"Eco" mode is not working

Hi,
I have manually set the "Eco" flag (as below), but it has no effect, with the home's power requirements being taken from the grid even though the battery is at 70%.
I've tried turning "Eco" mode on and off. And also discharging the battery a little, and then setting "Eco" mode on. But with no change to home power being met from the grid, not the battery

Any ideas appreciated - thanks

Robert

25-11-24 17:04:50 You Enable Eco Mode Written Successfully false true true Portal - Inverter Settings Tab - Eco

Have you checked all the other settings using the portal?
Battery min and max soc %
Battery charge and discharge rate
Is your Gem120 powered and glowing green - that measures input/output to/from grid

Could try reset default settings?

RobertSw And also discharging the battery a little,

By doing a forced / timed export? That would seem to rule out things like the reserve being set too high, or a timed pause being in effect.

Does the app correctly show consumption? If it was failing to measure (actually, infer) consumption, it wouldn't be able to discharge the battery to match it.

Thanks Steve and DD,

• Yes I've checked all the settings; EM115 is green; I've reset all the default settings
• Yes by doing a timed export to discharge the battery for 30mins. [It is now holding steady at 70%, powered from the grid]
• Yes, the app is showing consumption

Should I do a system shut down, followed by a system start up?

RobertSw I think the battery was at 70 before. When you did the timed export, it presumably went below 70. Did it charge back up to 70 from grid, then stop? 70% does seem like a magic number somehow.

Overnight I did a timed discharge from 95% to 63%. 63% was then held for 5 hours until I did a timed charge to 80%, which it is now holding. The "Eco" flag is still set on. This does seem to confirm that "Eco" is the issue.

Just a thought! In the portal there's a setting to prioritise Load, Grid or Battery. Maybe just check it's on Load.

RobertSw I'm sceptical that it's eco itself. I'd guess either it's overridden, or it's an issue with determining house load.
Do you have any external agents acting? Eg smart tariff, or in another thread you mentioned octopus r&d scheduler.

Yes, I use Octopus R&D to control charging / discharging which I set-up manually.

I've checked the Remote Control History and its all correct with no unexplained controls

Not sure how Eco can be overridden while the "Eco" flag continues to show that it is on?

The attached file shows the battery profile for today, with the timed export at 00:30 and the time import at 05:00. Grid then hold battery % constant at other times, until solar at 9am

RobertSw Not sure how Eco can be overridden while the "Eco" flag continues to show that it is on?

Eco's behaviour can be overridden by, eg setting power reserves and in my (naiive) experience influenced by seemingly unused registers.

For example if I want to successfully (using HA) set a battery (AIO in my case) minimum percentage to keep back in case of bad weather, my automation has to set both Battery Power Reserve and Discharge Target SOC 1 to the required percentage. (Haven't yet had time to work out why or what combinations may be equivalent yet).

To reverse this change and make Eco (which never gets turned off) function again normally I change both back.

This is even though the timed disharge slots never get used or enabled by anything.

Work your way through all of these if you haven't already as I get the impression seemingly unused registers have a use or influence that is either not logical, not obvious, or remains as part of buggy implementation, not expecting eg HA use.

(All my unused Discharge target SOCs are all 4%, even though unused).

HTH

Thanks.

My set-up has all been working fine for 2+ years until two weeks ago. Nothing changed to my knowledge.

I have reset to defaults and looked through the various registers which seem ok. However I take your point, that I might not know what is wrong!

RobertSw so it is charging the battery from solar - that is an "eco" behaviour. (With eco off, it would send solar to the grid.)

Mouton This is even though the timed disharge slots never get used or enabled by anything.

Does discharge slot #1 have a start/end time configured ? What I've found is that, even with export turned off, it will honour the discharge target between those start/end times - in effect it becomes a timed reserve level. (So you can set multiple different reserves, using different discharge slots.)

RobertSw There's a very thin strip of dark blue from around 7:45, and the battery SoC ticks up at around 8:10. Which suggests very gentle charging? This is consistent with what I've seen when the SoC is below a reserved value, such as in an apparently-unused discharge slot. I think I see around 100W or so.

But if it was that, I wouldn't have expected a timed export to work. So it doesn't seem quite as simple as that.

My understanding and experience of "Eco" mode is that the system will use as first choice use my battery or solar to power my home's electric demand. Only when this is unable to meet the demand will the grid be used. During timed/forced charging/discharging "Eco" mode is effectively disabled.

Attached are my current registers. [Note that the timed charge / discharge are "disabled"]

Anything strange?

DD Does discharge slot #1 have a start/end time configured ?

Good point. Looking at web / app all slots are disabled / invisible.

But taking the time I should have taken earlier and looking via HA

All other discharge slot times are set 00:00 to 00:00 - but slot 1 is 23:25 to 23:30 - which is probably why I'm having to make the second change. So exactly as you describe - it effectively accidentally becomes a timed reserve level. I'll have a test now and see what happens.

RobertSw Attached are my current registers. [Note that the timed charge / discharge are "disabled"]

Yeah. I will prove on mine in a second - set DC dishcarge 1 start and end times both to midhight and I can't see from your PDF, but mine has an associated Lower SOC limit on each slot

Mouton I'll have a test now and see what happens.

OK - so once I had set the discharge 1 slot times to 00:00 and 00:00 - I no longer needed to set anything other than Battery Power Reserve % to maintain a charge level.

So as @DD says even though slot 1 is disabled, if it has times that are current it could make for a hidden timed reserve level (depending on that slots target SOC setting) that most folk would think was inactive.

RobertSw If you haven't done it already, I would try that "Restart Inverter" button.

Thanks - I've been tempted, but I've not seen any GivEnergy documentation on what it does?

And in their battery troubleshooting guide (https://givenergy2025.zohodesk.eu/portal/en/kb/articles/givenergy-battery-troubleshooting-guide ) it suggest restarting the system: Turn off the DC (for solar) and AC isolators to restart the inverter; then restart the battery using the button on the side.

You can also restart the inverter via the cloud portal if you would prefer a first party solution. I imagine that it uses the same method as the Rubikscube app but it was made by GivEnergy themselves.
It might help clear out any wierd state from memory.

Thanks All, So:

• I reset to defaults
• Restarted the inverter (via portal)
• Shut-down and then started-up the whole system
• Confirmed with the remote access logs that there have been no external commands on the system

None of the actions solved the problem, best illustrated by the attached:
Battery never discharges unless there is timed event to force it. Battery only charges with solar or a timed charge event. If battery reaches 100% then it stays at this level (powered by the grid).

I have now escalated this to GivEnergy as I've tried everthing

Robert

RobertSw It looks like you have "Inverter max active output power percent" set to zero. It should be 100.

Rubikcube "Inverter max active output power percent" set to zero. It should be 100.

Good spot @Rubikcube I walked straight past that

Thanks Rubikcube - I didn't see that.

While that now allows me to run a timed discharge of the battery, it sadly hasn't solved the bigger problem that the "Eco" mode is not working:

• Battery never discharges unless there is timed event to force it
• Battery only charges with solar or a timed charge event.
• Once the battery stops being timed discharged or charged, it stays at that % (powered by the grid)

Thanks for everyone's suggestions

Another possibility - one that happened to me - calibration was stuck in state 6. Here charge and discharge worked but ECO didn't. I used the Rubikcube app to check the calibration state and to reset it (paid for option).

RobertSw one way forward is to use modbus to get a complete register dump. Perhaps someone with the same kit can compare/contrast to spot something weird. I can offer a standalone python script to do it. Might be possible with givTCP - does that require a whole home assistant setup?

Thanks Windy and DD

• I'm not aware of the Rubikcube app - could you send me a link please or details of where I can obtain it. Very happy to pay for a reset if that is the problem
• DD - My level of technical competence is not high and would need help. [I don't have home assistant]

On Android device
Go to play store
Search for Android Inverter Monitor

Thanks. I've connected via the DirectDongle... and my battery is in calibration stage 6 (as per Windy)

What do I need to now?

RobertSw Battery only charges with solar or a timed charge event.

I am probably missing something, but how/when else are you expecting the battery to charge?

I had a similar problem after accidentally restarting my inverter. It turned out to be a corrupted charge slot register that only showed when I forced a read. https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/6298-inverter-doesnt-work-after-restart

Hi pwdst - charging is fine. The problem is that the battery doesn't charge the home

RobertSw What do I need to now?

Have a look on this thread - https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/6293-calibration-stuck/2

Quoting @Rubikcube "If you have the premium version of my app, you can just go into controls and press STOP CALIBRATION. This option only appears when a calibration is in progress (i.e. stage not zero).

Random unscheduled calibrations are a known issue with older kit. The problem seems to have been fixed on the newer products."

Problem solved! Calibration stopped and my system is back to functioning as expected.

Big, big thanks to everyone. I've really appreciated all the support you've given. This community is great!

RobertSw I am very pleased that your issue is resolved. I just wanted to help you with common terms that will make future discussion easier, you don't "charge" your home. To "charge" something infers that it can be "discharged" at some future point in time.
If it helps you can think of it like adding some commodity or material to a store room or warehouse, it is there for you later when you need it. In our metaphor removal of that item for use is called discharging.
You charge a battery by adding energy which can then be used at some later point in time. Some people refer to charging hot water tanks with heat which can then be drawn on later on when you want a bath or a shower.
It isn't possible to charge a house since it has no way of storing that energy for later use. The batteries discharge to meet the instantaneous needs of the property and everything electrical in it.

You charge your batteries from solar or cheap grid energy to make use of that energy at another time.

You discharge your batteries when there isn't enough solar generation or the grid is more expensive.