Jump to 100% when charging

Yet again today , since installing my system less than a month ago. the 5.2KW battery jumped when charging from 12% to 100% after only a total of 1.3KW of charge . Battery temp 12C. It actually jumped from 54% to 100% in less than a minute. This is obviously impossible with maximum charge rate of 2.6KW. I have been told by Giv Energy that this is a firmware problem. If that is true then everybody out there would be having the same issue. Giv Energy have already tried to remotely re-calibrate my system since it was originally commissioned four weeks ago.

We have had some pretty cloudy weather for the last week or so but today was really sunny and the charge to the battery was in the 1KW range as apposed to a slow and steady 500 watts.

Does anyone have any experience/explanation of this and what, if anything, happened? Maybe I am wrong and unlike me you are all quite satisfied as Giv Energy suggests and happy to wait for a firmware update. I don't believe that and I am concerned that my very expensive batteries are in fact faulty.

Paul_johnson1 Been a very long running saga where a beta firmware version is being tested by a number of customers to fix this issue. This is a big problem which a lot of us are waiting for GE to fix. We have been told the release is coming soon, but they also said previously that it would "definitely" be released mid December.

Thank you for your reply Chris_P. I wonder why GE continue to sell this product when it is obviously not fit for purpose. Imagine buying a brand new car and then finding out there are ongoing brake problems. You would soon be asking for it to be fixed or your money back.

To be honest this is not my only issue as the timed charge and discharged also don't work which means I have to keep adjusting the discharge level to stop the battery discharging to the grid. Does you system work?ever worked in respect of Timed Charged and Time Discharge? Also the battery reserve can be set at 15 or 20% but still keep discharging to 4% unless I press the pause button on my phone dashboard.

It's a shame as I was really looking forward to getting a solar installation but after the last month of disappointment I feel like I have been ripped off.

As I see it the system was not fit for purpose at the point of sale and I really don't understand why everyone on here seems to be so complacent about it.

Paul_johnson1 the timed charge and discharged also don't work

Is your inverter ECO mode enabled (AKA Dynamic in the app)? If not, enable it and watch what happens. There are plenty of threads on this forum where new users have not been properly briefed by their installer on how the system is supposed to work. Eco mode minimises grid import and export by adjusting the output of the inverter from PV and/or battery to feed house load and if there's surplus PV, it's diverted by the inverter to charge the battery. If ECO mode is enabled and there are still problems, check that the inverter registers grid import/export in the portal/app. If not, there's a problem with your CT/EM115.

Unless you have a specific reason, leave timed discharge and timed export disabled, they don't work as described and aren't usually needed. Also recommend that you make use of the web portal to get your head around everything as many find it is easier to make sense of what's going on than the app.

Hello Tim, Thank you for all the info you have sent. Being very new to all this it will take me a little while to digest your advise but I appreciate you taking the time to help me.

Yes I have ECO mode enabled. I see the process of the PV feeding the house then the battery and if too much power is being generated finally the grid.

I wanted to use timed charge and discharge to import/export power at favorable times. For example in winter to charge the battery with cheap rate power at 3am to have a full battery of cheap power to start the day.

Yesterday after dark I used the 100% charged battery to power my 1KW heater in order to monitor the capacity of the full 5.2KW battery. It actually only returned 2.63KW from 100% to 4% in a little over two hours. As I wrote previously my system was commissioned and also the battery recommissioned/calibrated by GE remotely.

I have been told by GE that although it reads 4% it may have more in reserve than that but to leave only 2.6KW usable is only just over half of the 4KW I was told the 5.2KW battery would yield. I am therefore thinking the battery is defective.

If I had purchased from Amazon or EBAY and cobbled together a cheap DIY system I would expect some problems but this was meant to be a plug and play solution with a team of experts online in support. Again thanks for your interest.

chris_p

Hi Chris. Yesterday after dark I used the 100% charged battery to power my 1KW heater in order to monitor the capacity of the full (indicated full, stopped charging) 5.2KW battery. It actually only returned 2.63KW from 100% to 4% in a little over two hours.

GE told me yesterday that it may be I hadn't cycled the battery for a while but I cycle it every day. What is the point of saving energy if you don't use it? Also that the 4% reserve might be more than what it actually reads but 1.37 KW sounds a bit like overkill to me. Besides we start with 5.2 and only get 4 so surely that's enough for safety margins. Rgds.

Paul_johnson1 I feel your pain, Paul, it just isn't good enough. At least you are coming in to it from what feels like should be close to at least an improved situation (I don't believe will fix this issue, it will just be better than it is now). I've been seeing SoC issues since Feb 2022. I've had my battery replaced, engineer visits and lots of disappointment over the past 12 months.

There's a million similar posts on here asking the same questions.
In brief, Timed Discharge and Timed Export do not work as expected unless you do manual intervention after the period ends. For most users these setting just seem to depelte the battery fully.

Reset everything to defaults.
Set it in Eco mode (using the web portal).
Set a Timed Charge for your off-peak period with the desired SoC that you want to exit the cheap period with.

That will do 99% of users that have a Time of Use electricity tariff.

Regarding the other stuff...unfortunately you have purchased a system that just does not work for many people. This forum is full of people stating that they are experiencing instantaneous SoC drops to zero/SoC increases to 100%/batteries not delivering stated capacity. GivEnergy have been fobbing people off for well over a year now by pretending that a firmware fix would be imminent. They recently stated that a full fix would categorically be in place in mid-December last year. There are a group testing some beta firmware and while some are seeing some improvements, lots of people are still seeing significant problems.

Thank you all for the comments. This morning I also had an instantaneous drop from 20% to 0%. I wonder if it's not just a bad battery as it only seems at times to have problems at both ends leaving only the mid range where it produces power. Definitely it seems to be affected by high charge rates and high demand when discharging.

Paul_johnson1 As @Zakalwe says, this is a known bug that is present on a number of the batteries. Just be aware that it is the battery SoC indication that is all over the place and preventing charge/discharge, not the actual energy in the battery.

Yes I understand, just watched the battery taking 1kw of charge for 10 minute plus while it is stuck on 4%. I think that 1kw constantly applied should raise the apparent charge by 1%. When it finally started to move from 4% in the next 5 minutes it has risen to 9% with only 1kw charge from PV. So it is at best indicating that my usable capacity is only 60% of the already reduced capacity.

I don't see what is so difficult, surely battery voltage can be used to indicate capacity? I note that you say that this fault is not present on all batteries so do you think the fault lies with the battery or the software? Rgds.

Paul_johnson1 it does seem to be mainly firmware related, see:

https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/1342-new-givenergy-inverter-bms-firmware-beta-testing-chat/1082
https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/713-firmware-3007-has-not-fixed-sudden-soc-drop-to-0-problem/2325