Solar iBoost running in the dark

My Solar iBoost seems to be running when it really shouldn't be (pitch black), as of 7am this morning it had 'charged by solar' 4kWh today! I was thinking that the battery exporting over the threshold was the issue but looking now, the export today has been negligible.

I recently had a smart meter installation not go to plan due to lack of cell service. The engineer changed the all grey wires in the electricity box to the current requirements (coloured per live, neutral etc). The three clamps I have are now touching, could this be an issue?

Settings wise I have Eco mode enabled and also it's set to charge to 80% during economy 7 hours.

Can anyone suggest what this might be caused by? Apologies if this is more of a Solar iBoost issue than a battery one, but I know there are a few people here who know their onions.

Have you got the iBoost+ where you can adjust the cut-in threshold? (Ie the level of excess solar befor the iBoost starts). I had to increase the offset to 350w to stop it taking from the battery at night

That is a good point - yes it is, I'll check that setting when I am at home.

Check the CT clamp is the correct way around.

You can find details here. It takes a bit of tweaking to get the cut in level right for your system.
https://www.marlec.co.uk/solar-iboost-user-operating/

Ra Dumb questions... which is CT (what does that stand for?) and how do I know which is the right way around? Thanks!

"CT" means "Current Transformer" - and is often referred to as a "clamp", as the modern units can split or hinge to enable them to clamp around the conductor. They produce a signal proportional to the current flowing in that conductor, which is then used to display that current or provide control signals to a device such as the iBoost.

I set mine at 250W threshold, which works well enough. I can still hear it kicking in, especially if there are high draws on the system. Once the load drops off, the inverter can't react quick enough and a small amount of battery charge gets shunted to the grid. The iBoost sees this and thinks that there is export. increasing the threshold to 250W means that the iBoost switches off after a second or two- certainly fast enough to mean that there is no real issues.

EmmetBrown As wilfleek has already said, it is the little clamp with the wire that attaches to the signal sender that tells your iBoost to switch on as it is detecting export.

If the person who fiddled with your meter has put this on the wrong way around, the iBoost will see anything you consume in the house as an 'export' by mistake and switch itself on.

I believe they have a little moulded in arrow on the clamp to say which way around it should be.

Indeed they do, and that arrow should "point" tpward the consumer unit IIRC. In fact, I just checked mine, and it has arrows and labels for both meter and consumer unit directions.

So have now had a look - there are three clamps on there, the guy had a) left them right next to each other (solar iBoost manual says to space them 10cm apart), but worst of all... they'd left it the wrong way round - arrow to meter was in the direction of the consumer unit (and therefore vice versa). To say I'm fuming about this is an understatement... since 9th December (install date), my electricity usage has been twice my October and November readings (acknowledging there is lower solar generation of course).

I have the Solar iBoost (not the iBoost+). I've never had or even seen one before... but I am certain I had previously been able to change the export level at which the iBoost kicked in, but don't seem to have that option. I must be confusing this setting with something else. Weird!

Thanks everyone for their replies.

EmmetBrown How old is your iBoost? If its fairly new you should be able to change the export threshold

Ra It's around 2014/2015 so one of the older ones (we moved in a year ago, so the panels and iBoost weren't our install, just the batteries a few months ago). What I don't understand is where I've got this memory of changing the threshold it kicks in from! Maybe I'm confusing it with some other thing, but I can't for the life of me think what it is.

the MyEnergy eddi and newer i boost allows this, perhaps that is where the confusion is?

May 2019 is when the newer iBoosts started to ship.

See if you can find the instrucion manual for the older iBoost via Google? I found what might be the right one here:

https://www.marlec.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Solar-iBoost-Manual-v2.pdf

Have to say I can't see where it mentions changing the "offset" as my IBoost+ instructions do.

positor1 I've never seen or used either of those so it can't be that.

wilfleek I found it too, doesn't mention anything which lines up with what everyone else said.