Problems with data transfer to givenergy

Hello. We had solar panels installed at end of May 2022 and were advised to add givenergy to the package to provide us with daily, weekly, monthly reports of usage. Unfortunately we keep losing connection to givenergy and spend long periods of time with no information about generation and usage of power from the panels. It appears the problem is that our broadband provider has default signal of 5 ghz but givenergy can only receive information via signal of 2.4ghz. We have to keep enabling 2.4ghz on our home broadband but it is less stable than the 5ghz signal so we might get it up and running but then lose it again a few days later. Our solar panel supplier have been out to help us on a couple of occasions but I have not been able to make contact with givenergy directly by phone. Is there any chance that givenergy will move to a 5ghz signal anytime in the near future?

Probably not a chance. Either the settings aren't being permanently saved in the access point of your broadband router or the broadband company is reconfiguring the router regularly.

Best option is to communicate with teh broadband company's support people and work out why you can't keep the 2.4gHz band operational.

lane These are a couple of threads that you may have missed regarding the wifi.

https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/482-dongle-connection/21
https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/49-mesh-wifi-and-dongle/20

I'm guessing that your Internet Service Provider (ISP) keeps updating your router which disables the 2.4GHz band or that band is set to off when it is power cycled. There are a couple of potential solutions depending on how techie you are. The easiest and simplest solution is to contact your ISP and tell them that you have essential kit on the 2.4GHz bandwidth and ask them to set the router so that the 2.4GHz band is is enabled by default after a reboot or upgrade. Hopefully, this is just a setting that you may be able to enable yourself anyway.

If the ISP can't or won't enable the band by default, then you could ask them to send you a 2.4GHz Access Point to plug into your router so that it will always work even when the router is power cycled or updated.

If they still don't provide a solution, you could use an old router (or buy one from eBay) as an Access Point (AP). The AP would have to be configured manually to have an IP address on the same subnet as your ISP's router and you could set a new wifi password and SSID (eg OurHouse24GHz); probably best to disable the 5GHz band and just enable the 2.4GHz band.

The Givenergy wifi dongles use the 2.4GHz bandwidth because, while it isn't as fast as the 5GHz bandwidth, the signal is more penetrating and can pass through walls and other obstacles much more reliably. They have been listening though and the newer kit has wired ethernet as standard. It's not as convenient as using wifi but when you're running Modbus communications and mains power cables to the inverter, then adding an ethernet cable is a pretty trivial extra task but introduces much better reliability.

Thanks Tim - I will look at the threads and will share your comments with our solar panel supplier. The ethernet cable idea is interesting. Despite having a very strong wifi signal in most of our house on both 2.4ghz and 5ghz - where I work, I have to use an ethernet cable to get any signal and I am in very close proximity to the givenergy dongle so suspect that the signal just isn't getting through to that area either on a regular enough basis!

lane It's the Internet Service Provider (BT, Sky TalkTalk etc) who should be able to sort the router.

One of those threads (I think) discusses "noisy neighbours" and overlapping channels. You can download a wifi spectrum analyser to run on a laptop or phone to see which Access Points are using which channels. If you do have interference from outside, (ie one or more wifi routers on the same channels as yours), you could manually move your router to a different channel. If all routers are set to auto, they're supposed to work out the best way to share.