Connectivity post power cut

Hello good people.

I'm an AIO owner from September and to the best of my knowledge I've had no issues. I'm running bms 6 I believe.

Until today I don't seem to have had any connectivity issues, both AIO and gateway are hard wired back to my unifi switch.

Today it kicked in as we suffered a power blip, no apparent issues during changeover. But I can no longer connect via app or givtcp. House is being supplied from battery as smart meter showing a couple of watts export and I'm South Wales today the sun has yet to appear!

Couple of questions if I may:

• should there be a notification in app if grid drops?
• what is recommended way to restart AIO and gateway?

Thanks

s_r_thomas did your router reboot on switchover? I wonder if your inverter IP has changed. Can you check which devices are connected to your LAN from your router?

I haven’t been able to test a switchover yet as when there’s a power cut my RCD trips. Out of curiosity, what does your main consumer unit look like?

s_r_thomas I don't know how well it works for the AIO because I only have a G1 Hybrid, but when power is off my app should display OUTAGE on the Grid line.

More information about managing outages here
https://givenergymonitor.wixsite.com/tutorials/emergency-power
although targetted at inverters with EPS rather than Gateway.

s_r_thomas

I have asked GE this also and answer is no.
I then posted a feedback form in the cloud portal, for this feature to be included in a future update. Notification on a power cut (AIO EPS initiated), then the same when power is back up.

I think this is an important notification to have especially if you not at home. Plus if you have a chest freezer in the garage, it would be nice to know if there is a power cut and for how long.

Anyone know if this is exposed in GivTCP?

Would Grid Freq/Voltage show when you’re off grid? If not then you can use that as an indicator?

deanjesper I actually simulated a power cut yesterday by isolating the mains and checked the voltage reading on Givtcp - it continued to read around 245V - which I assume is the voltage the AIO inverter was outputting. I could find no warning of loss of grid supply anywhere.

I did the simulation as I've just changed over from a type AC RCD to a type A. On previous tests of a power cut I had the type AC RCD trip when I restored the grid - and would not reset for several minutes. Yesterday's test did not trip the new RCD - so early days but it appears my problem may be solved. A type A RCD may help with your tripping problem, type AC RCDs are not resilient to stray DC currents, which I assume is what may be happening at time of grid power disconnection/connection.

Ivan interesting, ok that’s a shame then!

Re: your Type A RCD, I’m guessing that’s easier than fitting RCBOs in place of MCBs? I feel like GivEnergy should explain what’s required as part of the install as everyone has different consumer units - unless an electrician should “just know” what’s best by testing it

https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/3478-type-a-and-type-ac-rccbrcd-experience/19

How do you know if there is a power cut from the grid, other than neighbours lights all go off! We run ASHP so would want to shut that down if we had a power cut to get the most from battery reserves. Notification from the GE app would be nice!

Jase1703 your neighbours come knocking and you charge them £2 for a cuppa

Ivan I had a very similar experience to this today - we had a powercut for over 4 hours and the changeover was almost instant. And when grid supply came back on, all was good - apart from a very brief surge that made the lights momentarily brighter.

However 1 side of one of our 2 consumer boards tripped - and refused to turn back on. Even after turning off all the circuits on that part of the board, it still wouldn't turn on. Just happened to be the router, switch and other key items powered by that one.

I've since noticed that the one that refused to come back on is a different RCD type to the other three.

This type AC one was fine...

But this type A one (note the sinusoid wave with another "double bump" wave underneath) refused to go back on while the gateway was in island mode when the grid was down and we were pulling from the AIO

I have fitted a large blue LED to the front of my consumer unit which is in my utilty room. When grid goes off, blue LED goes out but EPS output stays on

26Left Interesting - similar, but opposite to my type of RCD experience, type AC tripped but type A worked for me.

I was thinking my problem was solved but on hearing your experience it may not be - and something else may be happening. Think I will ask my installer to discuss with Givenergy as there appears to be several of us who are having "similar" problems on a power cut event.

deanjesper I went with a replacement RCD as it was suggested to be the simplest and cheapest solution. I was thinking that my problem was solved (my most recent power cut simulation worked) but 26Left's experience has me wondering again. Agree that this appears to be something Givenegy should be giving installers precise instruction on.

Ivan After talking with a local electrician, my tripped RCD issue when the AIO is in island mode may be due to a Neutral-to-Earth fault that is being exacerbated by the AIO operating in split phase.

More here: https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/3478-type-a-and-type-ac-rccbrcd-experience/35