Battery charging issues and charging / exporting probs

Hi folks,
My set up is

Givenergy 3.6KW Hybrid Invertor (gen 3)
1 x 9.5kWh Givenergy battery
12 x Longi 405Watt solar panels
South facing, Scottish borders.

In November, I changed from intelligent flux to standard flux.
I changed the inverter settings so it charged at the cheap rate (0200-0500) and exported at the better return rate (1600-1900).
I did this last year at the same time too. There were no issues last year, with the battery charging to 100% between 0200-0500 without any problems.

However, this year it has only charged to around 60% at most, usually less, between 0200-0500. It doesn't matter what the temperature is, and I don't have any new electrical items to drain any extra power.

Also, like today, there have been several occasions where the timed charge / export settings have randomly changed by itself.
Today it was changed to charge for about 5 minutes around 0900 and discharge was for about 2 minutes around midnight. Bizarre!

I've reset the settings several times, double checked I'm setting the charge/export settings properly, everything is fine, but these issues remain.

Everything has the latest updates / firmware.

A couple of days ago I force charged the battery to 100% to mature sure it could still charge to maximum, and it did without issue, so it's not a problem with the cells.

I've emailed givenergy but heard nothing back. Can anyone advise / shed any light?
Very frustrating, not least because I'm not making as much from the system as I used to / should be.

Thanks.

Scottishcammy Also, like today, there have been several occasions where the timed charge / export settings have randomly changed by itself.

In the browser, please go to GE My Inverters / Remote Control, on the bottom of the page you will find access logs. Please screenshot what settings have been changed and by whom.

Thanks for replying, much appreciated.

Just had a look, it's changed again. If I'm reading it correctly, it seems to be to do with the winter battery conditioning? I recently set it to 'on'.....if it is because of that, I get it would overwrite the times settings to ensure it was above a certain temperature, but had no idea it also delete's the settings the user had set it to / doesn't revert back to them afterwards...

I have a Gen3 5kW inverter. Last year I could charge my 5.2kWh battery at 2.6kW but this year it only charges at 1.8kW when the battery temperature is below 21C since a firmware update in April. Since it is in an unheated garage it is never 21C in winter. I does heat up during the charge but by the time it gets towards 21C it gets above 95% and the charge ramps back then anyway,

Fortunately 3 hours is just enough for a 100% charge for me.

Cheers.

My battery is outside, wonder if it's the update you mentioned that's stopping it charge to 100% as it certainly used to with no issues last year. Wonder if there's anything I can do to sort it....Bit crap that!

I wonder if there is an outdoor heating matt I could place around the battery that has a temp sensor to heat up below certain temps....I'll need to do some googling

Scottishcammy it looks like you are suffering from two problems:

1, winter battery conditioning, if the battery cells get below 2 degrees it will do a 10 minute charge to warm the batteries up. Unfortunately this charge overwrites slot 1 charging information so if you had programmed something in that slot, it will be lost. Best if you use slots 2 and above for your desired charging activity

2. from BMS firmware 3017 the batteries now reduce charge rate when the cell temperature is below 20 degrees. There’s a table of the different charge rate for batteries and inverters elsewhere on this forum. Note that it is the cell temperature not the battery BMS temperature which the app shows - the cell temperature is often lower

If your batteries are outside then I’d suggest you need an insulated box around them with loft insulation or PIR inside. You need to get the battery cells temperatures up, not just the physical battery box.

Be careful about the peak period export on Flux, don’t export too much because any evening time import will cancel out the small profit you make from the night-time charge

Scottishcammy
I also have a 9.5 battery and have the same issue of not being able to fully charge below cells temperature of 20c
As discussed here
https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/5296-winter-battery-conditioning/35

The winter battery conditioning overwrites charge slot 1 with it's short charge bursts to keep the battery warm enough to charge.

I've a Gen 3 like you, so have moved all my personal charging slots to to slot 2, 3 and 4 so the automations like Axle givback, winter battery conditioning and other don't impact them.

@Scottishcammy That solves your problem, now you know the cause. And it improves my use too - I have moved my personal charging slots to 2 & 3, so whatever GE wants to put in Slot 1, they now can. Thanks for sharing, @geoffreycoan and @wrighar.

I am keeping winter conditioning disabled for now, will keep it off until I see reduced charge rate which will affect my normal charging schedule, which is 00:00 to 06:00 at 2500W (I have 13.5kWh AIO). No need to charge any faster if I have entire 6 hours to complete the charge from 4% (I deplete it most of the time in the winter) to 100%.

I have a 9,5 kw battery which often goes below 4% even it’s not supposed to last week it went down to 0% and now my system is saying there is no battery attached to your system numerous messages to helpline and all ignored so I have a dead battery and quite honestly don’t know what to do you cannot talk to helpline as they are not taking calls any ideas anyone thanks in anticipation kc

TYWERN Best if you can report to your installer and let them contact GE. That seems to be the new support route now

TYWERN I'm experiencing problems too, and i've heard others say the only way you can get through to Giv is either through your installer (as they can still call up) or on the Facebook page. Good Luck. I'm going down the installer route.

Scottishcammy

I have the same battery and inverter as you and also a similar grdi charge behaviour. Although in my case i get about 80% charge when the battery is starting from 4 or 5%. Firmware is at latest public release and charge power is set to 3600. Although i can't seem to get above 2700. Graphs are enclosed.

Maxwell Although i can't seem to get above 2700. Graphs are enclosed.

your problem is temperature related charge throttling. Looking at the graph your battery barely gets above 20 degrees, and that's the threshold for full rate charging. If you charge at a lower rate (if you can) then your battery will warm up over a longer period of time, and once it gets above 20 degrees you'll get full 3600W charge rate

See https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/5296-winter-battery-conditioning/35

geoffreycoan Thanks for info. It is frustrating that they don't well publicise the impact that temperature has on charging. Although in the thread you linked it appears GE changed something in the firmware as others were previously charging at 3600 at lower temps. I can't look back at old data to compare as they swapped out my inverter and at that point you loose access to your previous cloud data. Mine is in a shed and has a wooden jacket lined with 50mm foam insulation and an air gap. Might look at adding additional insulation to see if that helps. Although it does rest on a concrete slab.