Battery Data with more than one battery

7 comments started 2024-04-04 last 2024-04-04
Mobile AppCloud PortalGivEnergy ProductsHybridBatteryCards - Inverter
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#1 Ortwin

We recently upgraded our solar system to a second 9.5Kw battery to go with our 5Kw 2nd gen Givenergy inverter, 913 inverter software and battery supposedly both at 3015. our installers initially had trouble with getting the second battery to work with our system and upgraded to 3015 software which we thought was sorted. Yesterday we had a BMS over voltage error and the second battery although charged and seen by the system would not discharge with the first battery. GE Technical had a look at our system and said the second battery was still at 3013 instead of 3015 which was the reason for the failure. apparently the app and cloud take the battery information from the primary battery.
So my questions are:
1) Is there a way (as a techy end user) of reviewing the system so I can view the individual software levels for the system and each batteries rather than the batteries as a group using the primary battery software version?
2) If the BMS over/under voltage error occurs again, is there anything as an end user i can do or do I need to contact my installer/GE to fix it?

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#2 DD

Ortwin Is there a way (as a techy end user) of reviewing the system so I can view the individual software levels for the system and each batteries rather than the batteries as a group using the primary battery software version?

https://givenergymonitor.wixsite.com/tutorials gets you to a third-party android app which is good for getting low-level details. Clicking on the battery bar at the bottom gets you to the first battery and then (probably - I only have the one) clicking on the arrow at top-right gets the next.

(On the voltage thing - I've heard it's a feature of the 3015 firmware which is why I've been putting off upgrading.)

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#3 geoffreycoan

Ortwin It does seem that 3015 is more prone to over charging the battery which is what the BMS errors are. Having said that, I only received an under and an over voltage during the battery calibration for 3015 and I've not had any such issues in the month I've had 3015.

But no, there's not a lot you can do to prevent the errors, its the battery management system allowing the battery to charge too much or drop too much. One for Givenergy support I'm afraid

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#4 Vestas

geoffreycoan there's not a lot you can do to prevent the errors

Well you can actually prevent the errors if you run GivTCP/HA and intervene before cells are overcharged.

In most cases the cells aren't being overcharged in terms of manufacturer ratings, they're just being overcharged in the way GE operate them and that causes the portal notification. Having said that I have seen cells briefly in excess of 3.65V which isn't good. Its manageable with local control.

Edit - and what's actually noticeable is that a forced/timed export for a couple of hours once in a while seems to be quite helpful in terms of assisting the BMS to actually work 😉

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#5 Ortwin

So GE have updated the secondary battery and started a discharge and battery calibration just in time to get the peak export tariff. I have set to import between 02:00 and 05:00 and usually export between 16:00 & 19:00 to take advantage of the best octopus flux tariff prices. Tim will tell if it works

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#6 DD

Ortwin I don't believe you can delay the recharging part, but if you reduce the charging power, you may be able to extend it so that it reaches cheap overnight rate.

(I was a bit unlucky when I tried - platform was offline when I wanted to increase the rate back up again at the start of the cheap rate.)

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#7 geoffreycoan

DD I found that you can change the charge and discharge rates when the calibration is going on. I set my charge rate to zero and then only put it back up when it was cheaper agile overnight.