{"id":91534,"date":"2025-04-19T07:13:57","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T21:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=91534"},"modified":"2025-04-17T18:40:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T09:10:04","slug":"phase-shift-ive-seen-the-future-and-its-simple-timers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/phase-shift-ive-seen-the-future-and-its-simple-timers\/","title":{"rendered":"Phase Shift: I&#8217;ve Seen The Future, And It&#8217;s\u2026 Simple Timers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-91538\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ev-charging-app.png\" alt=\"An app for charging EVs\" width=\"911\" height=\"477\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ev-charging-app.png 911w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ev-charging-app-300x157.png 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ev-charging-app-768x402.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 911px) 100vw, 911px\" \/>In a world full of &#8216;smart&#8217; energy tech, AI-driven optimisation, and dashboards that would make a Qantas cockpit blush, I\u2019ve come to a confronting conclusion: the future isn&#8217;t clever. It&#8217;s just\u2026 timers.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Three things happened recently that reminded me the more complicated the system, the more things that can (and do) go wrong.<\/p>\n<h2>Systems Arguing Over Excess Solar<\/h2>\n<p><strong>First:<\/strong> we installed a SigEnergy AC EV charger at the house of our marketing manager Jono. He chose SigEnergy because it supports OCPP, and he&#8217;s with Amber Electric whose <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/amber-for-batteries-review\/\">prices go up and down like a rollercoaster<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>His goal? To smart-charge his EV in two ways:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>From surplus solar during the day;<\/li>\n<li>From the grid when prices go negative (yep, negative \u2014 Amber will actually pay you to charge).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It should\u2019ve worked beautifully, but the reality was another matter (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Vzojyrz4UDw\">check out our video for the full saga<\/a>). Instead, Amber&#8217;s smart software curtails solar exports when prices go negative &#8211; to avoid customers paying to dumping power into the grid. But that means ChargeHQ, the solar-charging app, can\u2019t see any surplus solar\u2026 so it refuses to charge. The two systems were arguing over Jono&#8217;s excess solar.<\/p>\n<p>Until the engineers fix it (handy that Amber and ChargeHQ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/ambers-charge-hq-deal-peace-at-last-for-stressed-ev-owners\/\">are the same company<\/a>), the workaround is simple: a built-in timer that charges from 11am to 3pm. That\u2019s when there&#8217;s usually either plenty of solar or cheap grid electricity. Not perfect, but it works.<\/p>\n<h2>Systems That Stop EV Charging<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Second:<\/strong> I saw complaints about Origin&#8217;s EV charging deal &#8211; the one where they guarantee a full charge when you need it, and only charge you 8c per kWh. Sounds great\u2026 until someone tried to top up at a Tesla Supercharger <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/UniqueImagesAus\/status\/1901472345421914404\">and it refused<\/a>. I&#8217;m guessing the system couldn&#8217;t work out the car wasn&#8217;t at home, so it blocked the charge. Not helpful. Again, fixable. But it shows how fragile clever systems can be when they depend on everything talking to everything else, perfectly.<\/p>\n<h2>Systems That Don&#8217;t Do What They Promise<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Third:<\/strong> Tesla recently launched a &#8216;Charge on Solar&#8217; feature that only charges your car using excess solar. Nice idea &#8211; until it refuses to charge even when I\u2019m exporting 10kW to the grid. I think it\u2019s clashing with my Powerwall&#8217;s VPP controls, but who knows. And it definitely doesn\u2019t work with the Mini. All Tesla gear, and still a fight. More smarts, more complexity, more unpredictability.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_90573\" style=\"width: 1009px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-90573\" class=\"size-full wp-image-90573\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/heat-pump-timer.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"734\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/heat-pump-timer.jpg 999w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/heat-pump-timer-300x220.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/heat-pump-timer-768x564.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 999px) 100vw, 999px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-90573\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A simpler solution is available: timers.<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>A Tale As Old As Timers<\/h2>\n<p>At my place, almost everything runs on timers.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pool pump? Timer.<\/li>\n<li>Pool heat pump? Timer.<\/li>\n<li>Dishwasher? Timer.<\/li>\n<li>EV chargers? Timer \u2014 because trying to coordinate a Mini and a Tesla through ChargeHQ doesn\u2019t work.<\/li>\n<li>Battery? It\u2019s on a plan that makes daytime power cheapest. No extra smarts needed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I reckon I\u2019m only a couple hundred bucks a year worse off than someone with a fully optimised Home Assistant setup, half a dozen API integrations, and a switchboard full of Catch Control relays. But I&#8217;m not on home automation forums. I&#8217;m not explaining my energy system to my family. And if I drop dead, no one has to rip out a computerised home assistant just to boil a kettle.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So here\u2019s my advice:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you have solar and a battery and your retailer offers a decent time-of-use tariff, with cheap daytime and overnight windows, forget the AI and just use the timers already built into your appliances. Pool pump, dishwasher, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/ev-chargers\/#features\">EV charger<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/hot-water\/heat-pump\/#integrating\">hot water heat pump<\/a>, they\u2019ve all got them.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll get 90% of the savings, and 10% of the headaches.<\/p>\n<p>And your toaster won&#8217;t need a firmware update.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a world full of &#8216;smart&#8217; energy tech, AI-driven optimisation, and dashboards that would make a Qantas cockpit blush, I\u2019ve come to a confronting conclusion: the future isn&#8217;t clever. It&#8217;s just\u2026 timers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[745],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy-efficiency","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>I&#039;ve Seen The Future, And It&#039;s\u2026 Simple Timers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a world full of &#039;smart&#039; energy tech, AI-driven optimisation, and dashboards that would make a Qantas cockpit blush, I\u2019ve come to a confronting conclusion: the future isn&#039;t clever. 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