I have 2 batteries and 2 inverters - one battery appears dead after 2 good years. Not taking any charge. Ive attempted to get Givenergy interested in my problem a week ago with no response so far via their contact form. Looking at other threads I may have a relatively common problem but how do I get some traction ? Anyone have a magic wand ?
Thanks
Can you explain a bit more about what you mean the battery is dead. Is it powered on, any lights, any notifications against that inverter in the portal? Have you tried doing a calibration of the battery?
Hard to tell what the fault is with the limited information, sorry
OK. There is a lot of data available - dont want to send excess but lets give it a go. Firstly the three lit pathways on the front of the inverter are only showing two lit on my suspect battery
The capacity is showing as 0.51Kwh as opposed to the other at 5.22Kwh (They are 5.2 batteries)
Battery power, percentage charge and temperature are all zero
Forgive my ignorance but you asked if the battery was powered on ! That implies there is a switch - when I looked all the major isolators and fuses appeared to be live - is there something else I should check ?
Ive not tried any battery calibration - nor was I aware that was a thing.
Nor have I tried battery winter conditioning (found whilst looking for data) could this be a useful activity ?
any more data I can supply to further the conversation ? let me know
Thanks again
LMA thanks for the extra info. It sounds like the inverter is talking to the battery if there are two lights on the inverter front, so it can’t be that the battery is turned off.
There will be a big isolator switch in the cabling between the battery and the inverter, and there is also a round power button on the right hand side of the battery to turn it on. What lights are on the battery, should be 1 green I’d guess?
In the givenergy website, go into ‘my inverters’ and select the inverter with the poorly battery. You should be able to look at the meter data for the battery & inverter (SoC %, import export kWh, battery charge/discharge, PV generation, etc). You should also be able to look at notifications from the inverter, look to see if there is any errors being reported.
There is a remote control section which gives you the ability to change the individual inverter controls, including starting a calibration if it comes to that.
But before you try that, assuming the battery has a green light and no obvious notification errors, some things to check in remote control. Try changing them to a different value then to the correct value and this might kick the inverter and battery into life:
try each of these in turn and see if the inverter starts responding to commands and house load.
Final thing to try is ‘reset to defaults’ which should reset the inverter configuration and restart it.
OK - I think I misled you earlier - the lights I referred to are on the inverter - there are no lights on the battery
Should i continue with your activities listed ?
LMA no lights on the battery indicates battery not turned on !
Check for the big breaker between the battery and the inverter, make sure it is turned on. Push and hold the button on the right side of the battery to turn it on.
Listen.
If the battery lights come on, you hear a series of clicking in the battery and then the battery turns itself off then its highly likely the BMS board on your inverter had failed. You can confirm this by turning the breaker switches off between the battery and the inverter, then turning the battery on by the side button, and if it stays on ok then its an inverter fail that you’ll have to get replaced by GivEnergy under warranty.
Assuming the battery lights stay on, all good, that might be the only issue you had.
If the battery lights don’t come on then there’s a battery fault. Back to Givenergy I’m afraid
OK - update - decided to switch it on (found the battery switch) and now have a red status light and one flashing green light. Given this is all in the loft Ive no idea how it could have switched off maybe a power cut ?
Anyway will track this to see what occurs
LMA Progress, a red flashing light does indicate a battery problem, could be low charge. Can you try doing a forced charge of it?
OK- still flashing green light and red status on the battery and no clicking. Am going to follow your list above. Thanks again
OK. Tried forced charge and winter conditioning and inverter restart. Still one red and a flashing green on the battery. As you suggest its looking like battery
Wonder how long I have to wait to hear from Givenergy !
Thanks anyway
LMA winter conditioning is only going to help the battery when the cells get really cold (2 degrees C), it will do a forced charge. A red flashing light indicates a battery fault, sorry https://givenergy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Battery-and-Hybrid-welcome-pack.pdf
Can you look at the notifications for your inverter in the givenergy website, what do they show? It might indicate something you can fix (or of course may not!)
On other threads there have been some reports of slow responses from givenergy support. Obviously we’ve had several days off and holiday period. Maybe try a chaser email
More and more convinced its a battery problem. Cant see anything I can "fix". Will mail Givenergy again
Thanks
It may be in "BMS Protect" - if the battery voltage is too low it sort of hibernates. (A single flashing Green light denotes it is very flat)
Givenergy can force an "activate battery" command to allow the battery to connect to the inverter no matter what and force a charge which may be something they can attempt.
Luckily you've not got to the stage beyond "BMS Protect" stage which is when the whole thing shuts down completely (no lights, no beeps, dead) and you need to use an external charger directly on the cells inside to revive it.
hoggy
Yes thanks - Ive tried a forced charge and conditioning with no apparent effect. My frustration now is that people in our position just have to wait until Givenergy decide to respond. If this is typical of their after sales service maybe suppliers should start to avoid using their equipment. I suppose one option is to write to the directors listed in Companies House to see if they can help :-)
I think from comments on here, installers are starting to use other product suppliers
LMA no this isn't a user accessible force charge. Only Givenergy can toggle the one I meant. It basically forces the BMS to close its "relays" (Mosfets) and connect to the inverter so it can accept a forced charge.
SteveCook
and thats a shame - I know there are moans about their kit on this forum but overall my impression is that most of it is ok
Daveb01
Yes - number not recognised !
Just to close this thread. Hoggy - you were correct. My installer managed to get Givenergy engaged and they forced a charge that I could not. The need almost certainly due to a power cut. All now seems well.
LMA that number works fine for me
I've been waiting since 3 January for a response from GivEnergy after reporting my battery suddenly stopping working. I've emailed 6 times and have had no response from a human being, except two automated responses assigning two different ticket numbers. I have phoned the support line and spoken to an AI robot, who assured me that 'she' understood my concern, had marked it as urgent as I had requested, and someone would contact me very soon. Nobody has.
I have provided the diagnostic information from the system and have asked that they send an "Activate battery" command to my battery, which sounds a very easy thing for someone to do. Still no response.
Any ideas?!
NSM I believe there are some givenergy staff that occasionally pop in on the givenergy facebook group, you could try posting there with your ticket number
I don think anyone from GivEnergy reads this forum.
I posted on here, and 2 hours later The Dragon had read my post and remotely uploaded new firmware to my inverter (that fixed it)
https://community-beta.givenergy.cloud/
SteveCook Paul is good if the post catches his eye. He does drop-in on the other forum from time to time, but it is generally bereft of Givenergy staff.
