Hi all,
Just had 2 x 9.5kw batteries for around a week and a half.
I noticed today the battery was charging from solar and it suddenly jumped 20% or so from 80% full to 100% full - obviously this isn't possible, can anyone tell me what's happening here?
alphabeta77 see the very lengthy thread here
Put the kettle on and welcome to the bug club!
Good lord - by the number of posts, this sounds like Givenergy have some rapid fixes and explaining to their customers..... does sound like a bit of a mess....
This is obviously also costing a lot of money in the current climate, so they do need to get a grip quickly of their own software......
Thanks for heads up
alphabeta77 it is getting to the point where it needs a benefit concert to raise awareness, but then Bob Geldoff would want to join in & we'd also have to no doubt suffer some U2 music aswell so I'd rather just take the unpredictable SOC in all honesty...
Heheh! Indeed, I do think this looks like it's starting to spill out and damage Givenergy permanently though - can see posts in other forums across the web starting to kick off about GE (more the lack of any communication/status update than actual progress)
Do we know if this is actually impairing performance or just reporting? (ie am I missing out on 20% of the capacity or is it just misreporting the numbers?)
alphabeta77 beleive it or not despite my moaning it doesnt affect mine as its ancient and somehow escapes whatever it is that causes it.
I beleive you do suffer loss of capacity but in a software way. For example, had you actually discharged yours just before the jump, you would have got down to the 4% limit and the inverter would stop (thinking it was empty) howver youd really have another 20% in the battery.
This bug works both ways so it can also lie on the way down such that it thinks it has 40% left and it actually has 0. This is much worse as you think you've got loads and then suddenly you dont.
hoggy Agree, but ... the actual capacity hasn't been lost forever; it's just the BMS getting confused and doing what it thinks is the right thing. A calibration does (recalibrate it) put it back on an even keel but only for so long.
Our batteries charge fully every day (currently) and discharge to 50-60% overnight before PV starts to charge again. I haven't actually picked over the details yet but suspect that the voltage at which it reaches 100% will be dropping slightly each day.
When I'm back home in micro-manage mode, I think I'll be stopping charge on one battery each few days to allow it to discharge fully, then charge up again next day; leave things for a couple of days then discharge the other battery and monitor battery cell voltages to see if that has any discernible affect on capacity. We have had two sudden drops since the installation in January but wonder if that's simply because ours don't discharge very much below "60%" each day.
This is worrying, as we were just looking to put a GE system in after being shafted by a previous installer.
How frequent is this?
kram There are several threads regarding this issue. Some people are quite troubled by it, others not. My take is that the people who are affected by it and know (there will be some blissfully unaware) are (justifiably) vocal about it. Others (like me) have only experienced it once or twice since January with over 8MWh generated and nearly 2MWh through the batteries, in my case. There will also be people who either haven't noticed, or it just hasn't happened to them. We don't hear much from the blissfully satisfied on the issue.
^^^ Very much this
My system has generated 4.5MWh since Feb this year with 3.2MWh going through the batteries. I've had a couple of discharges in that time, and none since upgrading to 3007 firmware (probably jinxed it now though!!!).
Happy customers tell maybe 1 or 2 people. Unhappy customers tell 100.
I'm not making light of those that have this problem...it must be massively annoying and upsetting after paying ÂŁthousands. At the same time, forums do not give a balanced view, so you need to be careful making decisions. No matter what the product is if you go on a forum for that product it will have reports of people having a bad time. No manmade product is perfect.
Sounds like GE need to pull their finger out on support then rather than it being a major and common fault.
Have they got a ticketing system so your issues can be tracked or is it just a case of call/email and hope?
They use a ticketing system for fault/customer service calls, but it's internal.
The conclusion that I've come to is that this issue only occurs with repeated partial charge/discharge cycles.
To be fair to GE, I've seen the same issue with a Fluke fibre and network tester that cost more than my entire Solar PV and battery installation for something that fit into a small shoulder bag. đ
I would suggest that GE need to externalise their ticket system, such that customers can monitor progress on the ticket.
That would probably remove about 50% of the heat, as a customer could see when things are being updated/worked on.
Of course faults happen, but it's how it is dealt with that's the issue.
Give a person with a faulty 5.2 a brand new working 9.5 and they're happy.
Make them wait months with no fix, they are very much not happy.
For me this is a key feature that should work. They should be focusing all efforts on fixing it, not trying to release smart plugs!
This does matter - mine has just jumped from normal charge pattern from 4% overnight to 53% to 100% for no reason. We fully discharge overnight every night, Tried a power cycle on the battery but no difference. We are now dumping energy to the grid we should be storing...
nythbran is there a chance your firmware has recently been updated and the battery is going through a calibration? Whether or not, it would be helpful to have an entry in the portal notifications or logs as to why this is happening. Simply an entry saying âbattery calibration commencedâ or âtimed discharge commencedâ would give end users a clue.
Like this??
https://portal.givenergy.cloud/feedback/create
I imagine so, but as I don't have a login...
I asked if they had a customer ticket system where you could see progress and was told they had an internal ticket system.
If they have an external ticket system, that actually gets updated and the customer can track progress then that's good.
If it's just a form that goes onto an internal ticket system and you can't see the current ticket details and what team is assigned etc, then that's bad.