Sofar battery charging schedule
How do I set my Sofar battery to charge at night?
Setting your Sofar battery to charge overnight only takes a few presses of the four buttons on the front of the inverter . First, open System Settings, then Energy Storage Mode, then Time of Use Mode, and set the rule there to charge between your off-peak start and end times. You can do this yourself in a few minutes, and the step-by-step instructions are further down this page.
What is a solar inverter?
A solar inverter is the box that changes the electricity your panels make into the electricity your home can use. Your panels produce direct current (DC). Your sockets and appliances run on alternating current (AC). The inverter sits between the two and converts one into the other.
This is useful if you are on an off-peak electricity tariff, where electricity costs less overnight. Instead of waiting for the sun, you tell the battery to fill itself up from the grid (the mains electricity supply) during those cheaper hours. It is then ready to run your home the next morning.
You do not need any tools for this. Everything is done from the buttons on the front of the inverter.
Have your off-peak start and end times to hand before you start. Your electricity supplier provides these, and they are the times you will enter into the inverter.
Why charge your battery at off-peak times?
Off-peak electricity costs a good deal less than the daytime rate. If you charge the battery during the cheaper hours, then use that power the next morning, you are replacing expensive morning units with cheap overnight ones. The battery does the same job either way, but the electricity inside it costs less.
Your supplier may call this window a night rate, a night boost, a day and night rate, or an EV rate. They all mean the same thing here, which is a few hours overnight when electricity is at its cheapest.
How much you save depends on your own tariff, and on how much of the battery you use each morning. Our guide to dynamic electricity tariffs explains the different tariff types and what they mean for solar owners.
What you will need
Before you begin, make sure you have the following:
- Your Sofar inverter, which is usually mounted on a wall indoors, near your fuse board
- Your off-peak start and end times, which come from your electricity supplier
What do the buttons on a Sofar inverter do?
Your inverter has four buttons. Everything in this guide is done with these four, so it is worth knowing what each one does before you start.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Back | Returns to the previous screen, or back to the home screen |
| Up | Scrolls up through the options |
| Down | Scrolls down through the options |
| OK | Confirms your choice and moves you on |
Press the Back button once or twice first, to make sure you are on the home screen of the inverter. Starting from anywhere else can lead you into the wrong menu.
Step 1: Open the system settings
From the home screen, use the Up and Down buttons to scroll until 1 - System Settings is highlighted. Press OK to open it.
Step 2: Choose Energy Storage Mode
You are now inside the system settings menu. Use the Down button to scroll to 4 - Energy Storage Mode and press OK. On the next screen, scroll to 2 - Time of Use Mode and press OK.
Time of Use Mode is the part of the inverter that decides when your battery charges from the grid. This is where the overnight charging schedule lives.
Step 3: Set up the charging rule
You now need to fill in the details of the charging rule. Work through the list below, pressing OK after each one.
Rule 0 is the first of the inverter's charging rules. It is the only one you need to set for a simple overnight charge.
- Select Rule 0 and press OK.
- Set it to Enabled and press OK.
- Set From as the time your off-peak rate begins, for example 00h00m for midnight. Press OK.
- Set To as the time your off-peak rate ends, for example 07h00m for 7am. Press OK.
- Set the SOC to 100% and press OK.
- Set the Charge Rate to 2500 W (watts) and press OK.
SOC stands for State of Charge, which is simply how full the battery is. Setting it to 100% means the battery will charge as fully as it can during the window you have set.
Charge Rate is how fast the battery is allowed to fill up, and it is measured in watts (W). 2,500 W is the same as 2.5 kW. Set it to 2,500 W and leave it there.
Step 4: Apply the rule to every day
There is one last part, and it is the part most people miss. By default the rule only runs on the dates and days you tell it to, so you need to set it to run right through the year.
- Set the Effective date to Dec 31 - Dec 30 and press OK. It looks odd, but that is how the inverter is told to run the rule on every day of the year.
- The inverter will move on to the day of the week selection screen.
- Use the OK button to navigate to and highlight the day you want. Press the Up or Down button to switch that day on or off. Press OK to move on to the next day. The days you leave switched on are the days the schedule will run on.
- Once you have confirmed all seven days, a "Success" message will appear on the screen.
Your schedule is now saved. From now on, your battery will charge during your off-peak window each night.
If the screen you are looking at does not match the steps above, contact us and we will talk you through it.
Need a hand?
Get in touch with your installation team at PureVolt.ie if you are stuck at any point. Let us know which step you reached and what you can see on the inverter screen, and we will take it from there.
You might also find these guides useful:
- Change battery timing on a Solis inverter, the same job for Solis systems.
- Battery charging and discharging explained, how your battery behaves day to day.
- Dynamic electricity tariffs, what different tariffs mean for solar owners.
- Change WiFi on a Sofar inverter, reconnect your Sofar system to your home WiFi.