Choose how your battery works: planning modes and Custom settings

Start with what you want your battery to do

Some households want to use more of their solar at home. Others prefer to keep more stored energy for later, or allow extra charging and exporting when the expected value is worthwhile. Your planning mode tells VPPiQ Home how to balance those priorities.

The planner looks across the next 24 hours in half-hour intervals, considering your tariff, expected solar, household demand, battery charge and equipment limits. A planning mode is separate from the operating mode that previews or applies plans, and from inverter actions such as Self Use, charging or discharging. It does not promise a saving or a particular export event each day.

Compare the four planning modes

Choose the priority that best fits your home. Each mode respects your permissions and equipment limits. Open a card for the trade-offs behind the label.

Check permissions before adjusting Custom

Allow home-battery grid charging controls planned charging from the grid. Turning it off still lets your home import electricity for appliances and allows solar to charge the battery. If your aim is solar-only battery charging, this permission is the starting point.

Allow stored-battery export controls planned exports of energy stored in the battery. Turning it off applies across every planning mode. Direct surplus solar can still be exported. Choosing a conservative profile and explicitly switching off stored-battery exports are separate choices worth checking.

Preserve backup reserve should be considered alongside the actual minimum state of charge, or SOC, used by the planner. SOC means how full the battery is. A checked reserve option does not, by itself, set a 30% minimum, and a stored-energy reserve does not establish whether your installation can supply the home during an outage.

Understand your reserve and export stop level

Keeping at least 30% for all planned battery use is different from stopping exports at 30% while allowing later Self Use below that level. Decide which outcome you want before changing reserve settings.

With normal forecast quality, the planning floor combines the resolved base minimum with the reserve buffer. Stored-battery exports have a further export reserve buffer. For example, a 30% base minimum plus a five-percentage-point reserve buffer gives a 35% planning floor. Adding a ten-point export buffer gives a 45% export floor. These are illustrative settings, not a recommended reserve for every home.

A forecast uncertainty buffer adds protection when forecast quality is degraded. An additional five points would take the example's planning and export floors to 40% and 50%. The combined levels cannot exceed the usable maximum SOC.

These floors are limits, not instructions to drain the battery to those levels. Demand, available time, discharge power and future needs may leave the charge higher. If the battery is already below reserve, changing a setting cannot instantly replenish it. A preferred target SOC is different again: it informs the end of the rolling plan, rather than setting an all-day minimum.

Make deliberate changes to battery use

Start Custom with permissions and reserves, then adjust one group at a time. A lower preferred daily cycle limit reduces the energy the planner can move through the battery. That can also restrict useful solar storage and supply to your home. Higher reserves and less cycling can mean higher grid costs.

The battery wear allowance is a modelling cost, not a charge on your electricity bill. It applies to charging and discharging throughput. As an illustration, at four cents per kWh of throughput, moving one kWh in and one kWh out represents eight cents before losses. Increasing the allowance makes marginal battery activity less attractive.

The terminal SOC policy describes the end of the rolling 24-hour plan, not necessarily midnight. Protect starting position protects the starting charge up to the preferred target, subject to the effective reserve. Target SOC uses the preferred target for the end of the plan. Economic terminal value considers the value of energy retained for expected needs until solar replenishment. A high target still needs enough available energy and permitted charging.

Plan stability settings filter small actions, set minimum action duration and limit changes between charging and discharging. Increasing minimums or reducing direction changes can produce a steadier schedule, but may exclude useful short opportunities. These settings do not directly reduce the inverter's discharge power.

Understand charging and export value

Grid charging policy can disable planned grid charging, allow it for reliability needs, or consider it for economic value. The household permission must also allow the action. A minimum grid-charge spread is an extra value hurdle, not the maximum import rate you will pay. The grid-charge target limits planned grid-charging actions; it does not force a charge or cap all solar charging.

Stored-battery export policy, its minimum margin and the export reserve work together. Raising the margin discourages marginal exports. A margin of 12 cents per kWh does not mean export whenever the feed-in tariff exceeds 12 cents. The planner also considers what keeping that energy could be worth to your home. Stored-battery export at a negative customer export price is prohibited.

Consider an illustrative time-of-use tariff: exporting one kWh earns 18 cents, but replacing it later costs 42 cents. That exchange is 24 cents worse before losses and wear. If retaining the energy avoids a 60-cent peak import, keeping it is worth 42 cents more than exporting it. Energy genuinely surplus to expected needs and reserves may still be worth exporting. These simplified figures exclude fixed charges and other tariff conditions.

A conservative starting point

If you want a ready-made conservative profile, review Preserve Battery. If your specific aim is no deliberate battery trading, check that Allow stored-battery export is off. In Custom, also review the export policy. For solar-only charging, turn off the home-battery grid-charging permission; for permitted reserve recovery from the grid, review Reliability only instead.

Avoid changing every control at once. Retain the other starting values, inspect a generated plan and make only the adjustments that address your priority. Less cycling and a higher reserve can leave less energy available for evening use. With grid charging disabled, there may not be enough sunshine to restore the desired charge. The plan's explanation helps show those trade-offs.

Custom preferences are different from fixed hours

A request such as export only from 18:30 to 21:00, stop at 30% and then return to Self Use describes a fixed inverter schedule. The Custom planning controls described here do not provide export start and end fields or guarantee that same sequence every day.

If exact hours are essential, ask for a separate scheduling review. Confirm device support, export power, the SOC stop level, whether later Self Use may go below it, and which system will manage the schedule. Automatic replanning may replace a separately configured inverter schedule. An SOC stop is a lower boundary, not a promise to discharge all the way to it.

Review the plan before enabling automation

First, confirm your import and export rates, tariff times, battery capacity, minimum charge and power limits. Then open Settings > Intelligence and check the operating mode. Use Preview Mode to inspect plans without applying new plan-driven commands. If automatic activation is offered and you want to remain in preview, choose Keep Preview Mode and check the displayed activation status.

Open the 24-hour planning policy in Settings > Intelligence, or use the policy Edit control in Intelligence. Choose your mode, check the permissions and save. Review the regenerated plan's charging source, export periods, minimum charge, overnight reserve and end-of-plan charge. Read the explanation when the result differs from what you expected. Reset to Balanced restores Custom preference values; check household permissions separately.

Preview Mode stops new automated plan application. It does not necessarily clear an existing inverter schedule or restore Self Use. Check the device separately if it was already being controlled. When you are ready for Full Automation, confirm the provider schedule and actual battery behaviour as well as the forecast. A saved preference or a drawn plan is not proof that the inverter applied it.

This guide reflects the September 2026 planning guide and reviewed application behaviour. Examples are illustrative and retailer-neutral; supported tariffs, equipment and permissions still determine what your home can do. Use your account's current settings and plan as the reference for your household.