We had a solar and battery installation a couple of weeks ago. It’s been working fine until 24-36 hours ago. The inverter is a GIV-HY5.0 with a Gen2 GivEnergy 9.5kWh LiFePO4 battery.
We went away for a night and when I checked the app in the morning away from home it seemed the panels were generating a very small amount of energy (less than 100W) with no connection to the grid. It looked like the battery and panels were powering our home needs only (less than 100W) - the attached shows what it looks like today.
When I returned home, I checked the inverter and the lights are flashing and it’s making a clicking sound like it’s trying to connect to something. Overnight, the battery hasn’t drained at all (still on 100%) so I can conclude we’re now getting power from the grid instead of the solar and battery.
I’ll be calling my installer tomorrow (it’s Sunday today) but is there anything I could or should do now? I’m quite frustrated but at least we have power.
My battery is an older generation than yours. It has rarely misbehaved.
I’ve found that pressing and holding its black reset button on the RH side, release it and wait a few seconds before going it a short press can get it back in working order. I’ve no idea how similar you battery may be.
For me the few issues I had with the inverter and the batteries were fixed via the firmware ( and I have the same setup as you but with 2 x 9.5 batteries )
Just email the help desk and they will push out the latest firmware
or - at the very least via the Webportal do a “Restart inverter” ?
Ring our support desk or email them at support@givenergy.co.uk you have a notification showing relay fault.
That’s always the best place to go with system issues not the beta Forum they are always willing to help and call wait times were below 3 min last time I looked
Did you have any updates on this? My system is having exactly the same issue - givenergy support said to contact the installer, and I’m now waiting on them to send an electrician. But knowing what (if anything) fixed yours would really help!
The issue still happens every 8-9 days. Restarting the inverter sorts it. My installer has advised I contact Givenergy, which I’ll do when it happens again in office hours (so I can describe what’s happening).
I’m planning on calling when it happens again so I can describe it as seen. (I did email the first time it happened but never had a reply and my installer temporarily sorted it that time by showing me how to restart the inverter).
Ah - Be warned, I had the opposite happen - I called GivEnergy whilst it was happening, and they said “Huh, contact your installer and we’ll speak to them when they’re on-site”. They then had me isolate the whole system. Then, when the electrician turned up, it powered on all fine, with no sign of the issue, thus nothing for them to fix!
I’m having the same issue too. Been happening for months. Been keeping records since Jan, but was happening before that. Get same symptoms as you, every 9 days or so: Clicking relay, and inverter not working as it should until I perform a restart from the app/portal. Then works perfectly for another 9 days or so!
Been keeping up to date with firmware updates, but happens with each version.
Didn’t get much luck with the tech support for ages, but have got hold of somebody that’s taking the problem more seriously now at least. I’ll let you know if I get a solution, but no fix yet.
Please let me know if you get to the root of it.
The support is going less well than I was hoping for. They’re now blaming a loose connection in the installation, despite me providing evidence that the issue arises reliably every 9 days since the start of the year.
It’s clear to me that such a drumbeat in the fault frequency is not a loose connection, that becomes loose every nine days. Much more likely it’s something within the inverter. Especially since the fault only persists until I perform a restart.
Looks like it will be a long process to get to the bottom of this
Commissioned 16th May, Heat pump installed 16th August, both by Octopus
This has happened to me on:
21st Aug, 10th Sept, 2x 11th Sept
What happens…Same as above, the inverter seems to loose grid awareness. Once in this state, it charges the battery from the solar, then the battery idles and the solar output ramps right down. The GivEnergy app says my house load is around 13w and grid sticks at ‘0’. I can see from my Octopus app & octopus mini which gives live readings, that my house load is being covered by the grid.
The difference with my fault is that there’s a fuse tripping out in the new fuse box installed by Octopus which feeds all the PV kit. When I flip this fuse back up, the inverter starts clicking away for a few minutes and then settles back into normal operation.
At least three of these events coincided with the start of a high demand - 2 were when I used the kettle, one was when I had scheduled a battery charge from the grid.
Both Octopus and GivEnergy suspect that the heat pump install may have knocked something as all was fine until 5 days after that was completed. I’m not sure though.
The fault is causing a fuse to trip in my case, which is saving me doing a full power cycle, but otherwise it sounds possible we have the same gremlin. What do you folks reckon, thing we have a similar thing going on?
Tripping on high loads could be down to a poorly terminated breaker or a faulty breaker
Not sure how common that is with AIO and gateway as I think the breakers are on bus bars rather than wired in.
But certainly with the AC3 and hybrid models seen a few engineers wire up the breaker and get some of the outer cover caught in the connection causing a poor electrical connection.
Whilst I guess that’s unlikely with these models, I guess a faulty breaker could still be a possibility.
