Low Power Alert?

Questions
#1

I’m trying to setup a “Low Power” alert when I forget to plug in my car to the EV charger at night. (Happens as I get older). When power usage is above 4,000 watts, it is plugged in and charging, but if it’s lower, I know there’s a problem.

I tried setting up the “Low Net Alert” to trigger if power drops below -4000 watts for 15 minutes between 22:15 and 23:00, but I’m not getting an alert, and I’m not sure that I am even setting it up in the right section. Does anyone know if this is type of alert is possible?

Thanks,
Lenny

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#2

I don’t use alerts so this is just some thoughts. I’m not sure why it’s not sending an email. Have you tried a high alert, so you receive something when the car is charging? Have you ever received any alerts of any kind from pvoutput, ie are they going to junk folder or an old email address? Probably not, but I thought I’d state the obvious,

#3

I’ve just noticed you can set up a “high usage alert” which I’m assuming would be a positive 4000 setting using this catagoty. I know ultimately you don’t want this, but it might be an indicator to see if you are capable or receiving alerts period.

#4

Thanks for the replies. I played around with some of the High Power and Low Output alerts the other day, and get the emails with no problem. I understand that the normal user is going to be more concerned about high usage alerts than low usage, and that’s obviously what the monitoring would be built around. I’ll keep playing around, thanks for the input!

#5

The settings are correct, but for a Low Net Alert to trigger, both generation and consumption need to be present. Since this is after sundown, no generation is present and the net alert never triggers.

Note that same results can be achieved with a High Usage Alert, since consumption will always equal net during that time of the day.

#6

Thanks. Tried that and it sends an alert, but it is the opposite of what I am looking for. Trying to get an alert when power is lower, not higher than the trigger value. After more research in the help file, it seems that the High Net Alert with a value of -4000 watts would work if a small amount of generation could appear to be present at night to allow a “net” value to show up. I had an idea to force it to see some power at night by adding a rule to the solar side,

but that doesn’t work, monitor still shows power at 0 at night. If there’s no way to trick the net power into working at night, I might be out of luck.

#7

We will need to add an enhancement to allow Low Net Alerts to work during times where no generation is present.

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#8

It is now possible to trigger an alert when Net consumption drops below the threshold.

Since Export is Positive and Import Negative, to alert when consumption drops below a value we have to use the High Net Alert with a negative value.

The below setting will alert when consumption is below 4000W for 15 minutes.

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#9

Works!

Thanks @bankstownbloke for the update! I’ve already gotten my first alert to plug in my EV.

#10

Great, thanks for confirming.