Is there a way to find out if my AIO system with gateway Kicked in?

Yesterday we had a couple of grid outages, everything turned off but came back on again in a few seconds. I am not sure if my battery kicked in and took over or not! being a very sunny day and with a full battery we weren't importing from the grid anyway so when i look at my charts it there is no evidence of the grid failing. I'd like to know what happened as in my understanding the backup is supposed to kick within 25ms but this was definitely more than that!
I'd like to know in case it's not working at all?

all advice very much appreciated,

Mike

Daft Vader My AIO system will switch off everything for about 5-10 seconds if the battery is full and there is more solar being generated that the house will consume in order to turn the hybrid inverter off - in that case I can be aware of losing the grid.
However if those conditions are not met then the system cuts over almost instantly with no fanfare (for example at night). If the grid power was restored in fairly short order, then it is possible that the outage would not be recorded in the logs (as they are captured every 5 mins I beleive) so you would not be able to tell from looking at those.
GE doesn't send any push notification through to you telling you that you are on backup power, so it can be really difficult to find out.
I use Inverter Monitor which can send a message on the device if it senses the grid has dropped

When you do lose the grid does your router drop out? our oven timer turned off as well that's our usual way of telling it's off. Our definitely was off long enough for the router and the oven timer to go off!
I have been putting it off but I think I'll definitely test the gateway by switching the grid off at the mains entry to the house.

Thanks

Mike

Daft Vader Yes, the outage is long enough for the router to go plus the clocks on oven and microwave. However this only happens as far as I can tell when there is too much solar for the house load and nowhere for it to go - then you get the delay and the system comes back on but with no solar generation

Edit: you can test the cut-over by switching the grid breaker in the gateway to simulate a powercut

Thanks I'm going to try it today !

BTW what is 'inverter Monitor' ? is it an app. do have extra hardware?

thanks again!

Mike

Daft Vader BTW what is 'inverter Monitor' ? is it an app. do have extra hardware?

Yes, it's an App written by Andrew Miller - it certainly runs on Android (don't know about IOS) and connects locally to your inverter/battery.

Here is a link to the site. I really like the app and find it very useful. I run it on an older Android tablet with it permanently switched on so I can see at a glance what is happening. With the latest version, if you keep capture data on, then the app will send an android message to tell you (and the app it self says "OUTAGE" for the grid in these circumstances.

I'm not sure, but I think @Rubikcube who posts here may be the author, but I could be wrong!

Well I waited till there wasn't much solar being produced and turned off the grid!
I was convinced it wasn't going to work but it switched over so fast that the tv stayed on without a flicker and so did the lights! more amazing was the router didn't lose sync !!

The puzzle now remains why did my power go off twice on friday ?and I found out from the neighbours that they didn't have any power cuts on friday?
a similar but more dramatic thing took place a few months back but that was an OFF ON OFF ON Off ON event all in about 2 or 3 seconds ! no one else had a power cut that day either!
BTW I didn't see your reply about the app before so unfortunately i didn't have it connected but I definitely will do tomorrow. I couldn't see any difference in the dashboard as I am never drawing from the grid at this time of year anyway.

Thanks

Mike

Daft Vader
Fwiw I had exactly the same thing a few months back. Paul (the dragon) checked the data and said he couldn't see any power outage. I never did find the answer. Hasn't happened since though. Curious!

Coys68

Daft Vader
also, mine was early march and at about 5pm so definitely no solar influence

Daft Vader The puzzle now remains why did my power go off twice on friday ?and I found out from the neighbours that they didn't have any power cuts on friday?

Well, it is just possible that it was just your phase that dropped, not the entire power. I am not an engineer, but it wouldn;t surprise me when the electric company are wiring up a street they have every third property on the same phase (in order to balance the load across the phases) and thus your immediate neighbours with side of you could be on the other phases (but I could well be wrong).

Going back to the cut-over, one thing I have yet to do (not sure whether you have done this test or not) is to run the cut-over when it is sunny and the AIO is at around 70% full - from what I can find, in this scenario the cut-over should be as you have just experienced AND the solar panels should still be on and generating. As I say, I haven't done this test yet, but if someone has and can confirm the AIO behaviour that would be good.

[unknown]
Ah! I can help there as we have just moved into a brand new row of 4 houses , the two between me and my only neighbour is exactly 3 houses away and he didn't have any outage, so probably not that.

I'd love to find out what would happen if the solar was producing a lot when the grid was off but when i dropped the grid yesterday the solar was still producing some power and it looks like it carried on going 🙂 so it worked ok under those circumstances but I have no idea what would happen if it were producing a lot. I suppose it must shut down? as there 's nowhere for it to go?
I have got the 'Inverter Monitor' running and just starting to look at what its doing, Ah I notice that it says it needs to be in constant connection so can't be taken away from home if you want stat's ,which i suppose is obvious! maybe use an old smartphone!

I have had 2 power outages when producing well over my AIO charge limit and on both occasions the breaker to the battery has tripped. On other occasions, when maybe the solar wasnt so high it has all gone smoothly. And on other occasions something random in the CU trips. Needless to say I have kept the UPS on my PC's and router as you just cant get the confidence level up unfortunately 🙁

Hopeful Now I had that happened to me - it turned out the connectors in the gateway were not fully tightened - have you had them checked? Once that was done (terminals on the AIO breaker) no problem

CW I put it down to high solar but I will mention to my installer. Thanks