Battery failing to charge after Inverter replacement

Dear All,

I've got a solar PV system that comprises of solar panels -> Solis inverter -> Givenergy string inverter -> Givenergy 8.2 battery.

A few days back my Solis inverter failed and I got a local electrician to replace it with a like for like (but newer version) of a Solis inverter.

With the replacement Solis in place, I can now see solar generation on Givenergy portal - but currently the battery is refusing to charge both on a timed charge, and from solar PV.

I've had a chat with Givenergy support who were very helpful, but unable to resolve my issue. They suggest getting my original Givenergy installer back out. When I spoke to them, they are booked up for at least the next 30 days so I'm wondering if there is any diagnostics etc I can get my local electrician to do to help me out whilst I wait.

I've done the usual of power cycling everything, all breakers are in the 'on' position.

The givernergy inverter is currently set to 'eco' mode, has a timed charge between midnight and 7am, has 'ac charge enabled' to to 'on'. The battery is currently showing at 6% charged.

Any thoughts or ideas would be gratefully received.

Thanks,

Paul

I am not sure what the GivEnergy string inverter is and how this is all connected. How/where/what is the battery connected to for it to receive DC and output DC to.?
What did the Solis inverter do in all this?
Is there a sketch of how everything is connected - just single line?
Did any comms cables become unplugged during the work?
Can you turn everting off that is connected to the battery and let it drain for say 30s and then turn back on, so it reboots

Is it a Givenergy String inverter?, or a AC3 mains to battery unit?

i.e panels to solis inverter dropping AC onto mains :system 1
Givenergy AC3 and 8.2 battery connected to Mains :system 2

What does the battery say, what's it's charge state etc. can it be seen?

Hey Wrighar,

Thanks for replying ...

It's a GivEnergy string inverter (https://www.solartradesales.co.uk/givenergy-ac-coupled-3-0kw-battery-inverter)

The battery reports itself as online, the unit shows a green status light, and one green light for the charge status and as I mentioned above, the battery is reported in the app as being at 6%.

Is it possible that the battery will need to be manually charged ie - https://kb.givenergy.cloud/file.php?id=137 ?

Thanks

So the PV panels are not connected directly to the GivEnergy kit and the Solis inverter was never connected directly to the battery. I cant see how taking the Solis "out of the loop" would upset the AC3.
Can you connect to the AC3 on the GivEnergy portal .
Can you reset the AC3 via the portal OR turn everything off so the inverter goes flat for say 30s and then turn everything back on so the inverter reboots

In replacing the Solis inverter did they remove the GE clamp on the solar output? This clamp should be on the cable from the solar inverter and tells the GE inverter how much solar is being generated so that it can consume it to charge the batteries. Without the clamp it will think the solar is 0 and won't consume anything for charge.

Also check the grid clamp hasn't been removed. Without this one the GE inverter will not know what to do to make the grid current 0 for ECO mode.

Your Solis installer might not have understood the necessity for these 2 clamps. I have a SolarEdge solar inverter and a GE AC3.0 battery inverter and they need these clamps to play well together.

Steve - I agree, replacing the Solis really shouldn't affect anything, no clamps were touched - and indeed the GE inverter sees solar generation (well it does when the sun is out) and shows it as exporting which makes me assume the clamps are all correct still.

The GE AC3 inverter has been restarted and power cycled a few times, and I can see it and manipulate its settings through the portal.

My best guess right now is a flat battery that requires a manual DC jump start to bring it back to life. Thoughts ?

paulmiles (perhaps we disagree on what a string inverter is...)

There are some registers that control max battery charging power - if those had somehow got set to zero, that would inhibit battery charging. Did you try a reset-to-defaults ?

Misplaced CT clamps wouldn't explain failure to ac-charge.

If you use android, can you use the third-party inverter app to get any additional insight?

If you believe the cloud portal, then all of the registers that control charging look reasonable.

What third party app would you suggest?

The one I've just installed doesn't seem to offer any more details.

Thanks

If you have this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.rubikcube.invertermonitor

Check the grid line. If it says OUTAGE there is no power to the inverter.

paulmiles that reads the registers directly from the inverter, rather than showing cached values. It also shows individual cell voltages, for example

daft Q, but the breaker is on between battery and inverter isnt it? greem breaker should be in the UP position

Firstly, thanks everyone for replying :-)

Rubikcube - under Grid controls I have a bunch of voltages - no where does it say 'outage' so I'm assuming that's all good.

TheDragon - no daft questions! but yes, the breaker is in the up position and the battery lights status light shows green.

I'm going to have a go at charging the battery manually as per https://kb.givenergy.cloud/article.php?id=77&oid=1 and see what happens.

It seems plausible to me that the battery just needs a jump start because it's gone fully dead.

Paul

paulmiles Ummm I'm pretty certain that if you try that then you invalidate the warranty. That KB entry is meant for installers, not end users.

I don't have an easy way to say this, except that I was being extremely stupid.

The breaker for the battery had tripped which is why nothing was working - the interesting thing is that when I was on the phone to GivEnergy support, I swear this hadn't tripped.

Anyway, I flipped the breaker back on, then within a minute or so the battery went into calibration mode and is currently charging from both PV and mains.

I guess the takeaway for me here is to check, and double check.

Anyways, many thanks to everyone here for helping me out - apologies for wasting all of your time.

This thread may be of use
https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/4826-100a-battery-circuit-breaker