GivEnergy new install - how do I stop grid export?

eidand

Hello,

I have this new solar system installation, Givenergy and it seems to be sending to the grid all the time.

The battery is 60% charged for example, right now, and it's still sending to the grid.

I don't have a tariff of any kind yet so I am not making any money, I am just sending free stuff to the grid.
Is there any way I can stop this?
I can't see any option in the app to tell it to stop doing this.

70sbudgie

I don't have a battery, so hopefully someone with experience of GivEnergy systems will respond.

In the meantime, is there anything in the settings about priorities? If so, it sounds like you want export to grid to be the lowest priority.

I have also read on these boards about capacity indication issues (it says it's full when not, or empty when half full etc) with some batteries, but I can't remember if they were GivEnergy ones.

eidand

no, there is no way that I can see to do that

propnut

All battery systems work on a cause & effect basis (ebb & flow). During the course of the day you will see them often exporting and importing. It takes the system a few seconds to respond to halt the relevant action. You might be looking at it thinking it is exporting 600w for example but that is momentary, look a few seconds later and that will have stopped. No way to prevent this. However if you really want to limit your export you can always install an energy diverter that redirects any export to heat your hot water tank. I have 13KW of battery storage, a Myenergi EDDI diverter AND another 8KW of self build lead acid storage that I built when I had and initial self build off grid system. My panels charge the grid coupled batteries first, excess is then sent to the hot water tank and anything left over is send to the lead acids. I have a 10kw 24v to 240v off grid inverter that I then use to pull power from the lead acid to run my garage tools, vacuum cleaner, lawnmower etc.

eidand

propnut said:

All battery systems work on a cause & effect basis (ebb & flow). During the course of the day you will see them often exporting and importing. It takes the system a few seconds to respond to halt the relevant action. You might be looking at it thinking it is exporting 600w for example but that is momentary, look a few seconds later and that will have stopped. No way to prevent this. However if you really want to limit your export you can always install an energy diverter that redirects any export to heat your hot water tank. I have 13KW of battery storage, a Myenergi EDDI diverter AND another 8KW of self build lead acid storage that I built when I had and initial self build off grid system. My panels charge the grid coupled batteries first, excess is then sent to the hot water tank and anything left over is send to the lead acids. I have a 10kw 24v to 240v off grid inverter that I then use to pull power from the lead acid to run my garage tools, vacuum cleaner, lawnmower etc.

thank you, does this Myenergi EDDI diverter work with the GivEnergy system ?

propnut

eidand said:

thank you, does this Myenergi EDDI diverter work with the GivEnergy system ?

It should work with any PV system. It has a CT clamp that connects to the live of your incoming household supply which it uses to monitor power coming in and more importantly going out. As soon as it detects outgoing it rediverts that to the hot water. To prevent a race situation between the battery storage and this device you set a threshold e.g.200w and a delay say 5 secs to allow the battery a chance to react first. These two parameters need a bit of fine tuning for each system but once done you just forget about it and let it do it's job. If you don't fancy paying £500 then there is a much cheaper one on Aliexpress for £124 and it does the job just fine it just doesn't have all the features that the Eddi has.

eidand

propnut said:

eidand said:

thank you, does this Myenergi EDDI diverter work with the GivEnergy system ?

It should work with any PV system. It has a CT clamp that connects to the live of your incoming household supply which it uses to monitor power coming in and more importantly going out. As soon as it detects outgoing it rediverts that to the hot water. To prevent a race situation between the battery storage and this device you set a threshold e.g.200w and a delay say 5 secs to allow the battery a chance to react first. These two parameters need a bit of fine tuning for each system but once done you just forget about it and let it do it's job. If you don't fancy paying £500 then there is a much cheaper one on Aliexpress for £124 and it does the job just fine it just doesn't have all the features that the Eddi has.

thank you, I'll get one of those!

ispookie666

@eidand
Probably best to provide some more information 
1. Size of installation 
2. Hybrid or AC coupled inverter 
3. Firmware 

Do you have home assistant 

Can I suggest you take a picture of the export screen of the smart meter, so that you can claim for every KWh when you setup SEG. 

eidand

ispookie666 said:

@eidand
Probably best to provide some more information 
1. Size of installation 
2. Hybrid or AC coupled inverter 
3. Firmware 

Do you have home assistant 

Can I suggest you take a picture of the export screen of the smart meter, so that you can claim for every KWh when you setup SEG. 

ok,, here are some details : 

12x Trina Vertex S 415W All Black Panel solar panel
GivEnergy 5kW Hybrid inverter
G2 GivEnergy 5.2kWh LiFePO4 Battery

Inverter Firmware Version : D0.450-A0.451

Battery Firmware Version : 3009

thank you the suggestion, I will

ispookie666

You will notice that the Givenergy inverter is 5000VA (with a oeak of 7.5KWp) but your battery is what is causing the problem. It can only charge at a max of 60A which is at best 3600W. 
The rest of the power will be going to your house and any surplus will go to the grid. 
Also, givenergy inverters are not the quickest to respond to changing sun/cloud cover - more like dinosaurs!