My first post here, and done reluctantly as I’m totally ignorant about all this so will probably say something stupid. Bear with me!
I have a GivAC3.0 inverter, 9.5kWh Giv-Bat and a manual EPS changeover switch. When we had a daytime power cut recently (quite common in this rural area with overhead local power lines) I operated the changeover and power was restored for about 1-2 seconds only. The battery charge indicator was showing full. This happens every time I’ve tried it recently, though I seem to remember it used to work a few years ago, probably before I switched tariff. I checked there were no high-load appliances switched on, only fridges and freezers and maybe a few LED lights.
I’m on IOF, so I wonder if it’s just a case of Octopus controlling my system and the EPS is now redundant?
I’ve asked the installer and he’s promised several times to take a look but hasn’t so far turned up.
GivEnergy are a nightmare as you no doubt have found out
We too had months of disruption having changed Internet provider.
After no help from GivEnergy apart from crazy online instructions that were not only unintelligible even to Computer Engineer and Solar Engineer, let alone a normal customer so you are not alone in this.
You mention Octopus Energy. Did they install the system. (Note: They no longer use GivEnergy. That should tell you something).
If Octopus installed the whole system, they are great at resolving the problem and they sent out an engineer to sort the problem out and it took him 2 visits to do.
Octopus also said that if we were to change our internet supplier again, that they would arrange to reconnect to our GivEnergy system again.
Octopus Energy were our saviour.
Octopus Energy didn’t install my system, it was a local supplier who lives just up my street. Although he advertises repairs and maintenance, obviously new installations are more profitable and take up most of his time.
Having spoken to him about it, the reason for the EPS not working isn’t obvious to him. I just wondered if anyone in this community had any ideas.
Sad that it was not Octopus, they really are good.
It is poor of your installer to just leave you in the lurch.
There are private companies that offer help in this regard but, of course,they are expensive and I found hard to find. ( found one who I wanted as back up if I could not get to the bottom of this. I was fortunate that I did not have to go this route.
The problem really is with GivEnergy who have made it so difficult that even experts have trouble.
I do not fully understand what has to be done, I believe that it is to do with getting the “dongle” or internet connector on the inverter to talk with your home internet / hub.
I believe the engineer that came out from Octopus had to get codes from GivEnergy to allow him to do that. (I took him hours to get to the bottom of it).
Terrible situation caused by GivEnergy. (Who by the way now want £4,99 per month to use their desktop etc. and that was originally free!)
Reluctantly, I pay because I am held to ransom by GivEnergy
I wish you luck for this promised service!)
I suspect my situation may be different from yours. I can’t see why a connection with my home network would be necessary, it’s just a simple mechanical changeover switch to activate the EPS when there’s a power cut.
I see.
As you say it is a different problem. (Same supplier GivEnergy who is useless and poor installer who is disinterested).
Only suggestion remains to contact an expert and get them to rectify.
I feel for you.
Good Luck.
I cannot understand why you were slated.
GivEnergy has made this mess and are now getting paid again for the service that was free. Worse than that is that they do not provide any help for the people who invested in GivEnergy’s equipment, either directly or indirectly.
They said that they were improving their Customer Care on the back of this but that has not happened either leaving Customers unable to sort out what should be minor glitches to keep their systems viable.
When I heard from one of the staff of my installer that givenergy had changed tactics.
I asked why hadn’t the installer sent letters out on how we would be supported. He said they might come up with a plan if anything goes wrong!
Great warranty, not sure it’s worth much!
I would ask Octopus about this. As they are controlling you inverter and batteries their settings may be stopping your batteries from discharging to cover the house load when there is a power cut.
You did not mention if you have PV panels feeding the battery as well. If the battery is fully charged and the PV panels are producing at peak, their production has nowhere to go if the battery is full and the grid is down. It will cause a moment of over-current and it will disable your ability to have the battery support the home. We had a similar problem but with a 13.5kW AIO. We ended up having to isolate the PV circuit from the battery so that it wouldn’t feed the battery when the grid went down.
Interesting idea. I do have PV panels, so I wonder if that’s what happened?
I suppose it’s easy to check by switching over to EPS when the battery isn’t full.
GivEnergy parent company went into administration. There is a small group of ex-GE technical staff that are keeping the app and software running which is why it is now under subscription, how else do they cover the overheads they have.
If you sign up to Axel then the subscription is free. Seems okay to me, would have been better if GE hadn’t gone into administration but lots of companies fail.
I recently had fantastic technical support, it cost me £40, without the fault finding and support my system would be sitting idle and unused but with their help I’m up and running.
No point in anyone bleating about GE, they are gone, nobody is listening.
Hi
I’ve had the same EPS setup since 2022. Your post triggered me into checking if mine still works as I haven’t tested it for ages.
I’ve been on IOG for a few years so nothing else has changed and it worked as expected.
Don’t know if that helps but good luck sorting it
My only thought is that IF the house load is too great for the system, then it would shut down to protect itself. You could try and remove all large loads (make sure heaters, immersion, oven, hob, washing machine, car charger, etc) are all turned off before trying the changeover switch.
As I said, I made sure all large loads were turned off when operating the EPS switch.
The installer finally turned up yesterday to have a look. He couldn’t see anything obviously wrong and we couldn’t try to replicate the fault by turning the mains power off because there’s no switch - it would have meant removing the main fuse, which is sealed.
As an installer, he has deeper access into the GivEnergy software and he found a battery output control had somehow been reset to 190W. On the face of it, this would explain the EPS problem, but how come Octopus are able to empty the battery every day?
Anyway, he reverted the system to factory settings, so we’ll see what happens next time there’s a power cut.