New Installation/Member

Hi All,

Recently joined after having 14 395w panels installed with a 5kw hybrid inverter and an 8.2 kwh battery (still to be installed - waiting for delivery of the battery). Everything was installed on Friday.

I just have a couple of questions/concerns after installation.

The installers didn't end up speaking to givenergy on the day to check the system was working correctly, they started calling and stopped, helped me sign up to my cloud account then left. After tracking the data for a couple of days, the cloud shows my energy usage tracks with our solar generation which obviously isnt right, no sign of importing or exporting to/from the grid.

I did call givenergy on Friday and they said it should have been commissioned if I am expecting to wait a few weeks for the battery, but having spoken to our installation company, they said they wouldn't do that until the battery was installed.

Should I be asking the company to come back and sort it out or is this normal?

I have a very similar set up, except that I have 13 panels, my roof isn't big enough to get any more up there unfortunately. Is the company local to you or a national outfit with subcontractors? The reason I ask is that I was present when my installed called givenergy to commission the system and it only took a couple of minutes. The installer had to provide some details of the installation and readings from the EM115 meter. It was a very simple process. I'm wondering if they are reluctant to commission the system if they have a long distance to travel for what would be a few minutes of a job and if its more cost effective for them to simply do this when the battery is installed. I can understand your frustration though, I couldn't wait for mine to be commissioned and start working as it should!

c_squared The difficulty is knowing if it is working correctly, the installers did say on the phone that we will still benefit from the generation and it will work properly, but I wont be able to track data correctly etc, although the PV generation data looks fine, just everything else isn't right. I also don't understand why the installers didn't hang around to speak to givenergy to sort this out, especially if it is a short phone call.

My main concern is that I don't want it causing any problems with the systems operation, which I'm suspecting it won't, and once the battery is installed and they commission it, all will be ok.

Hi - I was in a very similar position. I was (I thought) in the lucky position of having the battery delivered at the same time as the panels. The day of installation went well until the battery, it turned out that the installer had never installed a battery nor a EPS (the lights stay on during a power cut). Long story, the commissioning did not take place until the battery was connected (2 weeks after the original installation, at 22:10 on a Friday night!).
The installer who came to instal the battery told me that this was what was recommended as they have seen problems with the monitoring through the GivEnergy account when they migrate from a panel only installation to one with batteries.

Chanced Thanks that's good to know, looks like I'm best to stick it out and just wait for the battery to arrive, whenever that may be!