Battery performance is terrible

Anyone else feeling like they've been miss sold their Givenergy Battery?

The brochure states that they will work fine down until 0'C and then work at a reduced rate until -10'C. But in reality Givenergy limit the battery performance from 20'C. As much as the battery is saving me money on energy usage it feels like I've been done in terms of the actual performance.

We all understand that the temperature will affect performance, but actively limiting the performance to below what they have promises feels like a con.

Yes it is a big disadvantage for us as it never gets to 20C in the winter. Last winter we could charge at 2.6kW but now only 1.8kW. The firmware was updated in April to 3015. I can't remember what version is was before.

While this isn't causing me a significant issue (I charge 6 hours overnight at low power), I agree that the modifications look like bait and switch. I appreciate that GE are trying to minimise battery degradation and I want that, but these latest temperature restrictions should be optional for existing owners and the warranty should be based on the controls advertised at the time of sale.

You'd have to pursue the installer for compo through the small claims track and not GE. I'm not convinced you'd win as "when sold" the battery performed as expected and the installer didn't "upgrade" the firmware (if they did then they're liable).

Not sure what the remedy would be in law but I suspect it'd have to be a class action against GE, which would require funding. One for a solicitor....

What compensation are you after. I think you would have to somehow demonstrate you had "lost" something . ie financial cost to you over the life of the system. That might be very difficult and need a lot of maths/assumptions.
The other route might be to pursue the "this is not what you promised" and get it removed and refund, but that seems a bit extreme and get you back to square one.
I think the best you might get is some sort of "ex gratia/no lability" payment on the quiet as they wont want everyone pursuing it .
I think you would have to write a lot of letters to get any response though and threaten some sort of legal action

We lose money whenever there is an Octo free electricity event. We don't even heat our house to 20C but our battery is in an unheated internal garage which is about 12C this time of year.

I have AIO outside, Gateway inside. Charging from 4% to 100% every night. Discharging every day until flat. No issues so far. Maybe it's due to inverter size, if there is a limit in charge/discharge speed due to temperature, I won't even notice it.

Stats right now:

Solar Power:
  Power: 0 W (Voltage: 0 V)

Grid:
  Power: 8 W (exporting)
  Voltage: 244.4 V
  Current: 3.5 A
  Frequency: 50.13 Hz

Battery:
  Percentage: 55%
  Power: 955 W (discharging)
  Will last until: past midnight (07:27 left)
  Temperature: 15.4 °C

Inverter:
  Temperature: 29.9 °C
  Power: 853 W (discharging battery)
  Output Voltage: 244.4 V
  Output Frequency: 50.13 Hz

Home consumption: 816 W

Temp outside about 5 C. I have nothing to complain about.
People with small inverters may be affected by reduced output values though...

EDIT: Even my PHEV car will reduce charging speed when very cold. Max for my Volvo XC60 is 3.4 KW if I remember correctly. Sometimes when it's cold and just starting, it's only pulling 1.8 KW. I wouldn't say I was mis-sold something because of that.

nophead Put some ruddy lagging about the battery then. It's really not that hard to make things work!

mrand31 I don't see how that will help much. Lagging will keep heat in but it doesn't generate much as my home load is only 100W in the winter because we live in Tenerife. Since I can only charge it now at 1800W it doesn't get to 20C from 12C before it is fully charged and that is at 5AM. Plenty of time to cool down again before a free electricity session or a need to charge it before a saving session.

I think the issue is they are miss selling a product. They are promoting a performance that they actively prevent from being able to perform at this level.