Fox ESS Schedule Settings
In the EnergyDroid app, go to the Schedule tab and tap the Strategy button. This opens a screen where you can customise how the automation works for your inverter and batteries. You can also reach it from Settings → Energy Management → Inverter Strategy.
Automation
Control my inverter
You'll want this turned on. EnergyDroid always works out a schedule you can see in the app; with this on, it also writes that schedule to your inverter. With it off, the plan is advisory only and your inverter keeps its own settings.
Off-Peak & Peak
Both of these need a tariff with off-peak times set, which you configure under Settings → Energy Management → Tariffs.
Charge from the grid at cheap rates
Fills your battery during your tariff's cheap hours so you avoid buying at peak prices. The exact window comes from whichever tariff you have set — for Intelligent Octopus Go that is 11:30pm to 5:30am. On Agile there is no fixed off-peak window at all; instead the app charges during the cheapest half-hours of the day.
Export surplus at peak
This is one of the main features of the app. When enabled, EnergyDroid sells what is left in your battery to the grid rather than leaving it sitting there. How it picks the timing depends on your export tariff.
On a fixed export rate every unit pays the same, so the only thing that matters is not running out early. The app exports as late as it can: it works out how long your battery will take to empty down to your Export down to level, then starts late enough that it finishes just as the peak period ends.
On Agile Outgoing Octopus the price changes every half hour, so instead of one late block the app picks the individual half-hours that pay best. It works down the day from the highest-paying half-hour, exporting as much in each as your Export down to level allows. Half-hours that pay less than it cost to fill the battery are skipped — each export price is compared against your cheapest import rate that day, allowing for the energy lost charging and discharging.
That Agile plan is built from forecasts — your recent usage history and the solar forecast for where you live — so it is a best effort rather than a promise. On a cloudier or busier day than forecast, the battery may not make it to every half-hour the app picked. It is recalculated every half hour as prices and forecasts update, and Expected home usage is the setting that controls how cautious it is.
If your import tariff is Agile as well, there is no fixed peak window, so export half-hours are considered right across the day rather than only up to the evening off-peak.
With this turned off, EnergyDroid never exports your battery to the grid.
Normal Operation
Default work mode
Despite the name, this is not just a daytime setting — it is what the inverter does at any time not covered by cheap-rate charging, exporting, or an energy session, which is usually most of the day.
We recommend Self Use. This uses solar production (if you have solar panels) to charge the battery first and only exports to the grid when your battery reaches 100%. It prioritises having a full battery.
Feed In will export solar production straight to the grid without using it to charge your battery.
Backup holds the battery in reserve for a power cut and runs the house from the grid.
Expected home usage
Sets how cautiously we forecast your electricity use, based on your recent history. Normal suits most homes. Raise it if the battery runs out before the evening peak ends; lower it if it is still nearly full and you would rather export more.
Battery Limits
These are three separate floors doing three different jobs. Mixing them up is the most common source of confusion.
Everyday battery reserve
The battery stops powering your home at this level, keeping a reserve back. Exporting uses its own limit, below.
Export down to
When selling to the grid, the battery stops at this level so you keep some charge for your own use. This is the setting that controls how far down the battery is sold.
Manual force discharge floor
Only applies when you set a Force Discharge work mode override yourself. It has no effect on the schedule the app works out for you.
While the EV is charging
If you have a Shelly energy monitor attached to your EV charger (which is optional), the While the EV is charging setting controls what the home battery does while your car is charging:
Backup
Stops the battery from discharging, so it is not drained into the car. Your EV charger and your house both use electricity from the grid. This is the usual choice.
Force Charge
Automatically charges your battery when the EV is charging. Both your EV charger and your home use mains electricity, plus you charge your Fox battery with the cheap electricity.
Self Use
Uses the battery for some or all of the EV charging.
If you press boost on your charger, Self Use is used whatever this is set to. Boost is only detected when your EV charging comes through the Octopus Energy integration.
Octopus Energy Sessions
These apply to Octopus saving sessions and free-electricity sessions, which pull the battery in opposite directions: a saving session holds charge back beforehand so you have something to earn from, while a free session deliberately empties the battery so the free window can refill it. None of these settings apply on an Agile import tariff.
Free session: empty down to
Before a free-electricity session the battery is deliberately emptied to this level, starting at 7:00am, so the free session can refill it. Raise it to empty less.
Saving session: minimum charge when it starts
In the hours before a saving session the battery will not go below this, so it starts the session with enough stored energy to earn from.
Saving session: discharge down to
During a saving session the battery discharges to this level. Lower earns more but leaves less in the battery afterwards.