you will instantly consume from the grid.
If you set the treshold properly, corresponding the appliance consumption, you will avoid the grid consumption. An important detail to keep in mind is that setting the threshold slightly above this value - say, 1.7 kW - will ensure that your system has enough excess energy to power the device without immediately going on the grid.
Set a margin to avoid to avoid repetitive switching ON and OFF
Adding a margin is important. We told you to put one in the previous paragraph, but do you know why?
Adding a margin is really important if you have or plan to create a shutdown automation (you can find more details in the section below and in this guide on properly setting up solar-based automations).
The margin ensures that your appliances won't cause the shutdown automation to trigger immediately after turning on. This happens because the grid injection drops sharply when an appliance is activated, potentially falling below your set threshold and turning the appliance off right after it turns on.
Adjust the trigger threshold for automations used to turn off your appliances
To avoid your appliances staying on indefinitely, setting up a shutdown automation is essential. This ensures that when there’s no longer excess energy being generated, your appliances will automatically turn off.
For turning appliances off, set the threshold to "Under 0W." This ensures that when your solar production no longer covers your household consumption, and you start drawing energy from the grid, the appliances are automatically turned off.
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