FYI - Battery SOC in dull weather.

Here in West Yorkshire, it’s been dull and overcast for a few days now. Consequently, my battery SOC was sitting at 1% and had been for a day! I noticed this when I checked the app and discovered it couldn’t link to the inverter. With a bit of luck on my side, I managed to get the app to link and force a battery charge for 30’ish minutes, which brought the battery up to 10%.

Since then, the apps worked fine - but, I’ve monitored a slow battery drain starting at 7% (I have the 4% is my 7% issue) of 1% every 5+ hours if no solar charge is received by the battery. With this in mind, my FYI is to remember that on long periods of dull/overcast weather top your battery up a little, give it 10 mins at night just to keep it happy.

This is very important for people that don't automatically charge the battery at night, as I’ve been told by GivEnergy that you’ll need your installer and GE to restart your inverter/battery if the battery goes into protection mode due to low charge.

Dave

I was under the impression that the system should just top itself back up to 4% if it drops too low?

ianfretwell Hi Ian - I was told by GE “ Yes so in long periods of the battery being without charge the battery will drop below its reserve amount, as this happens a lot during periods of low solar generation one thing we offer is for customers to look into getting a smart tariff with their provider to do cheaper grid charging at night to supply their battery with energy and therefore negate this issue.

Either that or small charges from the grid can help to stop battery dropping so low.

If the battery drops to 0% this can cause the battery to run flat and protect itself, in this state the battery will not charge and would need the installers to rectify the issue with our assistance.”

davlon
I shared your concern as I too am still not on a split rate tariff due to problems getting a smart meter installed and the battery charging in single digits per day but being 1% by the following morning.. So recently I just charged the battery to 30% from the grid and then on the portal inverter settings went to battery options and set the slider for battery discharge power to 0. That way the battery will hold on to that charge but also top up slowly every day from the limited winter solar. I'm getting about 4 to 5% solar addition every day currently. One advantage of this beside protecting the health of the battery is that you have reserve energy for the potential impending grid power cuts (assuming you have had the built-in EPS set up of course.)

davlon This is what I had last week although the battery should only drain to the 4% reserve limit and will not longer support the house load. The battery SOC will dwindle slowly waiting for solar or a grid charge until it hits >1% when it will take over a boost it back to 4%.

Tonycooper Hi Tony - are you saying your inverter boosted it back to 4% automatically? If so - would you mind telling us your Inverter and Battery Firmware levels please...

davlon Hi, I have a hybrid 5kW inverter running firmware version D0.450-A0.451 and a 5.2kWh (80%DOD) battery running version 3007. The inverter has been in Eco mode since installation in Feb-22 and apart from the slumps and jumps in SOC (see the other thread on the 3007 firmware) has worked. I have recently gone onto the Octopus Go tariff and now charge the battery overnight (timed charge to 100% between 02:00 and 04:25 with the charge power reduced to 1500W) which deals with most of my usage with the aid of a little solar radiation!
Hope this helps