its just weird - help!

Hi - Had my install a couple of days ago. After a bit of faff with the PV CT clamps (still waiting for one but hoping thats more for info on the app) it started commissioning and the engineer left me to it. After sitting on my hands for a while it looks to be working, but some of the behaviour is still odd.

Yesterday I restarted the battery which may have helped - previously it didn’t seem to respond to house load. but last night as the sun set it did start to use the battery properly.

System is a 9.5kwh battery with AC coupled Giv-AC 3.0. Two PV arrays both pretty small. One is clamped at the moment the other is waiting for a reprogrammer to change the ID2 to an ID3. It is set up to force charge to 25% between 1:30 and 6:30 - my octopus off peak window.

two questions from the power graph - (1) why is the battery charging during the octopus off peak at 1.2kw (it was doing that during commissioning too) its way over 25%. (2) why is the battery % bouncing all over the shop even with very little load happening.

I suspect that "eco" is not set.
go to the inverter tab ( webpage /portal ) and select "reset all to defaults" click save (check that eco is enabled)
leave it at that until you learn the system then experiment with timed charges etc.
the jumping you are seeing is the battery learning where the full charge is to start with.
you are getting a new firmware shortly which will be more accurate at that.

I agree with the above but in addition, do you know if the installer cycled the battery? what I mean is discharge and recharge the battery to full. If they did it may account for the odd behavior you mentioned initially and if they did not it may help settle the system down when it knows the limits of the battery system. Givenergy will be able to do that for you remotely if the installer did not do it.

killythebid there should be a notification in the app and or web portal to say it's started and finished. No notification, not done.

Thanks all

• Eco is set
• I can turn off the timed charge for now
• it says commissioning but not finished
• installer seems to think the battery is off. He left it with his electrician to finish some things up so maybe he turned it on? I’m waiting for an ID3 so I asked to be able to use the system while waiting whihc is why I assumed it should finish commissioning
• that above might also mean they haven’t done a full cycle although the first day it was charging at 1.2kw all day from the grid.

Should I try to see if givenergy will cycle it, or wait on the installer? Should be back mid next week with the pv CT clamp. Sort of working in the meantime..?

The battery shows as firmware 0 on the cloud web information page and oddly reports as a 6kwh lead acid battery!

mrklawUK
My battery type and firmware showed the wrong type when the BMS (Battery Monitoring System?) was connected to the wrong terminals in the inverter. Same plugs for each port -easily done
I still got data on the portal, but it was rubbish

mrklawUK it showing as lead acid could mean a loose connection

May be worth web chatting GivEnergy to confirm, then go back to your installer to get it fixed.

What battery firmware version is showing in the portal?

SteveCook

Shows as 0

Givenergy support pretty apathetic on the phone ‘oh yeah comma issue talk to the installer probably be ok’

They don’t seem interestin actually diagnosing anything with me

Is a BMS error showing in "my inverter - notifications"
I took the cover off the comms connection and made sure mine was plugged in correctly as the installer just didn't want to come back - not advising you to do that - just saying what I did

SteveCook

no only notifications I see are battery voltage high every 30 mins, and occasional bus voltage high.

This sounds very similar to the loop I'm stuck in, being bounced between GE support and the installer. My story this week is that the GE engineer visited (due to battery clicking of death on startup, then shuts down). GE engineer replaced the inverter. The readings in the portal were all over the place in the hours after the new inverter. Got a call that evening to say the comms and meter connections were incorrect, and yes when I checked the inverter they were. I switched them, but now 1) battery does not start at all (holding down button on side for 10secs) 2) inverter has been throwing errors all today, PV on/off. GE support are now telling me the 'commission isn't in place' (whatever that means?) and to go back to the installer - the installation was Aug 22 (with months of the system working all fine!).

I'm losing the will to live with this system. Haven't had functioning batteries for almost 2 months.

Any advice or things to check would be great. Not getting much help diagnosing from GE.

mrklawUK no only notifications I see are battery voltage high every 30 mins, and occasional bus voltage high.

Exactly what i got when mine was connected wrongly

SteveCook Did everything come back OK after you switched them around?

Yes, but I wouldn't say I just "switched them around".
I made sure the BMS cable to the battery was plugged in the correct port and the cable to the EM115 was in the correct port.
I checked cable colours/polarity but they were all fine, just plugged in the wrong ports.
I did that when EM115 was turned off, battery off , inverter etc etc were all tuned off and isolated.
It is also somewhat confusing because the connections are on the underside and you are sort of looking from upside down.

SteveCook Yea, I didn't mean just blindly switch them! Obvious trace the cables and make sure they are the right ones. I did this and they were definitely incorrect. The electricity meter comms fail errors stopped on Weds after I switched them - however I didn't switch off and isolate the EM115, battery, and inverter when I switched them. Perhaps I should have as I'm seeing high voltage errors this afternoon.

TBH I switched mine when the system was live, but I was not going to say that you should do that. They are LV comms cables.
Can you shut everything off and do a full restart and inverter reboot

tk2 Actually, high and low voltage errors today:

sorry. I am not really an expert. All i know was I got the errors when comms cables in the wrong ports.
have you restarted the inverter from the portal

the plugs can go into the ports in the wrong place as well. The can go one pin to the left or the right and it is difficult to see.
They are not like an RJ45 that can only go in one way.
Make sure they are seated correctly.

SteveCook Thanks. I will def double check them this evening. I just plugged them in assuming they were like RJ45.

I'm no expert either, but frankly the discussions in this thread have been more useful than 2 hours of webchat today with GE (only to get fobbed off to contact the installer).

not at home but turned the ‘timed charge’ off remotely as it seems to be chargig at 1.2kw for that overnight period despite the battery being almost full and the timed charge set to 25%. For now I’ll remove that complication to see how it behaves.

once the installer comes on tuesday I’ll ask him to confirm all clamp directions, check the comms plugs are in the right places, update the firmware on the battery, and he’ll put in the ID3 clamp so it should be able to do a full commission and we’ll go from there.

ok so installer came back, installed the ID3 tag, and actually spoke to someone at Givenergy that Giv a toss. Apparantly the BMS/comms cable was supposed to be swapped around - its a known thing with the combo of the 9.5 battery and AC3.0 inverter apparantly, but they don’t put it in the instructions.

Anyway, now the 6kwh lead acid battery is recognised as a 9.5kwh lifepo and the power curve looks much more well behaved. Will keep an eye on it but hopefully its sorted now

It seems to me that there's a vocation to be found in being a "solar panel system whisperer" - either as online/phone support by the hour or something similar.
There appears to be so much expertise on this forum.