I'm very new to this and hope this question makes sense.
I have a 5kw inverter and a 9.5kwh battery. It seems to cost me around 100w when discharging the battery.
Is this normal, this equates to 2.4kwh per day which seems high?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Cheers
Steve
L
#2lifco
Hello
Using the battery (discharging) there are losses like 480Watts cost you about 520watts
It's normal i hope this help's
S
#3SteveSpring
Hi,
Thanks for your reply, much appreciated.
I think you are saying that you would accept a 40w cost when discharging around 500w.
Please excuse me because I'm not very good at explaining myself 🙄😁
When I look at the app (with calculated values enabled) I am seeing a value 100w above the expected load being drawn by my house?
J
#4Jellybaby
SteveSpring Calculated takes into account the extra used on top of house load, for my AIO unit it is around 80-150w extra draw. If you want to see your actual house load disable calculated and you will see home load as it is and then you will see how much difference between home and grid draw.
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#5SteveSpring
Hi Jellybaby,
Thanks for your answer.
I think that backs up what I'm seeing. It appears as though the inverter/battery has a standing load of around 110w which will equate to around 2.5kwh per day. That's over quarter of my consumption.
I would expect to see losses when inverting or rectifying but the draw still seems to be there when idle.
but it seems
S
#6SteveSpring
This screenshot shows a defect of 110w with calculated view disabled?
That would imply a standing load with no energy transfer between the inverter and battery?
J
#7Jellybaby
SteveSpring Even when battery is idle the inverter is online and that will take power I believe as its still managing things.
S
#8SteveSpring
Of course, I just want to quantify if my set up is normal because I can't seem to find a value for it anywhere. I have not been provided any literature and the standing load is not listed in the data sheet which I would expect. 100w is high. That's more than my fridge. I can understand losses when inverting and rectifying but 100w when not under loading seems wrong?
Does anyone have a listed value from Givenergy?
S
#9SteveCook
Take a look at everything that might be running in your house and you might be surprised at the base load.
Router, TV in standby, phone charger, fridge, freezer, cooker clock, microwave clock, boiler controls and pump, etc.
My base load is around 400w and I draw up a spreadsheet which agrees pretty much with the portal data
#10hoggy
The old Gen 1s listed idle consumption of 5W.
Dongle max was another 2W. No idea on Gen2 or 3.
Battery BMS consumption can also be surprisingly high.
There is an option to set the "inverter power output max" to 0% which essentially stops it doing anything in the remote control page on the portal if you scroll down near the bottom.
AIOs use a lot more as you have the gateway to power & in all honesty I'm pretty sure the inside of the AIO is 2x inverters together so you'd presumably have double the idle consumption of a standard AC3.
#11nophead
The portal seems to under report my base load. It says 67W at the moment but it should be over 100W as that is what the smart meter internal display unit says. The app shows 130W, which could be a little high, so it is very difficult to know how much the inverter is losing. The measurements simply aren't accurate enough.
A
#12Avenir
Jellybaby thank you, now I know what calculated load means! The standing load of my gen 1 3.6 plus 9.5 appears to be 14w which fits with the info from hoggy above.
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#13Avenir
SteveCook same here, largest component of my base load right now is probably my boiler at around 200w
D
#14DD
nophead The portal seems to under report my base load. It says 67W at the moment but it should be over 100W as that is what the smart meter internal display unit says.
The web portal only gets a reading every 10 or 15 mins, so it will never be useful as a live reading. The app in local view updates every 10 seconds. I think the smartmeter IHD may be every 10 to 20 seconds. So none of them is ever showing an instantaneous value.
S
#15SteveSpring
OK, did this in a hurry this morning when the house was empty but I was in a rush to get out the door.
With all ccts off in my consumer unit so 0w house load, dc strings off so no solar I took a reading from my smart meter
S
#16SteveSpring
Whichever way I skin it do far, with only the inverter and battery BMS energised, I have a load of approx 110w and that seems high to me for something that is not under load?
This will draw 2.64kw a day?
V
#17Vestas
SteveSpring It's pretty much how things work if you have the battery enabled as the inverter has to sync with the grid.
Try setting it to "Eco - Paused" and see what the smartmeter says (remember it only updates every 30 secs)....
I understand that the system must draw a certain amount of energy but i can't seem to find an expected value for this.
I'm not expecting something for nothing, but I'd like to know there is not a fault either @hoggy has kibndly shown that a Gen1 inverter should idle at <5w @Jellybaby has suggested 80-150w for an AIO @lifco has suggested 520w-480w=40w whilst discharging @Avenir has suggesting 14w standing load.
Thats a swing of 120wh to 3600wh of energy that is not being utilised each day.
I have emailed Givenergy asking them to provide expecteds values both for idling and under load for both my inverter and battery. I'll post back their response if they reply.
I cannot say 100% certain I have seen 150 but its gotten close so I used that as a sort of round up bracket.
Both readings above are from today, id say the average was around 100-120 for my particular setup.
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#20Avenir
SteveSpring I’ve looked a bit closer at the difference in usage reported when toggling the calculated load off. If the battery is paused and there is no solar, there is no difference in the readings. If there is draw from the battery, the difference varies between 0 and 80w whilst supplying the house base load. The 14w reading above was actually when solar was closely matching house load.
S
#21SimonClarke
While doing today’s saving session I noticed that the house is showing using 600w with virtually everything off so the battery only exports 2kw. This is what shows. I presume demand power is what the house actually uses so what is the rest?
Gen 1 5kw & 9.5 battery
D
#22DD
The 3rd party android app shows inverter load as a separate segment. I guess the official app just lumps it in with house load
Eg right now, former shows house as 260, inverter as 40, whereas latter shows house load as 320.
One of the settings in the official is to 'show calculated load'. If I turn that off, it shows a load smaller than the battery discharge, suggesting it's adding any losses in as house load.
B
#23BenS
SimonClarke that's exactly what I see on my Gen1.
Disappointed in the performance is an understatement.