Where is my PV power going?

I had my GivEnergy inverter, battery and panels installed in December and have been trying to understand where the PV power is going. I have noticed that when the PVs are producing the draw from the grid doesn't decrease, but the 'consumption' increases. This was very clear one sunny day while no one was in the house, when the demand in the house was relatively low. When the sun shone, the 'consumption' went up with no decrease in draw from the grid and nothing going to the battery and nothing exported to the grid. The peak PV power was ₄₅₀ W. Where was this 450 W going?

Can you post a picture of the 'Power Graph' from the portal (from the day with lots of sun), as that does not sound right. You can upload the picture to this site, and then add the link to your reply:

https://imgbb.com/

It also helps if you can give a bit more detail about your installation (hybrid inverter or AC3.0?, number and size of battery/batteries?).

Hi ToothyChris, Thanks for responding so quickly 🙂 It is a 4 kW PV system with 11 panels. We have a GivEnergy 5.2 KWh battery and hybrid inverter. I've taken a screenshot of the data from today (I don't seem to be able to plot the data from last week); the load in the house was minimal as the family were still in bed Screenshot 1st Jan 23.

Here is the plot form the 24th Dec. The spikes are from a heater I left on for the cat while we were away: ! 24th Dec 22

I'm not familiar with what the plots should look like with a hybrid inverter (I have an AC3.0 inverter), but that does not seem to look right. Your generated power does not seem to be going into the battery, or back to the grid - so your question seems very valid. Other users with hybrid systems may be able to offer better feedback.

Was the system commissioned when it was installed (this involves a full discharge and charge of the battery)? See what the graph looks like on the day it was installed, to see what the battery percentage did.

Have you got the system set to operate in default 'Eco' mode, or do you have other settings as well? You could try 'Reset to Defaults', which can be found by clicking on My Inverters (in the left had blue vertical bar), then Inverter Information (The monitor symbol on the right hand side) and then Settings. This should clear everything and put it into Eco mode.

ToothyChris . I did the reset thing yesterday and made sure it was in eco mode, but I seem to be seeing the same pattern today. Yes, the system was commissioned with a full charge and discharge on the day it was installed on the 19th Dec. I need to get in touch with the people who fitted the system, when they come back from the break.

BJM I have a similar suspicion with mine. I suspect it’s selling back to the grid when it should be charging. Check your Generation and Grid meters. See my post on this subject if correlation. There is something strange about guys. I had mine installed by a contractor working on behalf of E.on. I need to speak to E.on, who have their own tech team.

Have you checked that all of the switches and trips are all in their on positions and that the inverter and battery are both on (LEDs illuminated)?

Did you see any export on the graph, on the day the comission calibration was done?

If you don't get much response on here, you could try one of the GE Facebook groups, as a few GE staff lurk on there, who can check the server data at their end (even outside office hours).

Seems to me that that is doing what it should - the 24th Dec graph the import matches the load above the solar available for use. Night time the house load and grid import are a mirror so would seem right,

anglefire Yes, I agree. Generation is under load demand and is being used to (partially) satisfy it. On the portal maximise the 'Energy Graph' panel and select 'Generation' from the menus. This will show you where your generation is going - according to the inverter, that is.

Jumbo99 I also had it installed through e-on. Do you have a specific email address for the tech team? I've found that they are not that responsive to the general solar support address.

anglefire But, the point is that there was no extra daytime load on the 24th. The load went up when the sun came out and disappeared when the sun went in.

BJM you won’t get anything back from their email address. You have to call them. 0345 366 5981, just quote your L reference. Did you get a post install call from them? I did, she also sent me the GE Knowledge base etc. At that point it was too soon and I said all seemed OK.

BJM Just to be clear - you do not have a diverter anywhere in the system for ev charging or hot water?

ToothyChris The switches all seem to be on, with LEDs lit. I checked the export on the day the commission calibration was done. Here is an image of the plot: 19th December. An odd thing on the battery discharge is that rather than showing an export to the grid, it shows it as a load.

cluelesscris Correct, we do not have a diverter for EV or hot water heating.

Jumbo99 Yes, I had a call, but I hadn't studied the plots at that point. This issue only became clearly apparent while we were away over Christmas where there was a minimal and predictable load. I'll have to try that number once they are back in the office next week.

BJM Right. The normal load and grid import are mirror images and when generating the load goes up by the amount of the generation. Thinking about how things should work one way this can happen is if the load clamp is installed the wrong way around. Have you checked this? Also, how does your smart meter export readings compare to your generation numbers?

Ah ok, I now see what you mean.

This is mine from yesterday when I did a force charge of the battery.

So it looks like your CT clamp is in the wrong position as a charge from the grid should be the same direction as the charge to the battery

CT clamps was what i was thinking too. Get the installer back pronto.

Thanks all, I'll suggest this clamp to the people who fitted it.

If the CT Clamp has been fitted incorrectly, will this have caused any damage?

BJM unlikely to have caused damage.

Just reporting back. I had the installers back out and it was the CT clamp. It is now fixed 😊 and the outputs now make a lot more sense. Thanks for the advice.