Solar install less then a month ago, battery between 0% and 4%

Alexin1970

Just going through the product spec and proposal . Yes, what they have fitted is below:

14 x PV panels

GivEnergy Giv-Bat 9.5 battery

GivEnergy AC Coupled Inverter

SolarHedge Home Wave Inverter

Power Optimizers ( for 14 PV Panels)

Solar iBoost for the Hot water.

I am going to upload a few pictures to another message shortly.

Alexin1970

matt_drummer said:

It is possible that your installer fitted micro inverters which is why you would have an AC coupled inverter for the battery.

What is actually installed, does the invoice detail what you have?

I haven't got an Invoice after a month, after the install and the second calibration they were supposed to mo9nitor the issue with the battery but I have had no respnse till I made contact with them 3 days ago.

Alexin1970

matt_drummer said:

I have a GivEnergy system.

Are you sure you have an AC coupled inverter?

If it was all installed with the solar panels then you would probably have a hybrid inverter.

AC coupled inverters are normally fitted if you already have solar panels with an inverter and add battery storage later.

What does the app or website show?

The app is clear and easy to understand showing the flow of electricity around your house.

It will show what you are generating from the solar panels, what the house is consuming, what is flowing to/from the battery and what is being imported/exported.

Post some pictures of your equipment is possible.

Post a screenshot from the GivEnergy app showing the electricity flows.

What they have installed is below:

14 x PV panels

GivEnergy Giv-Bat 9.5 battery

GivEnergy AC Coupled Inverter

SolarHedge Home Wave Inverter

Power Optimizers ( for 14 PV Panels)

Solar iBoost for the Hot water.

It is showing the Importing amount but the exporting amount is Zero.

I have attached some pictures.

matt_drummer

At that moment in time you were generating 322W, the house was using 2.83kW, 2.8kW was coming from the grid and 291W was going to your battery.

All good, you are generating electricity but not enough to satisfy your demand at that point in time.


What settings do you have for you battery

You should be on the eco setting.

Your battery will charge from solar generation that you are not consuming and power your house if there is sufficient charge in it up to about 3.5kW


If what you have shown here is typical then your battery will never get to a high state of charge and any charge it does have will be quickly used.


How much electricity do you generate and consume in a typical day in September?


What electricity tariff are you on?

You probably need to think about charging the battery when you have cheaper electricity available.

You would need to schedule a charge or control it manually.

matt_drummer

The small icons at the bottom of the screen take you to graphs and data about what has happened.

You will be able to see what you have generated and consumed and how much has gone to and from your battery each day.

If you use all you solar generation then your battery will never charge just from the solar panels.

matt_drummer

You have paid for two inverters when you could have had one hybrid inverter, did your installer give you a choice or explain why they did this?

Reed_Richards

matt_drummer said:

At that moment in time you were generating 322W, the house was using 2.83kW, 2.8kW was coming from the grid and 291W was going to your battery.

Your house was using quite a lot of electricity unless you were boiling a kettle or cooking something.  One possibility is that a sensor is not reading correctly.  Can you try again when your house is not supposed to be using much electricity, no cooking, or heating or electric showers in progress.

Alexin1970

matt_drummer said:

You have paid for two inverters when you could have had one hybrid inverter, did your installer give you a choice or explain why they did this?

The Installation company recommended in the proposal installing the SolarEdge inverters and optimazers as well as we do have a few big trees at the back which is South facing, so yes full aware of that and didn't have much option as we had a few surveys from other companies and mentioned the same about the trees.

Alexin1970

Reed_Richards said:

matt_drummer said:

At that moment in time you were generating 322W, the house was using 2.83kW, 2.8kW was coming from the grid and 291W was going to your battery.

Your house was using quite a lot of electricity unless you were boiling a kettle or cooking something.  One possibility is that a sensor is not reading correctly.  Can you try again when your house is not supposed to be using much electricity, no cooking, or heating or electric showers in progress.

I checked through my Octopus app and the daily consumption is between 15.00 and 20.00 KkW, but it looks to me it is still the same after we installed the Solar panels, unless I am missing something.

And the battery between 0% and 4% is not reassuring either , now it is at 6%.

I know we do spend a bit in elecricity but my aim was to reduce the cost with solar panels , not paying for the solar install to make no difference at all with my electricity bills . I even got a bigger battery.

See the pic attached of the Power Graph for yesterday.

matt_drummer

The trees have nothing to do with it.

You didn't need two inverters, one correct one would have done the job.

The optimisers are a good idea though.