Strange goings on… Only using grid power on ECO mode

Hey folks, this is a strange one. I’ve been operating my system (5Kw panels, 9.5kw battery and 3.75Kw hybrid inverter) for about 18 months with no issues.

I was manually discharging the battery towards the evening as it’s nearly full (I may as well make some money from the export). However, when stopping the discharge via the quick settings option in the app, it registered the request but kept on exporting.

To cut a long story short, I restarted the inverter. It kept exporting.

I updated the firmware via the portal - success, it stopped exporting.

However, now the system works just fine, apart from the fact it won’t discharge dynamically at all. It just sits there with a battery at 100%.

If there is sufficient solar, the house consumes that, if not, the available solar is consumed and topped up with grid import (while the batter has plenty of charge).

I’ve checked the portal and the app, Eco Mode is switched on in both locations, timed discharge and timed export are both off.

I’ve even tried resetting to defaults but to no avail.

I know the system is capable of discharge, it will discharge quite happily if I use a quick mode, I can also amend the charge and discharge rates just fine. Max discharge is set to 2600w at the moment but it just won’t use dynamic mode.

Any suggestions?

Sunlounger in the portal (not app), go to My Inverter > click the cog and then Read All Unread Registers. Sometimes something gets a little stuck and this might show that Eco is not quite set. Also make sure you've done a reset to defaults in the portal rather than manually turning Eco off/on, and not in the app

That's interesting - another couple of reports of a very similar problem recently:
https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/4553-timed-discharge-not-working

Minor suggestion: it's more effcient to export solar directly (perhaps by reducing charging power during the day) than to let the battery fill up, then export from there. Avoids some of the round-trip losses.

Sunlounger I’ve checked the portal and the app, Eco Mode is switched on in both locations, timed discharge and timed export are both off.

I’ve even tried resetting to defaults but to no avail.

You can't entirely trust what the portal says - if it gets out of sync with what's actually on the inverter, it reports what it last sent, rather than what's actually on the inverter. And it won't send a value to the inverter if it thinks it's already set to that. And I'm not entirely convinced that reset-to-defaults uncondtitionally sets all registers to known values.

Try turning eco mode off then on again. That should force portal back into sync with the inverter. Perhaps also while you're at it change a few other settings, such as charge and discharge power, away from whatever they're set to to something else, and then back to what you want them to be. Just to ensure that the values are actually being sent.

(Or, as suggested, force the portal to read all values from the inverter.)

Thanks for the replies Cdent t DD

The plot thickens, when i go into the portal and hit the "Read All Unread Registers" button it times out. I get the following message:

It always times out on the same bit - see below. The export value is zero, I've tried to change to 100% but it's not budging...

I am seeing a very similar issue on my system. I have a 3.6kWh v1 hybrid inverter with 2 x 5.2kWh batteries.

The issue for me started on the 2nd of June and out of the blue, no changes to any setting or running of the system. It has always been running in eco - dynamic mode. I have tried in eco - scheduled mode - home demand and get the same issue. When I set it to force export, this works and will export power to my home and the grid.

I have tried restarting the inverter a few times as well as resetting the settings to defaults, setting the inverter date/time and reading all unread registers (all registers read without a problem except for 'AC Charge 1 Upper SOC % limit' and 'AC Discharge 1 Lower SOC % limit').

Sunlounger mine does the same, and it seems Lawrence has that too so seems to be for everyone. Has this screen got the Eco mode toggle on?

Sunlounger It always times out on the same bit - see below. The export value is zero, I've tried to change to 100% but it's not budging...

What model/generation of inverter do you have. Not all firmwares support all features, and I think the lower threshold on discharge is a relatively recent feature.

Down at the modbus level, trying to read a non-existent register just gets no reply, which would manifest as a timeout.

Lawrence The issue for me started on the 2nd of June and out of the blue, no changes to any setting or running of the system.

If you look on the activity log on the remote control page of the portal, any record of any unsolicited changes ?

DD

I have the GIV-HY3.6, it's running D0.450-A0.451 firmware.

Understood on the timeout potentially simply being down to attempting to access a feature my hardware doesn't support.

Cdent yes, the ECO mode toggle is on.

This is bizarre. I've logged a feedback case with Givenergy but no response on that so far.

It's worth noting that Lawrence's timings tie in with my timings, in my case I updated my Firmware on the evening of the 2nd. So perhaps a new "feature" for others to look forward to as they install that update 🙂

DD Nope. I did check the logs and the last entries before my meddling to fix the issue was for the daylight savings update.

I have the GIV-HY3.6 with firmware D0.450-A0.451. The last firmware update was on 28/11/2023 @ 15:26:26 so my issue is not linked to any firmware update!

Data corruption when writing to registers as that f/w has no CRC checking.

I've had the same happen.

Reset to defaults on the Inverter->Settings page on the portal then a FULL power down/power up (allowing a minute or two powered down) usually fixes it.

If not then contact support as (IIRC) the registers being corrupted aren't visible to the end-user. Support can see them though.

Vestas I followed your suggestion but the problem persists!
I had contacted GivEnergy support first thing this morning via email but have had no response yet!

Vestas Seems unlikely that lots of inverters would fail in the same way ? Also, Lawrence logs suggest no recent writes to any registers which might have got corrupted.

I have spoken with GivEnergy and they think my problem is most likely due to my two batteries being out of sync by about 10%. They have triggered a calibration and suspect/hope that it will fix my issue.

They couldn't see anything else in my system/logs that they think would cause the problem!

Sunlounger yes, the ECO mode toggle is on.

Did you try turning eco mode off and on again (in case the portal had got out of sync) ?

Lawrence if it's urgent always phone you will get help quickly.

Email could be 48 hours after email sent...

DD

Oh yes, many times 🙂

Unfortunately with no effect. Time to call for support now I think. Will update in here.

M_J I did phone them in the end. They didn't take too long to answer the phone either which was nice :-)

The calibration is still in progress, the batteries are almost emptied!

I've had this a few times after invoking a timed discharge from the App on full batteries before a scheduled re-charge overnight. Gen 2 3.6HY & 2 x 9.5 batts.

When manually cancelling or letting the timed discharge finish I re-instate Eco mode via the APP (it still bugs me that ECO mode won't turn back on automatically). After which in almost every case the batteries would not discharge to the house which pulled from the grid only.
I turned ECO mode off & on via the APP a few times with no luck. I then closed the APP on my phone, restarted it, & turned ECO back on (if not already on) & hey presto the batteries started feeding the house load as normal. This has happened a few times now & each time the only way to reinstate correct ECO mode functionality has been to cycle the App off & back on. I have not played with any settings via the Portal when doing this.
It still bugs me that after any sort of timed discharge / export that ECO mode cannot be re-instated automatically. If ECO can be automatically turned off by other functions surely it should be possible to have ECO mode turn back on automatically as well, or at least have the option to program this.

After the full calibration last night my system is now working as expected. Calibration completed just after 10pm last night and after that the house used the stored charge from the batteries rather than the grid.

Any further update on this issue? I had this a couple of months ago and logged a ticket. After LOTS of diagnosis it was agreed the Inverter was dead and it was replaced under warranty but 2 months later the same thing has happened again. I was told this an isolated case but the symptoms explained here are the same as my own. First batteries are working fine and discharging as needed. Then I see a full discharge down to 0% (not a calibration according to the logs) and not instigated by myself or anyone else. Then a full charge to 100%. After this the batteries are effectively not used on ECO mode although a forced discharge and recharge works. I have tried resetting via the Portal, via the App, reinstalling the app. Full hardware reboot etc and no change. It’s likely going to be another support ticket, but I can’t have the system fail every time I want to complete a forced export to get some export money (which has been my goal via Home Assistant). It took over a month to get fixed previously and I was stuck importing from the grid 24x7 except when solar was present.

Mrbroons2 I wonder if this is the symptom you'd see if the CT clamp was misbehaving: if it can't measure grid import, it can't respond to it. Though I guess it would tend to send solar to the battery (unless it was full).

DD Thanks for the quick reply, I had thought of this. It is measure load fine through the app. It’s showing the house load and it’s responsive to things such as Fans and Kettles. It’s very similar to what has been described above and as I said the only thing that fixed it was a new inverter, but alas 2 months later it is broken again. I’d be keen to know more about corrupt settings as I use Home Assistant and whilst it works it could be related. Ultimately the GE system should ensure that nothing can break it, but HA may be the instigator?

Mrbroons2 I’d be keen to know more about corrupt settings as I use Home Assistant and whilst it works it could be related. Ultimately the GE system should ensure that nothing can break it, but HA may be the instigator?

Possibly... I don't use HA, but I do use a modbus connection to tweak my system. There should be a way for you to get a raw dump of all the registers on your system, and from that, someone might be able to spot something misconfigured that's not normally accessible through the portal.

I think I saw mention recently (today ?) that givTCP has a way to show you raw register values ?
https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/4706-aio-secondthird-battery-install/113