Dying Inverter?

Got an old Gen1 3.6 Hybrid inverter (installed by Eon) - this afternoon it has started what looks like a reboot / reconenct cycle. Obviously there's no support from Giv, wondering if anyone else can make any suggestions (Have powered off / rebooted etc).

Getting obvious clicking (Relay) noises, and the status blinking in Green, (No Red) - its doing this frequently, has been since about 2pm, like its stuck in a loop. Batteries all showing good, I did see a status in the portal of "waiting" (what it was waiting for, i don't know) but that was about it.

Status like this - jumping between Normal and Waiting.

Solar panels are clear, sun definately shining on them all afternoon

You say you have tried powering off and on etc., but one specific thing you can try is to switch off the batteries themselves via the switch on the side of the battery (it will depend on what battery you have), then switch off the inverter and on again, then switch the batteries on once the inverter is up and running.

The other thought is that EON have said they will continue to support their GE installations despite what has happened at GE so it is worth giving them a call.

Yeah, turning everything off doesn't seem to make any difference.

Looks like i'm missing out on the good weather this weekend, and giving Eon a call on Monday.

Your grid voltage although not out of spec is getting near it. You might find it's the grid voltage triggering the inverter to back off/reboot and then repeating the cycle (exports push voltage up)
If it stops doing it as the afternoon goes on i'd maybe be inclined to think it is that.

The data doesn't show any values above 253V but it only shows snapshots

hoggy Interesting, haven't seen it as prolonged as this before but have seen odd points where it wasn't using solar when I believed it should - maybe that is the case then... could be possible there's too much solar in the area? Though rather annoying I can't use my own solar when it trips off.

Inverter voltage is 252.xV to 253V, isn't that the cut out point?

hoggy Looks like you might be right, its held now for 30 minutes, exporting as I'd have expected. Very odd.

I've checked back over the last few days, every time it sees a voltage of 250.1 it goes 'waiting'. Not enough to be really noticable on the graphs, where today it basically refused from 2pm through to 5pm

This voltage increase is even showing a few days ago at 4am - something must be going on on the grid locally then thats raised the voltage (Lytham St Annes if that has any bearing)

wrighar it's supposed to be higher as the inverters are allowed a bit extra according to G98/99 rules but Giv kit does seem to stick to a slightly lower target.

So yep, we've dropped out twice more since 5, but been much more stable - looks like for whatever reason locally the grid is running top end then.

Looks like we've seen "lows" of 247V, and highs of 251V today - thats much more consistent, and higher than i've seen it before.

Thanks @hoggy for the pointer, panic over, inverter (probably) not dying.

It might be worth a phone call/email to the DNO to see if the local substation needs a tap change.

I noticed our main voltage went over 250V this afternoon. I have never seen it that high before.

Even after the sun has gone, we're still seeing spikes over 250V, message sent to ELNW to see if there's a localised problem.

The high voltages might be an indication of anything dumping charge to the grid. In the day this might be solar but at night it could be batteries or wind farms. You could buy a voltage monitor and log the voltage. Some smart switches can do this. This would be independent of the GE measurements and perhaps show a pattern. With that evidence you can ask the DNO to investigate. Or you can ask the DNO anyway and take their word for it.

I regularly saw 257v a couple of summers ago and asked them to investigate. They measured nominal 248v and wouldn't change anything. Then last Autumn I noticed our nominal drop to 240v so I think they did do something. Not had an overvoltage trip since.

This chart comes from my Emporia smart switch. (£9.50 from Amazon)

PS I think the voltage limits were changed in later firmware as originally I regularly saw trips on high solar days. These became less frequent after one of the firmware updates.

When I reported seeing over 253V routinely to the DNO (UK power networks) they were here in just over an hour (happened to be in the area). The GE kit was measuring 4V higher than the actual figure at the meter. Never the less they put in a monitor at the substation and three months later turned the tap down. Now seeing 239V consistently even on sunny days.

Shelly branded smart plugs cost just under £20 and record the voltage - I find them useful for recording power usage as well as simply controlling things in places that are less accessible, or automating control of something with Home Assistant.

Interesting, might do that - its dropped out twice today during the peak of the sun, again, not 'high' as such (249 today).

I had a reply from the DNO, they said "its under 253, thus okay"

nophead I noticed our main voltage went over 250V this afternoon. I have never seen it that high before

It’s worth keeping an eye on grid voltage because if its above 253V for a period of time (90 seconds?) the inverter will shutoff generation.

Mine is consistently above 253V when its sunny, usually around 258V, but its not just solar pushing it up, at 4:30am this morning it hit 257V

My DNO responded pretty quickly to the initial report (in February) but then several weeks delay waiting for them to fit a voltage monitor with me chasing periodically, only to the be told that they don’t need to fit a monitor as they can see from my smart meter that the voltage is consistently above limit.

They’ve planned some remedial work involving recabling myself and 5 other houses to the transformer. Currently getting landowner consents for the dig. Meanwhile solar generation is very interrupted by the inverters shutting off repeatedly

Probably need to get the finer grained logging going then, cos the average on the portal only shows every 5 minutes - and 250.?V - so only just pushing over 250. They did respond to me over the weekend saying "its under 253V so okay" - not sure what the threshold of the inverter is to match that (Gen 1 Hy 3.6)

Looks like the problem has kicked off again since the weather has improved again, I've seen the odd 'waiting' but now we're seeing it for hours on end, again, 250.?V

Electricity NW won't do anything, because 250V is under the top margin of 253V, so I guess while the weather is nice, I'm stuck importing power i don't need to.

Yup, still seeing it happen a lot - today its been doing it and the voltage has been showing as 248V but 49.8hz - kinda frustrating that we've got this solar being generated, but can't use it - and in fact, are paying for import at the most expensive points of the day when its tripping out.

@TimI Have you tried going back to EON ? After all they chose to install that kit and at the moment it isn't fit for purpose if DNO are saying the grid is within tolerance which your inverter should be able to deal with.

Nope, can't say I have - will do so next week when I can get through to them. (office hours) - just figured i'd update the ticket as it had been improving (looke dlike) but not right now.

Put a voltage optimiser in, mine is set to 230v and I'm very happy that all my electronics get what they need and nothing more. If I want more all I have to do is move a wire.
No more worrying.

I think the general consensus is voltage optimisers are a scam.

I consider it piece of mind. I value my electronics, so setting the voltage to what works best ie 230v is great for me. I have had a single notification from my system since late 2024 when I had it set to 220v. Since upping it to 230v it's been trouble free and so far nothing in my house has broken.

Upto you of course.

They are not allowed to be installed upstream of your inverter only downstream of them.

hoggy mine is installed before the meter so any excess voltage goes back to the grid. Any idea why this is the wrong way to do it?

I’d say poor show on EON for installing a gen 1 device. Just dumping the oldest of their worthless excess stock.

Because the device is bidirectional - so when the grid incoming is up at say 250V your inverter sees (for sake of argument) 240V.
If your exporting then the inverter outputs 245V to push back > but as it goes back through the voltage optimiser what the grid gets (& your neighbour) is 255V and so on.

hoggy I see, i would believe my installer would not do anything to remedy this situation.

So, thinking about it, if my DNO is supplying 250v and my inverter is outputting 235v won't this bring the DNO voltage down by 7.5v?

The only issues I'm seeing, if they are issues, is that my voltage hangs around 228v and can then drop to 223v with high demand items around the house. It's a small property, so seeing this seems a bit weird.

This is what co-pilot says about voltage optimisers. And it also says they are not bi-directional (sorry hoggy). I know AI does get things wrong. Wondering whether AI is considering a domestic environment where I could see you only need to keep the voltage stable non grid side. I think my question was about a domestic environment.

Maxwell tbh I don't know exactly how they've installed it. It sits below the meter box as a way to make it difficult to hack. It could be wired so it's between the meter and consumer unit. I have 2 consumer units in this property, isolating the mains on the meter did not isolate the garage; which has it's own consumer unit. Flipping the switch on the optimiser disconnected the garage from the grid.

We've been down this road before and I'm not trying to be the electricity police - if it's already there then let it be - but the grid codes are quite clear that they shouldn't be used as a crutch to keep your inverter running when it shouldnt: https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/2467-safety-concerns-with-voltage-optimisers
If they are installed down stream from the inverter then all is well.

They are in essence a transformer in a box and thus whatever goes in one end comes out a factor of the input no matter which end your 'input' is (which is the other way around when your exporting)

Maxwell This inverter was installed back in August '23 - when there wasn't much stock availaiblity still due to Covid. Its done its dues for sure, was just hoping its not failing and I don't hve to start replacing it (and batteries)

TimI Notwithstanding GE's collapse and the loss of their warranty your installer (EoN) are still on point as your primary support here. And if your inverter does die they should replace it.

Maxwell Yep, indeed. I came here wondering if there was some obvious setting / cause / something to look at. The inverter when working, is fine, its just this odd behavour where it goes 'WAITING' - i'm assuming the grid around us is wobbling somehow - too much solar is entirely possible as there's a huge array on the local school and a lot of the old folks flats have had panels installed recently.