Just to clarify, the new pause battery options are currently only available for the Gen 2 hybrid inverters. They are being rolled out to the other inverters in due course so if you don't see them yet check back later to see if a future firmware update adds them for your inverter type.
Thanks for this video - super helpful - it seems that my setup is Gen 1 - so no pause function yet! BUT - for those of us that have the GEN1 software can we use the timed discharge and set it to exclude the period we don't want to discharge from battery? ie. Octopus Flux - set for timed discharge between 05.01 and 01.59? - Would appreciate your thoughts - still learning here! Thanks!😀
@@andyreynolds1648 if you want to prevent the battery discharging then you should set up a scheduled *charge* during off peak times. That's what I was doing before the pause functionality became available to me. It's not perfect but if you get the charge level right (e.g. about the level it gets to naturally by 2am), then it sort of hovers at that level until the end of the charge period at 5am.
Hi Tim, the new pause battery options are available for the AIO system too. I tried it does work. Thanks. I also found another simple method to prevent the battery discharging when I do my EV charging. Using GE app, under battery discharge settings, set Reserve % to higher number than current battery %, then it stop pulling from batttery and only EV charge from Grid power (+PV if you do in day time).
@@Sug-1998 ah great, that's good to know. When you set the reserve limit does that then prevent the battery supporting your house load at all other times too?
only small downside is the lag - website is about 5 minutes out so if you see the clouds come over, it won’t show immediately on the web portal. But the web portal has things the app doesn’t - like the solar forecast
Great video. Had a Givenergy AIO installed on Friday and video helpful on settings et al. Playing about with settings as we speak to find best setup for my config.
Cheers. Interesting playing about with it yesterday and took it off grid for 30 hours - not sure it behaved as expected as totals on portal paused although solar generation and battery discharge to provide load to home with a tiny amount of import early in the day (750W) before going off grid in the remote settings. HOWEVER, Octopus in their wisdom reckon I used 7.912KWh - the mind ponders...
Watching your channel with interest and getting lots of great info. Having our home surveyed next week for an installation. On this video you mentioned the Solcast program which is integrated with the Givenergy app. Do you have a video with more info on Solcast or if not would it be a good idea to do one. Looking forward to future videos. Did not realise we were s close to Givenegy's HQ which is a 15 minute walk away from home.
I don't have a video on Solcast, I'm afraid. I've not spent much time with the Solcast stuff, tbh. I think it's mostly useful for folks who want to run their systems using home automation like Home Assistant, it's only provided for interest in the GE portal, really, rather than being used to actually drive any behaviours. I think there was talk about GE doing something more concrete with it (in terms of native automations for battery charging based on predicted generation, for example) but Solcast were asking for too much money to let them use the platform in their integrations, apparently. If GE do start providing any sort of prediction based automations natively in their app or web portal I'll be sure to make a video about it at that point though, never fear!
Great video, thanks for the explanation! Some features, like the pause discharge, don’t seem to available in the AIO options. Perhaps there’s an update coming to give these options? What would also be really useful is some kind of automation around the solar prediction, ie predicted solar for the next day is only 50% of battery capacity so charge to 50% overnight. The current “charge to” slider is a very crude tool given the data available.
Yes, I should have made it clearer in the video that those new pause options are currently only available for the gen 2 hybrid inverters. It'll be rolled out to the others in due course so keep your eye open for firmware updates. It is possible to automate the charging based on solar predictions but only if you go down the route of using something like Home Assistant at present. That's not something I've experimented with (yet) but if you're technically minded that's an option. I might get around to that one day but I'm a very lazy man so who knows!
Hi Tim, it is another great video. Thanks for sharing. I am going to try a "paused discharge schedule" some point. Just to share my experience on inverter data: data on my “All In One” portal is bit different to data shown on your system. On PV Data tab, I see only String 1 data - which is total output of my PV system. String 2 data tabs are shown zero. I understand this is because of my AIO inverter is AC coupled system, nothing to do with my two PV arrays - those connected to a soils inverter.
Yup, that makes sense. Regarding the pause discharge settings you may find you don't have those yet as this was rolled out to the gen 2 hybrid inverters first. They're bringing it to the other inverters in phases, so I'm not sure when the AIO will receive that update. Hopefully it won't be too long to wait if you don't have it already.
Useful walkthrough thanks Tim. I saw some new things I hadn’t noticed like the per-string PV output. The grid data tab is useful to see the trend of the incoming supply, my supply is often going above 255v and I think that’s causing the inverter to throttle back; the DNO put a 7-day energy monitor onto my supply so waiting to see what they propose to do. The new pause discharge function looks a good addition, even if you are not charging the battery overnight (I’m taking the view that when you take into account voltage conversion power losses its just not worth it), its still useful to prioritise grid pull at a cheaper rate than drawing from the battery. Unfortunately (despite upgrading to the latest inverter firmware a couple of months ago) this option doesn’t appear to be available for Gen1 inverters 😢. Hopefully one day? The GE portal is I find confusing in places. Quite a bit of duplication between what you can do on the ‘inverter data’ (grid icon) and ‘inverter information’ (PC monitor icon) screens, but some functions on one not the other. The data download also only allows download of a single day’s data, I’d like to be able to do a month to analyse it offline. Solcast is usually over optomistic for me too, and I have no shading at all on my panels but it still predicts more generation than I achieve. It gets the trend right but not the actual generation. All fun
I can only assume GivEnergy will provide that same pause functionality to all inverters in due course, so hopefully it won't be long before gen 1 is included.
Good one Tim. Finally, a fix to stop the GE battery discharging overnight when I want to charge the EV with our Zappi on our lower night rate tariff. After 6 failed attempts I finally managed to complete my firmware update last night & have now set up a paused discharge schedule. 🤞it works tonight. Having said all of that, it's a bit naff that GE don't issue this information in the form of a notification to all GE account holders explaining what has changed after each firmware / software update. Instead we are having to find out 2nd hand from good intentioned persons like yourself who take the time & trouble to post the info online. I'm still toying with the idea of adding an extra 9.5kWh battery to my system. The existing Gen 2 9.5kWh batt has a spare connector for an extra battery so I wonder if it's a plug n play job with the right cable or if the system has to be re-commissioned with specialist software? Keep up the good work.
Yeah, some sort of change log would be good to let folks know what's new/changed. Still, I can get a video out of it so it's all good! I believe if you plug in a second battery it'll just start the calibration process again, so both batteries will fully discharge then charge up again. That's what my installer said to me, suggesting I could basically do it myself if I felt up to it. And if anything went wrong a call to GivEnergy support is usually enough to get things sorted.
@@phf77 that's really nifty, I hadn't spotted that before, thanks for pointing it out! Might have to make a video about that at some point. In fact, I might start using that for my stats videos.
Great video, but I'm a greenhorn at this I have just had my GivEnergy system commissioned ... can you recommend a video that explains all the basic practicalities and concepts that are going on? As a beginner the jargon and terminology mean that I'm immediately lost.
I'd recommend the channel Gary Does Solar (www.youtube.com/@GaryDoesSolar ) for a good set of videos explaining a lot of the concepts around solar and battery storage. If you're interested in using the GE app instead of the web portal (you may find it more intuitive to use) then I have a video about that here: ruclips.net/video/DDDd_j8O5s4/видео.htmlsi=Rsx_NbUcdNtVypWZ
Very good review of the web portal, Tim. Many of the features you covered were things I have been using already, but not the Remote Control options, which I had looked at once a while back but gave up on, as they were too confusing with my quite limited understanding at that time. Your explanations on those features and functions, near the end of this video, are quite clear. I am a Gen 1 inverter user, so must wait for an (eventual) firmware update to have the Pause Charge and Pause Discharge features. Either or both of those might be of use, although since I don't have an EV car or a heat pump system, I don't have to import any significant amounts of Grid energy for running big kWh-using appliances during Flux Rate between 2 and 5 am, only to run the fridge etc each night, and to top up the battery on some nights. But I will try out some of the Remote Control options in any case, as it looks like there might be a bit more available there for my Gen 1 inverter setup, than on the main Settings page for timed events etc. One thing that's also there at the bottom of the Remote Control page - something that's visible in your video but which you didn't cover - is the Remote Control History. This is quite helpful info for me. Among other things, it could come in handy when I contact GivEnergy in the near future, firstly to clarify how timed events should function in Gen 1 and to mention revisions to those that would be more useful for people with a setup and energy requirements like me, and secondly to go over a few data anomalies that have turned up since I started working with timed events around 2 weeks ago, after running the firmware update - which has left me with D0.450-A0.451 as the Inverter Firmware Version, and 3013 and the Battery Firmware Version. The strangest data anomaly I am seeing, is that if my battery charge runs all the way down to the "reserved" 4% a few hours before daybreak on a given early morning, there are sometimes instances where this creeps back up all the way to 9%, still before there is any PV energy being generated! During that unaccounted-for "climb" back up to 9%, there has been no import of electricity from the Grid, either. A 5% added charge to the battery would mean some 0.225 kWh had been sent to it, from somewhere. But where exactly? Something clearly does not add up. Tim - have you, or any other people reading this comment, ever had something like this taking place? If so, any idea what's going on? All the best, Nelson
That sounds like it's the battery reporting slightly incorrect state of charge readings. Those values are more like estimates than hard and fast charge levels as the software in the battery has to infer how charged the battery is from things like the voltage (and other stuff, I'm sure, I'm not an expert on this I'm afraid). So it's possible that this is just the software getting a bit confused rather than the actual charge level of the battery increasingly mysteriously. GivEnergy might be able to shed more light on it, however.
Thanks Tim. My clever friend Eric also suggested something similar a while back. He said the charge % was probably derived using integration (as in the calculus - the branch of maths where my brain eventually hit meltdown, when Eric and I were at school together a very long time ago !). I will ask the GivEnergy guys about this, as I am sure you are correct in what you say. Among other things, it would be helpful to know which data readings coming from the inverter etc are "raw" figures, and which are derived from the raw ones. Since I will be doing some major number crunching of all the data in the Excel spreadsheets I have been working on over the past weeks and months, it will be good to know that datasets are the most reliable, and which ones are less so. Kool ! @@TimAndKatsGreenWalk
Yesterday I had a phone chat with one of the GivEnergy technical guys. I asked about the sometimes odd behaviour etc of the battery charge % figures, and he confirmed that those are derived values, so they do have to be taken with a pinch of salt. He did also confirm that the figures for voltages, current, kW of power and kWh of energy can all be taken with a much smaller pinch of salt, as they are each more reliable than the battery % charge. I spoke further with my clever friend Eric about this, and he suggested a further reason why the derived % charge values in particular might be a little off sometimes. Eric pointed out that if you only take data reading "samples" every 5 minutes, there are probably not enough samples to accurately work out the (calculus) integrals that he thinks must be the basis for deriving the % charge. Also Eric mentioned that a lot can take place from one 5 minute "sample" to another - something I completely agree with, as it tallies with my own observations of the data from my PV system, which has now been running for just over 6 months. I sometimes see things like unusual spikes coming and going within a single 5 minute period, for example. All of the things the GivEnergy technical guy had to say about the data, as well as my friend Eric's follow-up comments about it, make good sense to me. In fairness to GivEnergy, I feel it's worth saying that if they took data readings much more often than every 5 minutes, it's likely they would quickly be "snowed under" with mountains of data. As users we would naturally always want readings taken as often as possible, but I guess there are practicalities to take into account. @@TimAndKatsGreenWalk
@@nelsonjohnson9850 it's only the server data that is held at 5 min intervals, the local data refreshes every 10s, so I expect it'll be using that for the derived values rather than the 5 min data. But still, good to know about the reliability of the other values you mentioned.
The Pause is indeed a very useful option. Available to all inverters on new Firmware, so for now Gen2. Next Gen3, once we knows its got no bugs, not picked up in beta testing.
Hi Tim have I missed when you said what Solar Panels you decide to buy? What is the make and model and did they work as well/good as you hoped? Thank in advance for the info 😊
@@DanEVSolar7 gotcha. Yup, I meant switching to IOF before doing the update so that the import and export would happen with the same tariff price making it less of an issue timing wise (as long as it happens outside of the peak period, that is!)
On the GE forum there have been quite a few people reporting that the BMS upgrade fails or gets stuck needing GE support to intervene. There was a fix to the upgrade a couple of weeks ago so I’m holding off upgrading mine as well until I’m sure it is reliable.
Hi Tim - thanks for this, lots of features in the web portal I'd not discovered! I'd like to ask about one of the options in the settings, it's called "Timed Discharge" and the description says "This mode will discharge your batteries to your home during a period you define". Does this need to be set to make the battery send power to home appliances in preference to drawing from the grid? I've never actually used it, but I seem to get the system to do what I need just with Defaults or Eco.
Your battery will provide power to your home without that setting, as you've discovered. It's mostly used to force discharge your battery back to the grid, which can be handy for tariffs like Octopus Flux, which has a very high export rate between 4 and 7pm. It's the same setting as the scheduled discharge mode you'll see in the app.
@@CetusPaddler hmm, I see what you mean. Well, I guess the thing to do would be to run a test to see what happens when you set it up. You can always turn it off again if it does something odd!
Ah ha! I've worked out what the difference is between these two modes. In the app things look a bit different to the web portal and I've just experimented by changing the app settings and then refreshing the web portal to see what's changed there based on the new app settings. So, in the app when I change the battery Discharge Mode from Dynamic to Scheduled the web portal settings update to show either the Timed Discharge or Timed Export mode enabled, depending on what Consumption Type is selected in the app. If you select the Meet Home Demand consumption type in the app then the web portal shows the Timed Discharge mode enabled. If, however, you select Full Export for the Consumption Type in the app then it is the Timed Export mode that becomes enabled in the web portal. So, I tend to use the Meet Home Demand setting for the Consumption Type in the app, which corresponds to Timed Discharge, not Timed Export. That means the battery provides power to the house while doing the force export during the scheduled period, with any excess above the house load going out to the grid. At all other times the battery supports the home as required, i.e. Eco mode remains turned on. I believe that if you use the Full Export mode instead (Timed Export in the web portal) the battery won't support the house load outside of the scheduled period, i.e. Eco mode gets turned off. It's all a bit confusing, I have to say, so the best thing to do is see what works best for you, but I hope that gives you somewhere to start.
hi Tim, how do you export monthly hourly data? I can only do this day by day rather than a whole month. Do you export one day at a time? When doing monthly export I get one datapoint per day
I don't think that's an option right now. I'd suggest contacting GivEnergy to ask for that feature to be added as I'm sure if enough people ask they'll try to make it available.
Thanks, this is exactly what i wanted to know, can i force the battery to not discharge when charging my EV, since I was concerned that charging the car might in effect take place via the battery obviously thats inneficient.
Yup, charging the battery at the same time as the EV should prevent the battery discharging into the EV. That'll work with any battery system. Although with the GE gen 2 hybrid inverter the pause discharge function also works pretty well for that too.
Hi Tim, having only installed my system I am still finding my way round this portal and the app, but hope you can answer the following: on the portal it has the prompt ‘add additional cards’, but I have yet to see a) what cards can be added and b) where from. Also in the app the battery energy display has a ‘more info’ option. When I select this both the voltage and %age charge are often very different. I have requested an explanation from ge, but with no response am asking you. Thanks Ray
The cards are usually found at the bottom of the screen, unless you've already added them all in which case there will be no more available to add, so perhaps you've already got them all in your side bar. These are things like EV charger, or Smart Tariff, stuff like that. The percentage charge and voltage are only loosely correlated, it seems, so I guess there's more to it. It's not something I know much about to be honest. Hopefully GE can explain it in more detail.
There is a lot to take in there. I just re watched your App video too. Question: if you were to disconnect the WAN (ie. disconn the cloud) how much of the same functionality and data storage is retained and accessible via a local Wi-Fi connection via PC and App. Thank you
Honest answer, I don't know. If you've got it hooked up to something like Home Assistant I assume you can store that data locally, regardless of the cloud connection. I do know that GivEnergy are working on a totally local solution that should be coming at some point, which would mean you could manage all your own data without relying on GivEnergy's servers.
Apparently in the GE warranty terms and conditions you have to have the inverters connected to the cloud. If you’re worried about security you can always setup a dedicated wifi/powerline network for the GE inverters. Do make sure that the engineers completed the wifi setup process though and set a password on the inverter wifi, I found that mine hadn’t and the inverters were broadcasting an open hotspot onto my home network 😮
@@geoffreycoan Really useful video, thanks Tim! Geoffrey, many thanks also for the tip on the unsecured wifi dongle. I checked and found exactly the same situation on my installation and as you say, a completely open gateway to your home network is a less than brilliant idea. Before I go back to the installer did you find how to set a password on the wifi dongle yourself? Thx, David
Hi Tim, when watching this video I was really interested in the section where you explain the pause function for the battery. I’ve not had my system very long and im struggling to find a setting that allows me to charge my car without it draining my home battery. I’ve followed your instructions but but where your hidden page shows ‘General, Inverter, Battery, mine only shows General, Inverter. The battery option does not exist. Nowhere does it offer a pause function. Any ideas?
So it seems this setting is currently only available for gen 2 hybrid inverters, it's yet to be rolled out to gen 1 and gen 3 inverters. Apparently that should be happening soon, so if you've got a gen 1 or 3 inverter check the software tab periodically for updates and with any luck it'll appear in due course.
An alternative that you might want to try is setting the battery to charge at the same time as your EV. That way both will charge from the grid without the EV draining the home battery. That's what I've been doing up until this new setting appeared and it worked reasonably well.
@@davidgordon773 the gen 3 inverters look a bit more curvey than the gen 1 and 2s, so that's one way to tell. Hopefully you'll get the update soon in either case.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk not having seen another one Tim makes identification a bit difficult but I’m sure I’ll be able to find details on the original paperwork. Thanks again.
Hi Dave, just installed Givenergy system which is Sue to be commissioned today so let me know your referral code please. A great series of videos, but yet to come across a cost breakdown for the system and all the bells and whistles. One figure you do not bring into your cost savings is petrol v ev cost. Thanks again for info, will be trying to maximise my own system as a result.😎😎😎
No problem, here's my referral code: cute-quail-190. I cover all the costs in this video (although not broken down into every item): ruclips.net/video/m1mIljYtFds/видео.htmlsi=nW8Z2RfKNvtCbjkr The petrol vs EV is covered in one of my earlier stats videos but I can't remember which one. It basically assumes petrol use at 50 mpg, and EV covering 4 miles/kWh. Then it's just cost of petrol and cost of power using those numbers and how many miles we drive. EV works out at 2.25p per mile.
one extra thing I like on the web portal is the ability to zoom into a period by clicking and dragging. I use that to eg zoom in to the off peak window in energy view to add up my home usage durign that period. Unfortunately the totals shown on screen dno’t update to reflect the zoomed area (would be nice givenergy!)
I observed with my AIO, using Intelligent Octopus with 6hrs (23h30-5h30) at low rates, that the PAUSE BATTERY DISCHARGE does not work if you set it from 23h30-5h30). Seems the system can not handle the start time appearing to be before the end time (actually going past midnight). I raised this with GE, see what they do. In the interim I have resorted to settling for half and hour less cheap power and START the pause at 00h00, which seems to work fine.
Have you updated the firmware now? I was sure I had an inverter update pending for my Gen 2 Hybrid but now I can only see an update for the battery is showing. If you did update what version is the Inverter now on?
The same appears to be the case for me. I had both inverter and battery firmware updates pending and now only the battery is pending. The inverter is currently on 0.909 while the battery is 3012.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk yes snap for the versions I'm on. I emailed Givenergy today about it and they said I'm on the current version for the inverter (909) however that is contrary to their website which shows version D911-A911 28/07/2023 as the latest for the Gen 2 hybrid models
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk Just had this reply from support so lucky we both held off doing the upgraded 😉 910/911 has been taken down as there were issues with that, it will be eventually re released.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk I did my battery update today and it didn't complete correctly. The firmware updated but the calibration went wrong and stopped the system from generating on an otherwise perfect blue sky day. I had to contact Givenergy support and get them to sort it 😐
Hi Tim, thanks for all your very useful videos. My portal is showing under the Inverter - Remote Control tab, 10 charge and 10 discharge settings, but under the settings tab on the main inverter page, it still only indicates Slot 1 under any of the settings. Do you know if these Remote control settings actually work and how the two methods of settings interact? There is of course further complications in what the App then shows, as none of these additional remote control schedule settings are visible in the App. Also in the remote control portal settings, do you know what the difference is between reserve limit and cutoff limit? I'm trying to get the system to force discharge down to 25% between 18:00 and 19:00, but then continue to discharge normally to the home, until the recharge period at 02:00, where I charge it back to 80%. Any help much appreciated.
The remote control settings are the somewhat experimental ones, so they're not expected to be changed by most people. For the most part you shouldn't need them unless you're trying to do something very specific that the regular settings don't allow. The only way to find out if and how they work is to try them out and see what happens! The reserve limit corresponds to the value you can set in the app or regular portal settings, and it sets the lower limit for the battery discharge. Once the battery hits that limit it'll stop discharging into the house. I think that's what can then be used in the event of a power-cut for the EPS system. I'm not sure what the cut-off limit is though. For your purposes I would simply use the standard settings and set the discharge period for 18:00 to 19:00 and then see how low your battery gets. If it stays higher than 25% then you're good to go, if it drops below then shorten the discharge time. Use the Timed Discharge under the regular settings and set up 18:00-19:00 with maximum discharge power and the lowest discharge limit so that when the discharge period is over the battery will continue to supply power to the house (this is the same as the Reserve Limit, so you don't want that to stop at 25% or else the battery won't support the home below that level). One caveat to this though, is that some inverters don't seem to turn Eco mode back on after the discharge period ends (I know Gen 1 hybrid inverts don't but Gen 2 does) so the battery will stop providing power to the house. You'll have to just try it out and see what happens. If you find that your battery stops providing power after the force discharge period ends then you may need to set Eco mode back on manually each time, which is a bit of a pain. Personally, I would use the app instead as it's much easier to use than the portal, and then set it up the way I do in my app video, which is pretty much what you want to do: ruclips.net/video/DDDd_j8O5s4/видео.html (from 15:38) Good luck!
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk Thanks Tim, the problem I seem to have, is that I need around 25% still in the battery from 19:00 onwards to get me through to the next charge period at 02:00, so I don't want to force discharge the battery beyond 25% @ 19:00, but I still want it to power the home normally from 19:00 onwards. I also don't know where I am discharging from on a daily basis, so just setting Power and Time won't give me the correct discharge e.g. the battery could be at 100% at 18:00 or it could be at 50% (depending on daily usage and the amount of Solar that day). This is why I was trying to use the portal remote settings for discharge, as they seem to allow you to set a different lower discharge threshold (DC Discharge 1 Lower SOC % limit) to the overall system lower limit (Battery Reserve % limit). It seems to me these remote settings don't work (at least not yet), but I was hoping someone could confirm that. Just using the App, I think I could either end up discharging too much or too little depending on how much is in the battery @ 18:00.
@@arlamp7701 ah, I see. Well, you may find in practice over the Summer you can more or less guarantee your battery will be fully charged by 18:00 (that was certainly the case for us last Summer). I've not tried those particular remote control settings though, so you may have to do some testing and see what happens. Alternatively, give Intelligent Flux a try as then you don't have to worry about any of that stuff since Octopus control you batteries for you. Otherwise, contacting GivEnergy support may give you confirmation one way or another on how those remote control settings work (although it seems pretty hit and miss depending on who you get as to whether they'll understand what you mean). In either case best of luck getting it to work as you want.
@@arlamp7701 also, something to bear in mind, you ideally want to ensure your battery is fully charged by 16:00 (let alone 18:00) so that you're not drawing from the grid or charging your batteries from solar during the Flux peak period (I'm assuming you're on Flux given what you're trying to do), and to make sure any excess solar is also exported for the higher rate between 16:00 and 19:00, rather than going into your battery. Again, I found this was pretty much guaranteed for me last Summer, so you may find it's similar for you.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk Yes I am on Flux, too much of a control freak to let Octopus (at least for now) control my batteries...lol. I've used the nifty remote pause feature to prevent charging during the 16:00 to 19:00 period, which seems to work. Even if I haven't charged my batteries to full by then, in theory any Solar (minus home usage) should go straight to the grid during the peak export period. I've only just had the battery system installed, so I'm probably doing it all wrong, but it's fun playing with it. Thanks again for all your comments and support. Btw I did use your link when I switched to Octopus, so I hope the referral bonus comes through for you.
'I wish it was CSV...' Possibly they want to avoid the sort of problems we had with your excellent spreadsheet. CSV is interpreted by programmes in different ways - XLSX is a Microsoft standard, other programmes should all handle it the same way if properly coded!
CSV is more generic though, just a simple text file that is much more easily handled by other software, and Excel can handle it too, so it's more accessible in my opinion. It certainly wouldn't hurt to offer both options.
@@JohnR31415 I certainly don't object to them providing an xlsx file, but it would make my life easier if csv was an option too. I much prefer being able to load data into some analysis code I've written without having to use an xlsx parsing library. Not that I've done that for this yet - I've not got that far - but I could see that being something I might consider doing down the road sometime. csv would make that simpler, for sure.
The Latest firmware update to the givenergy battery has broken our inverter. After several phone calls with givenergy support and a usb drive with the firmware on, lots of tests and resets. we now have to wait for the installer with a usb lead and some software.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk So after 5 days we are finally back up and running. We have lost 2 days of generation and not been able to use the battery for 5 days. We were able to get the inverter to run with a usb drive in the port in usb mode but then couldn't access the app or cloud. Givenergy eventually provided instructions on using a laptop to wipe the stuck file from the inverter but they were wrong in several places and had to be corrected by our installer in consultation with a field engineer. It's been interesting learning about how the different modes work and how the firmware update is performed. Via cloud, usb or laptop.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk Thankful that we managed to get it sorted without the 4 week wait for a Givenergy engineer. I feel like they need to work on their support and response time.
Erm, I think I set up two sites and gave each site the parameters of one side of the house. Then you tell the GivEnergy portal about both sites. It was a while ago I did that so I can't remember exactly. It was a bit of a fudge, I remember that much.
Hi Tim, having set up Solcast and adding the API to the GE Portal all worked well - then about 3pm daily it disappears from the GE Portal and wont add back in until the next morning. I can still access my Solcast account Does anyone else find this happening - is it something to do with the API access limit daily on home user account?
ok think i have found my own answer - in Solcast I have the following red banner "You have used all 10 API requests available in your daily API usage limit. Usage resets at midnight UTC."
Hi. Just noticed I've got a gen 1 3.6kW hydrid GiveEnergy inverter. Does anyone have the same and know how to have it set to Eco and a schedule to force charge the battery and force export at peak tarriff? It doesn't seem to want to do both
That does indeed seem to be the case for the gen 1 inverters, unfortunately. I'd suggest contacting GivEnergy to add your weight to the requests to get this added to future firmware upgrades for the gen 1 inverters.
Just to clarify, the new pause battery options are currently only available for the Gen 2 hybrid inverters. They are being rolled out to the other inverters in due course so if you don't see them yet check back later to see if a future firmware update adds them for your inverter type.
Thanks for this video - super helpful - it seems that my setup is Gen 1 - so no pause function yet! BUT - for those of us that have the GEN1 software can we use the timed discharge and set it to exclude the period we don't want to discharge from battery? ie. Octopus Flux - set for timed discharge between 05.01 and 01.59? - Would appreciate your thoughts - still learning here! Thanks!😀
@@andyreynolds1648 if you want to prevent the battery discharging then you should set up a scheduled *charge* during off peak times. That's what I was doing before the pause functionality became available to me. It's not perfect but if you get the charge level right (e.g. about the level it gets to naturally by 2am), then it sort of hovers at that level until the end of the charge period at 5am.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk many thanks, will try that!
Hi Tim, the new pause battery options are available for the AIO system too. I tried it does work. Thanks.
I also found another simple method to prevent the battery discharging when I do my EV charging. Using GE app, under battery discharge settings, set Reserve % to higher number than current battery %, then it stop pulling from batttery and only EV charge from Grid power (+PV if you do in day time).
@@Sug-1998 ah great, that's good to know. When you set the reserve limit does that then prevent the battery supporting your house load at all other times too?
Thanks Tim. Recent AIO + 4.2 kw solar installed so your kind channel is most useful! cheers
I'm glad to hear it! I hope your system works out well for you.
Thank you Tim. I'm having a Givenergy system installed next week, so I am sure this will prove very useful!
Thanks for this video Tim! Very useful to have a walkthrough the web portal app!
No problem, glad I could help!
Very useful, our All in One will be with us in a few months and I am guessing the portal will be the same or similar. Thank you for doing this
Thanks for this video. When I get my solar I'll be using the Web interface as I don't use a smart phone. This has been very helpful.
only small downside is the lag - website is about 5 minutes out so if you see the clouds come over, it won’t show immediately on the web portal. But the web portal has things the app doesn’t - like the solar forecast
Great video. Had a Givenergy AIO installed on Friday and video helpful on settings et al. Playing about with settings as we speak to find best setup for my config.
Very nice. If I was to redesign our system I'd probably go for an All in One.
Cheers. Interesting playing about with it yesterday and took it off grid for 30 hours - not sure it behaved as expected as totals on portal paused although solar generation and battery discharge to provide load to home with a tiny amount of import early in the day (750W) before going off grid in the remote settings. HOWEVER, Octopus in their wisdom reckon I used 7.912KWh - the mind ponders...
Watching your channel with interest and getting lots of great info. Having our home surveyed next week for an installation. On this video you mentioned the Solcast program which is integrated with the Givenergy app. Do you have a video with more info on Solcast or if not would it be a good idea to do one. Looking forward to future videos. Did not realise we were s close to Givenegy's HQ which is a 15 minute walk away from home.
I don't have a video on Solcast, I'm afraid. I've not spent much time with the Solcast stuff, tbh. I think it's mostly useful for folks who want to run their systems using home automation like Home Assistant, it's only provided for interest in the GE portal, really, rather than being used to actually drive any behaviours. I think there was talk about GE doing something more concrete with it (in terms of native automations for battery charging based on predicted generation, for example) but Solcast were asking for too much money to let them use the platform in their integrations, apparently. If GE do start providing any sort of prediction based automations natively in their app or web portal I'll be sure to make a video about it at that point though, never fear!
Great video, thanks for the explanation! Some features, like the pause discharge, don’t seem to available in the AIO options. Perhaps there’s an update coming to give these options? What would also be really useful is some kind of automation around the solar prediction, ie predicted solar for the next day is only 50% of battery capacity so charge to 50% overnight. The current “charge to” slider is a very crude tool given the data available.
Yes, I should have made it clearer in the video that those new pause options are currently only available for the gen 2 hybrid inverters. It'll be rolled out to the others in due course so keep your eye open for firmware updates. It is possible to automate the charging based on solar predictions but only if you go down the route of using something like Home Assistant at present. That's not something I've experimented with (yet) but if you're technically minded that's an option. I might get around to that one day but I'm a very lazy man so who knows!
Hi Tim, it is another great video. Thanks for sharing. I am going to try a "paused discharge schedule" some point. Just to share my experience on inverter data: data on my “All In One” portal is bit different to data shown on your system. On PV Data tab, I see only String 1 data - which is total output of my PV system. String 2 data tabs are shown zero. I understand this is because of my AIO inverter is AC coupled system, nothing to do with my two PV arrays - those connected to a soils inverter.
Yup, that makes sense. Regarding the pause discharge settings you may find you don't have those yet as this was rolled out to the gen 2 hybrid inverters first. They're bringing it to the other inverters in phases, so I'm not sure when the AIO will receive that update. Hopefully it won't be too long to wait if you don't have it already.
Useful walkthrough thanks Tim. I saw some new things I hadn’t noticed like the per-string PV output. The grid data tab is useful to see the trend of the incoming supply, my supply is often going above 255v and I think that’s causing the inverter to throttle back; the DNO put a 7-day energy monitor onto my supply so waiting to see what they propose to do.
The new pause discharge function looks a good addition, even if you are not charging the battery overnight (I’m taking the view that when you take into account voltage conversion power losses its just not worth it), its still useful to prioritise grid pull at a cheaper rate than drawing from the battery. Unfortunately (despite upgrading to the latest inverter firmware a couple of months ago) this option doesn’t appear to be available for Gen1 inverters 😢. Hopefully one day?
The GE portal is I find confusing in places. Quite a bit of duplication between what you can do on the ‘inverter data’ (grid icon) and ‘inverter information’ (PC monitor icon) screens, but some functions on one not the other. The data download also only allows download of a single day’s data, I’d like to be able to do a month to analyse it offline.
Solcast is usually over optomistic for me too, and I have no shading at all on my panels but it still predicts more generation than I achieve. It gets the trend right but not the actual generation. All fun
I can only assume GivEnergy will provide that same pause functionality to all inverters in due course, so hopefully it won't be long before gen 1 is included.
Good one Tim.
Finally, a fix to stop the GE battery discharging overnight when I want to charge the EV with our Zappi on our lower night rate tariff. After 6 failed attempts I finally managed to complete my firmware update last night & have now set up a paused discharge schedule. 🤞it works tonight.
Having said all of that, it's a bit naff that GE don't issue this information in the form of a notification to all GE account holders explaining what has changed after each firmware / software update. Instead we are having to find out 2nd hand from good intentioned persons like yourself who take the time & trouble to post the info online.
I'm still toying with the idea of adding an extra 9.5kWh battery to my system. The existing Gen 2 9.5kWh batt has a spare connector for an extra battery so I wonder if it's a plug n play job with the right cable or if the system has to be re-commissioned with specialist software?
Keep up the good work.
Yeah, some sort of change log would be good to let folks know what's new/changed. Still, I can get a video out of it so it's all good! I believe if you plug in a second battery it'll just start the calibration process again, so both batteries will fully discharge then charge up again. That's what my installer said to me, suggesting I could basically do it myself if I felt up to it. And if anything went wrong a call to GivEnergy support is usually enough to get things sorted.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk Thanks. I'm up for installing a new battery alongside the existing one in my garage. Just got to find the ackers to pay for it💸
I quite like the look of the Energy Flow Graph when you generate a report in the Reports section on the left bar.
@@phf77 ooh, I'll give that a try.
@@phf77 that's really nifty, I hadn't spotted that before, thanks for pointing it out! Might have to make a video about that at some point. In fact, I might start using that for my stats videos.
Great video, but I'm a greenhorn at this I have just had my GivEnergy system commissioned ... can you recommend a video that explains all the basic practicalities and concepts that are going on? As a beginner the jargon and terminology mean that I'm immediately lost.
I'd recommend the channel Gary Does Solar (www.youtube.com/@GaryDoesSolar ) for a good set of videos explaining a lot of the concepts around solar and battery storage. If you're interested in using the GE app instead of the web portal (you may find it more intuitive to use) then I have a video about that here: ruclips.net/video/DDDd_j8O5s4/видео.htmlsi=Rsx_NbUcdNtVypWZ
Very good review of the web portal, Tim. Many of the features you covered were things I have been using already, but not the Remote Control options, which I had looked at once a while back but gave up on, as they were too confusing with my quite limited understanding at that time. Your explanations on those features and functions, near the end of this video, are quite clear.
I am a Gen 1 inverter user, so must wait for an (eventual) firmware update to have the Pause Charge and Pause Discharge features. Either or both of those might be of use, although since I don't have an EV car or a heat pump system, I don't have to import any significant amounts of Grid energy for running big kWh-using appliances during Flux Rate between 2 and 5 am, only to run the fridge etc each night, and to top up the battery on some nights. But I will try out some of the Remote Control options in any case, as it looks like there might be a bit more available there for my Gen 1 inverter setup, than on the main Settings page for timed events etc.
One thing that's also there at the bottom of the Remote Control page - something that's visible in your video but which you didn't cover - is the Remote Control History. This is quite helpful info for me. Among other things, it could come in handy when I contact GivEnergy in the near future, firstly to clarify how timed events should function in Gen 1 and to mention revisions to those that would be more useful for people with a setup and energy requirements like me, and secondly to go over a few data anomalies that have turned up since I started working with timed events around 2 weeks ago, after running the firmware update - which has left me with D0.450-A0.451 as the Inverter Firmware Version, and 3013 and the Battery Firmware Version.
The strangest data anomaly I am seeing, is that if my battery charge runs all the way down to the "reserved" 4% a few hours before daybreak on a given early morning, there are sometimes instances where this creeps back up all the way to 9%, still before there is any PV energy being generated! During that unaccounted-for "climb" back up to 9%, there has been no import of electricity from the Grid, either. A 5% added charge to the battery would mean some 0.225 kWh had been sent to it, from somewhere. But where exactly? Something clearly does not add up. Tim - have you, or any other people reading this comment, ever had something like this taking place? If so, any idea what's going on?
All the best, Nelson
That sounds like it's the battery reporting slightly incorrect state of charge readings. Those values are more like estimates than hard and fast charge levels as the software in the battery has to infer how charged the battery is from things like the voltage (and other stuff, I'm sure, I'm not an expert on this I'm afraid). So it's possible that this is just the software getting a bit confused rather than the actual charge level of the battery increasingly mysteriously. GivEnergy might be able to shed more light on it, however.
Thanks Tim. My clever friend Eric also suggested something similar a while back. He said the charge % was probably derived using integration (as in the calculus - the branch of maths where my brain eventually hit meltdown, when Eric and I were at school together a very long time ago !). I will ask the GivEnergy guys about this, as I am sure you are correct in what you say. Among other things, it would be helpful to know which data readings coming from the inverter etc are "raw" figures, and which are derived from the raw ones. Since I will be doing some major number crunching of all the data in the Excel spreadsheets I have been working on over the past weeks and months, it will be good to know that datasets are the most reliable, and which ones are less so. Kool ! @@TimAndKatsGreenWalk
Yesterday I had a phone chat with one of the GivEnergy technical guys. I asked about the sometimes odd behaviour etc of the battery charge % figures, and he confirmed that those are derived values, so they do have to be taken with a pinch of salt. He did also confirm that the figures for voltages, current, kW of power and kWh of energy can all be taken with a much smaller pinch of salt, as they are each more reliable than the battery % charge.
I spoke further with my clever friend Eric about this, and he suggested a further reason why the derived % charge values in particular might be a little off sometimes. Eric pointed out that if you only take data reading "samples" every 5 minutes, there are probably not enough samples to accurately work out the (calculus) integrals that he thinks must be the basis for deriving the % charge. Also Eric mentioned that a lot can take place from one 5 minute "sample" to another - something I completely agree with, as it tallies with my own observations of the data from my PV system, which has now been running for just over 6 months. I sometimes see things like unusual spikes coming and going within a single 5 minute period, for example.
All of the things the GivEnergy technical guy had to say about the data, as well as my friend Eric's follow-up comments about it, make good sense to me.
In fairness to GivEnergy, I feel it's worth saying that if they took data readings much more often than every 5 minutes, it's likely they would quickly be "snowed under" with mountains of data. As users we would naturally always want readings taken as often as possible, but I guess there are practicalities to take into account. @@TimAndKatsGreenWalk
@@nelsonjohnson9850 it's only the server data that is held at 5 min intervals, the local data refreshes every 10s, so I expect it'll be using that for the derived values rather than the 5 min data. But still, good to know about the reliability of the other values you mentioned.
Thanks Tim, I will keep that in mind. @@TimAndKatsGreenWalk
The Pause is indeed a very useful option. Available to all inverters on new Firmware, so for now Gen2. Next Gen3, once we knows its got no bugs, not picked up in beta testing.
I think a lot of people are going to be very happy with this update! Seems to be working well for me so far.
Paul - please can you confirm that this feature will also be made available on Gen 1 inverters? Many thanks
Hi Tim have I missed when you said what Solar Panels you decide to buy? What is the make and model and did they work as well/good as you hoped? Thank in advance for the info 😊
Check out this video: ruclips.net/video/m1mIljYtFds/видео.html
So far all working as expected.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk thanks I’ve watched this so how I missed the Qcells bit I don’t know, lol
Good shout on the IO switch prior to the firmware update. Think I’ll do the same. When do you think you will switch? 👍
Well, as soon as they make it live, I guess? I don't know when that's planned for, have you heard anything about that yet?
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk Ah sorry, I assumed you meant a winter switch to Intelligent Octopus rather than Intelligent Flux. No, not heard anymore since.
@@DanEVSolar7 gotcha. Yup, I meant switching to IOF before doing the update so that the import and export would happen with the same tariff price making it less of an issue timing wise (as long as it happens outside of the peak period, that is!)
On the GE forum there have been quite a few people reporting that the BMS upgrade fails or gets stuck needing GE support to intervene. There was a fix to the upgrade a couple of weeks ago so I’m holding off upgrading mine as well until I’m sure it is reliable.
Hi Tim - thanks for this, lots of features in the web portal I'd not discovered!
I'd like to ask about one of the options in the settings, it's called "Timed Discharge" and the description says "This mode will discharge your batteries to your home during a period you define". Does this need to be set to make the battery send power to home appliances in preference to drawing from the grid? I've never actually used it, but I seem to get the system to do what I need just with Defaults or Eco.
Your battery will provide power to your home without that setting, as you've discovered. It's mostly used to force discharge your battery back to the grid, which can be handy for tariffs like Octopus Flux, which has a very high export rate between 4 and 7pm. It's the same setting as the scheduled discharge mode you'll see in the app.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk I've used the separate option Timed Export to send power to the Grid, hence I'm still unclear about "Timed Discharge".
@@CetusPaddler hmm, I see what you mean. Well, I guess the thing to do would be to run a test to see what happens when you set it up. You can always turn it off again if it does something odd!
OK, I thought I might have to do that!
Ah ha! I've worked out what the difference is between these two modes. In the app things look a bit different to the web portal and I've just experimented by changing the app settings and then refreshing the web portal to see what's changed there based on the new app settings. So, in the app when I change the battery Discharge Mode from Dynamic to Scheduled the web portal settings update to show either the Timed Discharge or Timed Export mode enabled, depending on what Consumption Type is selected in the app. If you select the Meet Home Demand consumption type in the app then the web portal shows the Timed Discharge mode enabled. If, however, you select Full Export for the Consumption Type in the app then it is the Timed Export mode that becomes enabled in the web portal. So, I tend to use the Meet Home Demand setting for the Consumption Type in the app, which corresponds to Timed Discharge, not Timed Export. That means the battery provides power to the house while doing the force export during the scheduled period, with any excess above the house load going out to the grid. At all other times the battery supports the home as required, i.e. Eco mode remains turned on. I believe that if you use the Full Export mode instead (Timed Export in the web portal) the battery won't support the house load outside of the scheduled period, i.e. Eco mode gets turned off. It's all a bit confusing, I have to say, so the best thing to do is see what works best for you, but I hope that gives you somewhere to start.
hi Tim, how do you export monthly hourly data? I can only do this day by day rather than a whole month. Do you export one day at a time? When doing monthly export I get one datapoint per day
I don't think that's an option right now. I'd suggest contacting GivEnergy to ask for that feature to be added as I'm sure if enough people ask they'll try to make it available.
Thanks, this is exactly what i wanted to know, can i force the battery to not discharge when charging my EV, since I was concerned that charging the car might in effect take place via the battery obviously thats inneficient.
Yup, charging the battery at the same time as the EV should prevent the battery discharging into the EV. That'll work with any battery system. Although with the GE gen 2 hybrid inverter the pause discharge function also works pretty well for that too.
Hi Tim, having only installed my system I am still finding my way round this portal and the app, but hope you can answer the following: on the portal it has the prompt ‘add additional cards’, but I have yet to see a) what cards can be added and b) where from. Also in the app the battery energy display has a ‘more info’ option. When I select this both the voltage and %age charge are often very different. I have requested an explanation from ge, but with no response am asking you. Thanks
Ray
The cards are usually found at the bottom of the screen, unless you've already added them all in which case there will be no more available to add, so perhaps you've already got them all in your side bar. These are things like EV charger, or Smart Tariff, stuff like that.
The percentage charge and voltage are only loosely correlated, it seems, so I guess there's more to it. It's not something I know much about to be honest. Hopefully GE can explain it in more detail.
There is a lot to take in there. I just re watched your App video too.
Question: if you were to disconnect the WAN (ie. disconn the cloud) how much of the same functionality and data storage is retained and accessible via a local Wi-Fi connection via PC and App.
Thank you
Honest answer, I don't know. If you've got it hooked up to something like Home Assistant I assume you can store that data locally, regardless of the cloud connection. I do know that GivEnergy are working on a totally local solution that should be coming at some point, which would mean you could manage all your own data without relying on GivEnergy's servers.
For many and installers that’s a game changer. Hook up internet only for service and diagnostics.
Apparently in the GE warranty terms and conditions you have to have the inverters connected to the cloud. If you’re worried about security you can always setup a dedicated wifi/powerline network for the GE inverters. Do make sure that the engineers completed the wifi setup process though and set a password on the inverter wifi, I found that mine hadn’t and the inverters were broadcasting an open hotspot onto my home network 😮
@@geoffreycoan Really useful video, thanks Tim!
Geoffrey, many thanks also for the tip on the unsecured wifi dongle. I checked and found exactly the same situation on my installation and as you say, a completely open gateway to your home network is a less than brilliant idea. Before I go back to the installer did you find how to set a password on the wifi dongle yourself? Thx, David
Hi Tim, when watching this video I was really interested in the section where you explain the pause function for the battery. I’ve not had my system very long and im struggling to find a setting that allows me to charge my car without it draining my home battery. I’ve followed your instructions but but where your hidden page shows ‘General, Inverter, Battery, mine only shows General, Inverter. The battery option does not exist. Nowhere does it offer a pause function. Any ideas?
So it seems this setting is currently only available for gen 2 hybrid inverters, it's yet to be rolled out to gen 1 and gen 3 inverters. Apparently that should be happening soon, so if you've got a gen 1 or 3 inverter check the software tab periodically for updates and with any luck it'll appear in due course.
An alternative that you might want to try is setting the battery to charge at the same time as your EV. That way both will charge from the grid without the EV draining the home battery. That's what I've been doing up until this new setting appeared and it worked reasonably well.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk thanks for that Tim. Mine has just been installed. I believe it’s a gen 3.
@@davidgordon773 the gen 3 inverters look a bit more curvey than the gen 1 and 2s, so that's one way to tell. Hopefully you'll get the update soon in either case.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk not having seen another one Tim makes identification a bit difficult but I’m sure I’ll be able to find details on the original paperwork. Thanks again.
Hi Dave, just installed Givenergy system which is Sue to be commissioned today so let me know your referral code please. A great series of videos, but yet to come across a cost breakdown for the system and all the bells and whistles. One figure you do not bring into your cost savings is petrol v ev cost. Thanks again for info, will be trying to maximise my own system as a result.😎😎😎
No problem, here's my referral code: cute-quail-190. I cover all the costs in this video (although not broken down into every item): ruclips.net/video/m1mIljYtFds/видео.htmlsi=nW8Z2RfKNvtCbjkr
The petrol vs EV is covered in one of my earlier stats videos but I can't remember which one. It basically assumes petrol use at 50 mpg, and EV covering 4 miles/kWh. Then it's just cost of petrol and cost of power using those numbers and how many miles we drive. EV works out at 2.25p per mile.
one extra thing I like on the web portal is the ability to zoom into a period by clicking and dragging. I use that to eg zoom in to the off peak window in energy view to add up my home usage durign that period. Unfortunately the totals shown on screen dno’t update to reflect the zoomed area (would be nice givenergy!)
Ah, yes, that's handy. You could send them some feedback about the totals not updating, they might update it.
very interesting ! thanks Tim
I observed with my AIO, using Intelligent Octopus with 6hrs (23h30-5h30) at low rates, that the PAUSE BATTERY DISCHARGE does not work if you set it from 23h30-5h30). Seems the system can not handle the start time appearing to be before the end time (actually going past midnight). I raised this with GE, see what they do. In the interim I have resorted to settling for half and hour less cheap power and START the pause at 00h00, which seems to work fine.
Ha! Of course, that makes sense. Good to hear you found a reasonable compromise in the mean time until they can get it addressed.
Have you updated the firmware now? I was sure I had an inverter update pending for my Gen 2 Hybrid but now I can only see an update for the battery is showing. If you did update what version is the Inverter now on?
The same appears to be the case for me. I had both inverter and battery firmware updates pending and now only the battery is pending. The inverter is currently on 0.909 while the battery is 3012.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk yes snap for the versions I'm on. I emailed Givenergy today about it and they said I'm on the current version for the inverter (909) however that is contrary to their website which shows version D911-A911 28/07/2023 as the latest for the Gen 2 hybrid models
@@philip_james huh, how weird. Oh well, I guess it'll get sorted out eventually.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk Just had this reply from support so lucky we both held off doing the upgraded 😉
910/911 has been taken down as there were issues with that, it will be eventually re released.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk I did my battery update today and it didn't complete correctly. The firmware updated but the calibration went wrong and stopped the system from generating on an otherwise perfect blue sky day. I had to contact Givenergy support and get them to sort it 😐
Hi Tim, thanks for all your very useful videos. My portal is showing under the Inverter - Remote Control tab, 10 charge and 10 discharge settings, but under the settings tab on the main inverter page, it still only indicates Slot 1 under any of the settings. Do you know if these Remote control settings actually work and how the two methods of settings interact? There is of course further complications in what the App then shows, as none of these additional remote control schedule settings are visible in the App. Also in the remote control portal settings, do you know what the difference is between reserve limit and cutoff limit? I'm trying to get the system to force discharge down to 25% between 18:00 and 19:00, but then continue to discharge normally to the home, until the recharge period at 02:00, where I charge it back to 80%. Any help much appreciated.
The remote control settings are the somewhat experimental ones, so they're not expected to be changed by most people. For the most part you shouldn't need them unless you're trying to do something very specific that the regular settings don't allow. The only way to find out if and how they work is to try them out and see what happens! The reserve limit corresponds to the value you can set in the app or regular portal settings, and it sets the lower limit for the battery discharge. Once the battery hits that limit it'll stop discharging into the house. I think that's what can then be used in the event of a power-cut for the EPS system. I'm not sure what the cut-off limit is though. For your purposes I would simply use the standard settings and set the discharge period for 18:00 to 19:00 and then see how low your battery gets. If it stays higher than 25% then you're good to go, if it drops below then shorten the discharge time. Use the Timed Discharge under the regular settings and set up 18:00-19:00 with maximum discharge power and the lowest discharge limit so that when the discharge period is over the battery will continue to supply power to the house (this is the same as the Reserve Limit, so you don't want that to stop at 25% or else the battery won't support the home below that level). One caveat to this though, is that some inverters don't seem to turn Eco mode back on after the discharge period ends (I know Gen 1 hybrid inverts don't but Gen 2 does) so the battery will stop providing power to the house. You'll have to just try it out and see what happens. If you find that your battery stops providing power after the force discharge period ends then you may need to set Eco mode back on manually each time, which is a bit of a pain. Personally, I would use the app instead as it's much easier to use than the portal, and then set it up the way I do in my app video, which is pretty much what you want to do: ruclips.net/video/DDDd_j8O5s4/видео.html (from 15:38)
Good luck!
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk Thanks Tim, the problem I seem to have, is that I need around 25% still in the battery from 19:00 onwards to get me through to the next charge period at 02:00, so I don't want to force discharge the battery beyond 25% @ 19:00, but I still want it to power the home normally from 19:00 onwards. I also don't know where I am discharging from on a daily basis, so just setting Power and Time won't give me the correct discharge e.g. the battery could be at 100% at 18:00 or it could be at 50% (depending on daily usage and the amount of Solar that day). This is why I was trying to use the portal remote settings for discharge, as they seem to allow you to set a different lower discharge threshold (DC Discharge 1 Lower SOC % limit) to the overall system lower limit (Battery Reserve % limit). It seems to me these remote settings don't work (at least not yet), but I was hoping someone could confirm that. Just using the App, I think I could either end up discharging too much or too little depending on how much is in the battery @ 18:00.
@@arlamp7701 ah, I see. Well, you may find in practice over the Summer you can more or less guarantee your battery will be fully charged by 18:00 (that was certainly the case for us last Summer). I've not tried those particular remote control settings though, so you may have to do some testing and see what happens. Alternatively, give Intelligent Flux a try as then you don't have to worry about any of that stuff since Octopus control you batteries for you. Otherwise, contacting GivEnergy support may give you confirmation one way or another on how those remote control settings work (although it seems pretty hit and miss depending on who you get as to whether they'll understand what you mean). In either case best of luck getting it to work as you want.
@@arlamp7701 also, something to bear in mind, you ideally want to ensure your battery is fully charged by 16:00 (let alone 18:00) so that you're not drawing from the grid or charging your batteries from solar during the Flux peak period (I'm assuming you're on Flux given what you're trying to do), and to make sure any excess solar is also exported for the higher rate between 16:00 and 19:00, rather than going into your battery. Again, I found this was pretty much guaranteed for me last Summer, so you may find it's similar for you.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk Yes I am on Flux, too much of a control freak to let Octopus (at least for now) control my batteries...lol. I've used the nifty remote pause feature to prevent charging during the 16:00 to 19:00 period, which seems to work. Even if I haven't charged my batteries to full by then, in theory any Solar (minus home usage) should go straight to the grid during the peak export period. I've only just had the battery system installed, so I'm probably doing it all wrong, but it's fun playing with it. Thanks again for all your comments and support. Btw I did use your link when I switched to Octopus, so I hope the referral bonus comes through for you.
'I wish it was CSV...'
Possibly they want to avoid the sort of problems we had with your excellent spreadsheet. CSV is interpreted by programmes in different ways - XLSX is a Microsoft standard, other programmes should all handle it the same way if properly coded!
CSV is more generic though, just a simple text file that is much more easily handled by other software, and Excel can handle it too, so it's more accessible in my opinion. It certainly wouldn't hurt to offer both options.
Xlsx isn’t standard - CSV is.
@@JohnR31415 I certainly don't object to them providing an xlsx file, but it would make my life easier if csv was an option too. I much prefer being able to load data into some analysis code I've written without having to use an xlsx parsing library. Not that I've done that for this yet - I've not got that far - but I could see that being something I might consider doing down the road sometime. csv would make that simpler, for sure.
The Latest firmware update to the givenergy battery has broken our inverter. After several phone calls with givenergy support and a usb drive with the firmware on, lots of tests and resets. we now have to wait for the installer with a usb lead and some software.
Oh dear, that's not ideal. I hope the installer is able to get it fixed.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk So after 5 days we are finally back up and running. We have lost 2 days of generation and not been able to use the battery for 5 days. We were able to get the inverter to run with a usb drive in the port in usb mode but then couldn't access the app or cloud. Givenergy eventually provided instructions on using a laptop to wipe the stuck file from the inverter but they were wrong in several places and had to be corrected by our installer in consultation with a field engineer. It's been interesting learning about how the different modes work and how the firmware update is performed. Via cloud, usb or laptop.
@@r5k oh, wow, that sounds like an ordeal. I'm glad you're back up and running though.
@@TimAndKatsGreenWalk Thankful that we managed to get it sorted without the 4 week wait for a Givenergy engineer. I feel like they need to work on their support and response time.
@@r5kthey're expanding fast so hopefully that will improve. I hope I don't have the same problem!
Tim, do you know why I don’t see the battery options on the remote control screen?
Just seen you comment about Gen 2 only…..we have a Gen 3!
Yup, I should have explained about this being gen 2 only right now. Hopefully the others will get those options soon.
On the Solcast site how did you tell it you had two arrays?
Erm, I think I set up two sites and gave each site the parameters of one side of the house. Then you tell the GivEnergy portal about both sites. It was a while ago I did that so I can't remember exactly. It was a bit of a fudge, I remember that much.
Hi Tim, having set up Solcast and adding the API to the GE Portal all worked well - then about 3pm daily it disappears from the GE Portal and wont add back in until the next morning. I can still access my Solcast account Does anyone else find this happening - is it something to do with the API access limit daily on home user account?
ok think i have found my own answer - in Solcast I have the following red banner "You have used all 10 API requests available in your daily API usage limit. Usage resets at midnight UTC."
Ah, very interesting. I had this happen to me too. Good to see you found the answer.
How do I make changes to the solcast api that I put in, I can't find how to do it
I think you have to go to the Solcast website, set up your system, then import that into the GivEnergy portal
Hi. Just noticed I've got a gen 1 3.6kW hydrid GiveEnergy inverter. Does anyone have the same and know how to have it set to Eco and a schedule to force charge the battery and force export at peak tarriff? It doesn't seem to want to do both
That does indeed seem to be the case for the gen 1 inverters, unfortunately. I'd suggest contacting GivEnergy to add your weight to the requests to get this added to future firmware upgrades for the gen 1 inverters.
Hi, Tim. Great video.
Get that oak tree cut down. 🪚🌳☀️
No way.