Battery is ignoring user set SOC level.

Since I am not yet on a time of use tariff (awaiting a smart meter) and since the battery (9.5KWh) is only getting minimal charge in these winter months and although it is cutting out supply at 4% SOC by late afternoon, by the morning prior to any solar charge it is often at 1% SOC, I am keen to get the battery up to a healthier level and hold it there. So I changed the reserve SOC level slider in the inverter settings to 50% with the aim of letting it charge up to that point over a few days of solar. (rather than pumping in grid energy to get to 50%) Yesterday that seemed to work as the battery got up to 9% by the end of solar (around 15:00) and was not then being drawn upon by the house load. However around 17:00 the battery suddenly started discharging to the house and was depleted back down to 4% within half an hour.
How is this happening? How do I prevent it?

CCourtney I don't know the answer. If you want to charge from solar without discharging, you could leave ECO mode enabled (all timed settings disabled), but set the battery discharge power to 0. Once it's above the 50% reserve that you want, then increasing the battery discharge power above 0 would allow it to discharge down to 50%. Maybe the reserve is only valid if the starting point is higher than the reserve level?

Tim
Thanks Tim,
I'll try that. Weird though that it held on to the charge without being utilised by the house demand for a few hours before suddenly discharging until down to 4%. (i had no timed charge or discharge settings enabled at the time)

My battery did the same thing - I set a lower limit of 8%, which worked until the early evening when it suddenly decided to discharge down to 4%.
The reason I want a larger reserve capacity is that it tends to self discharge overnight from 4 to 0, and then recharge back to 4 - I'd rather this didn't happen so upped the reserve to 8 but it seems only to work during the day, which is exactly the opposite of what I need. I also have no timed settings enabled (at least, I didn't knowingly enable any).

rich_f I wonder if the reserve isn't being consumed during the day because PV is available to keep the inverter energised whereas at night, it utilises battery rather than grid?

Tim - in my case, the house was already running off the grid - it's been raining today and the battery was depleted (to the limit I have set at 8%) hours ago, and the solar had already stopped generating. So it was 8 percent for an hour or 2, then at around 4:30 it just decided to start discharging again. It's now at 4% percent, and will self discharge to 0% overnight and will use the grid at some point overnight to get back up to 4%.

rich_f Mine does exactly the same. Irrespective of the reserve capacity I set it will sometimes go into idle for a while at that set point and then decide the carry on discharging down to the minimum 4% where it once again goes into idle. Its frustrating and just another thing with GE that doesn't quite work properly.

I have a similar issue. TBH the settings seem contradictory, often ignored and very badly explained. I have cheap power 0.30-4am, so set the battery to do a timed charge to 80% then. I also tick the 'eco' setting, although givenergy gives ZERO explanation of what this really does, or how it interacts with anything else...

...result?
Well the battery DOES charge from 0.30-4am, but it charges to 100% despite me telling it not to. It then happily matches load throughout the day, and slowly discharges as needed, which is great, and presumably what 'eco' does...

But if i go to check the charge setting, its been set to 100% again. Not by me. This is nonsense. Either tell me that my settings on that page achieve absolutely nothing, or explain that 'eco' overrides anything I set there!

It feels like with eco enabled, any charge timings are adhered to, but the max battery charge slider just gets totally ignored. Surely this is not intentional? because its a frankly terrible UX.

cliffski
I'm no expert on the timed settings, but as a workaround, you might consider reducing the charge power, so that it does not hit 100%, in the timed window. You may need to do some simple calculations and/or experimentation, to establish what the appropriate value should be, to get to your target of 80%. This would also depend on how much charge you had in the battery to start with.

From what I have read on here, timed settings should over-ride Eco, after which it should revert back to Eco. But of course, like so much to do with GE, things never seem to quite do what is intended.

The general advice seems to be only make changes to settings on the Portal, and not the App. Always make sure you hit the send button after making changes. You might also consider a full reset on the settings, as others have suggested this can clear some 'registers' (settings) which users don't usually have control over.

ToothyChris If the upper target for SoC is being ignored and the battery charging to 100% overnight instead, chances are that you have Octopus Automations enabled, which will override any manual settings. There is a known bug on setting the battery reserve - it only works if you have a beta version of firmware installed and you have to ask for this.

Are you running Home Assistant or GivTCP by any chance?

stevelewis Is it possible to check if one has beta firmware? I had an AC3.0 plus 2 x 8.2 batteries installed July 2021 (plus panels and Solar Edge) and I have been using the min and max discharge settings with no problems. My firmware is D0.599-A0.599 and 3005 which maybe is ok with the older inverter and batteries?

wrefordj my understanding is that 599 is beta - the high number is used to prevent auto updates. Which beta is an entirely different question, but if it works...

I've just had a similar problem and after reading the contributions on this forum contacted GE using their online chat. I had a helpful answer from them which I thought I would share.

Apparently the user battery option adjustment settings for % reserve shown on the portal display don't work, they require specialist software A535/D535. This has to be requested by emailing support@givenergy.co.uk

My system was working perfectly until I switched it off the other day (carefully following the correct procedure) to have a smart meter fitted. On switching it back on again, my previously set (and effective) user minimum of 8% was ignored and the system ran down to the default 4%. Repeatedly submitting a revised reserve of 10% in the portal had no effect, hence my follow up of this forum and online support.

I have now requested the above software to enable me to customise the minimum SOC, although GE did assure me they build in a healthy reserve and no harm would be done in the default setting. But it would appear I'm not the only one thinking a slightly higher minimum through the winter months is a healthier option for preserving longevity.

I find it odd that an option on both the online portal and the app is ignored unless you request a specific version of the firmware. Odd firstly because I feel like this useful feature should be in all firmware versions, and secondly that it isn't stated anywhere in the app or on the portal that the functionality is disabled for most people.
For me it isn't about increasing the longevity of the battery - it's about not using the grid (and therefore paying) to keep it topped up due to the high self-discharge overnight, pretty much every night in winter. Much better if I could stop the discharge at, say, 8%, then if it self-discharges to 2% overnight, the daylight, however dim it may be, should be enough to top it back up to 8% during the next day, for free.
What's it using 25W for anyway? It's already using the grid when the battery is under 4% - so why is it also discharging at _25W from the battery to drain it to 0% overnight?

I never use the app, only ever the portal, and always confirm changes. I am also 100% sure that the automations are off. It works maybe 80% of the time, and then occasionally it just charges to 100% like it gets a bit excited!

I raised an issue with GE Support earlier because last night my Go automation just got ignored so it failed to charge when it was meant to, and today I had a charge window set but it went right on through the target SOC % and carried on charging.

Not really sure why on both counts, generally been working fine until the last day or so.

I'm running Home Assistant, Node Red and GIVTCP, and set an automation to set the SOC for overnight charging based upon the next days weather condition. I noticed that the SOC gets reset to 100% at midnight no matter what I set it to. To get over this I now set my SOC to whatever percentage I require at 00:20 .... this way it now charges to the percentage I set.

Annaka
You mention GivTCP.
Check the smart Target in the GivTCP config is either configured or off.

TheDragon (GivEnergy) the smart target is all configured, not too bothered as setting SOC passed midnight and before Octopus Go starts at 00:30 allows me to set at any level i want.... but just seemed strange that at 00:00 it resets to 100%.

Annaka

If you have tariff automation enabled for Go then it can override the charge I think.