System seems to be prioritising export over battery charge

Good afternoon, I have spoken to my installer a few times on this issue and he can't work it out, he's tried doing a system reset, but he can't workout why it's doing what it's doing!

We have 12 solar panels and batteries that give us off grid capabilities if we get a power outage, enabling us to be a community hub on a small island.

We had the system installed last year and all of a sudden in September, without me altering any settings, the system started sending electricity to the grid over charging the battery, I had little understanding of the set up at that time and it prioritised the grid to the point that in December, the battery actually died and the installer had to take them away and recharge. We have since set a battery minimum so that shouldn't happen again! The installer came back in January and when I asked why we weren't producing, was told that it's because there was no sun in January! So in Feb I went back to him on a Sunny day and said - hey - we still aren't producing and we discovered a trip in the system so it was actually off! Since then I've been monitoring daily and every single day, the system is prioritising the grid! Today is beautiful sunshine but the battery is idle at 52% and the system is exporting to the grid!

(I have changed the system to prioritise battery over load and grid, but it won't do it and the installer has had no luck either, and now he's said he's moving away from GivEnergy and shutting down his solar installing company, but we can still contact him through his electrician company!) Any tips, has anyone experienced this issue?

You dont say what kit you have, what firmware versions you are on and what tariff.
When you change settings, are you doing it in the portal remote control tab and then checking the settings have been changed and saved.
What was the trip. Have you got an EM115 meter and is that glowing showing it is powered. the inverter needs readings from that, so it can decide what to do

ShapinsayDT There's been a couple of threads recently reporting battery idle. Eg https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/6702-givenergy-battery-is-idle

Is the solar export the only synptom? Does the battery discharge normally to cover consumption when the panels aren't generating ? Does the app / portal show an accurate reflection of consumption ?

We don't have a tariff for feeding back to the grid, so it's lost energy if it's feeding into the grid as far as I'm aware!

I am not really very savvy on what system etc we have but the firmware version is D0.616-A0.616 and A0.013 on the gateway. The system says it's an "All-in-One".

As far as I'm aware the prioritising of the grid over battery is the only issue now. I think the trip was when the electrician was over and he had it all turned off as they were trying to find an earth leak that seems to be unrelated, they said it was a trip, but fair chance it was a failure to turn back on again!

The portal seems to show accurate consumption. Right now it is showing as producing 3.66kWh (9.2kWh today so far), it's exported 3.39kWh and we are consuming 181W and although the battery says it's idle and there's no charge on the app, the portal says it has charged 4.10 kWh and we've imported 7.8 0kWh.

ShapinsayDT Hi - I have an All In One - what are the settings on the remote control page (goto the inverter card on the web portal then choose remote control).

In the General section you can choose what you wish the AIO to prioritise first

I wonder if it is set to Grid First?

CW
Pretty certain that selection makes not difference. The inverter has no way of knowing where the power goes re grid/load after it's 'left' the inverter.

It was set to LOAD first, I changed it last week to "BATTERY" first, but it's made no difference

wrighar I've certainly found it to have no effect with my hybrid inverter. But while I agree that 'grid first' cannot prevent the 'load' from taking the first bite, I have always assumed that

• 'load first' means generate just enough AC to cover the load, then prioritise battery. ie eco mode.
• 'battery first' is obvious - only generate AC if the battery is full or power exceeds charging power.
• 'grid first' means send as much as possible to AC (which is both load and grid).

ShapinsayDT So the battery does cover consumption in the evening. Do you charge the battery from the grid overnight? I assume you do, since otherwise the battery would run down in the morning/evening without ever getting recharged.

One possible option is that you have a timed pause configured to inhibit battery charging during daytime for some reason.

You could perhaps post a screenshot of the 'remote control' page on the portal (from the inverter view, the gears icon in the top right). Someone might spot an unusual setting.

Get homeassistant and get a script setup so not only will never happen again

but if your on agile you could add a 2p buffer like export is 12p only use grid at 14p charge at cheaper times etc

If you need a script i can share the one i made for a friend with a nice match dashboard card that tells you everything that happens in real time