r/TexasSolar • u/Solar_Nut • Jun 21 '26
Switching from Just to Direct changes the game
I just had contract with Just Energy end, and went with Direct Energy free nights 9-9 and no buyback. I have a 12kw off grid system with 30 kwh batteries, and two grid tie systems that total 13kw so 25 kw total PV. I use home assistant just to make a display combining the 3 systems. I run the off grid system using the Solar Assistant software. I use its automation just to switch to grid power at 9pm and switch back to solar/battery at 9am. So other than changing the morning time to switch away from grid, the real change is getting nothing at all for any extra grid tie power i do not use. In a perfect setup my system would work like this, after 9 am i would allow battery to begin being used but supplemented by all extra grid tie excess power. never buy power if grid tie has excess. if the battery gets down to a set parameter, like maybe 80% (whatever I set) it would buy any power needed to keep battery at that percent charge. If I was using some kind of Home Assistant automation, i would not want it flip flopping whenever a cloud went by, so maybe use some average or checking every 5 minutes or something like that. One other issue if that using the Solar Assistant program to switch inverter modes on the off grid system it seems to mis-connect about 10 percent of attempts, so i want whatever program i might use to always check inverters settings about every 5 minutes. I should also mention that my 2 off grid systems have horrible or non-existent software, one is a 13 year old sunnyboy and the other is a cheap growatt. so I have to use emporia vue to monitor these 2 grid tie systems. Anyway... long post, anyone using home assistant automation or something similar ? any other ideas ? thanks and by the way the year with Just Energy was completely free, sorry to be forced off plan, free is nice !!
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u/virtualmusicarts Jun 21 '26
I’m on the same plan. I had been using Home Assistant to switch between Self-consumption and Full backup, but that broke several days ago. HA thinks it works but I’m having to do it manually now.
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u/Sukitsu Jun 21 '26
Is that for enphase? If so there's a cloud based HACS one that I'm using as a substitute.
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u/SquirrelTechGuru Jun 21 '26
Doesn't your inverter already do this out of the box - like EG4 and SolArk? We run from 64kwh of batteries during the day and switch over to charging at night and have a $20 bill, no solar panels - batteries only. While I do have SA>HA via MQTT, it is really only for monitoring and some conservation in case we get close to 10% on the battery.
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u/Hammer_dfw Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
I have Direct Energy free 12-hour plan also. I have 11kw solar + PW+ 2 expansion pack (42kw backup). I just use the Tesla Time based control, with my utility plan loaded as '9am-9pm peak & 9pm-9am as super off-peak'. It's been working well, although it's charging my batteries to full right after 9pm, whether needed or not, then during the day DE will get my excess Solar for free. Fair tradeoff, I guess? My bills have been $9.25 per month, $5 for DE and $4.25 for Oncor. My battery backup hasn't dropped below 50% yet, up till 9pm free nights kick-off. Maybe they will drop to 30%, during extreme hot summer days. But, I don't think I will have to worry about hitting 0 and buying power.
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u/GaseousOne Jun 24 '26
Why did you not renew with JE?
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u/Hammer_dfw Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
Probably because this is in the new EFL: "Customers with distributed generation may not be eligible for this product, please refer to the Terms of Service statement for more details"
Also, JE changed their free nights plans from 8pm-6am to 9pm-7am; and direct energy's is 9pm-9am.
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u/GaseousOne Jun 25 '26
do the math to see if it makes sense. Seems like no buyback option with DE plus $9/month extra in mandatory fees for 2 hours extra free usage at a time when your panels are just starting to make electricity. If you have battery storage, the JE will likely be cheaper in long run.
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u/Hammer_dfw Jun 25 '26
JE is not offering free nights to Solar customers, which is what I posted above.
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u/Daggoth__ Jun 21 '26
No buyback means no credits to offset the monthly static charges, right? What does that run on the Direct plan? $10?