Posted by: @majordennisbloodnok

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I have a feeling you misunderstand me, @jamespa. I don’t advocate regulation here at all. What I advocate is that consumers be made aware of what’s easily possible so they can start demanding the manufacturers do better. That’s one of the fundamental reasons I’ve written as much as I have about Home Assistant; not because I think it’s the mainstream answer but because it demonstrates what is not only achievable but also practical.

Fair enough.

Its interesting that opentherm (for boilers) has been around for decades but several large manufacturers, eg Vaillant, didn't adopt it because the universal interface (ie an on/off contact) is easier*, albeit not as functional.  I strongly suspect that the same will occur with heat pumps unless it is mandated.

* that said Mars' installer still, as I understand it, managed to mess up even this simple interface this up by connecting 240V logic to a 5V logic contact.  Ho-hum

It gets curiouser and curiouser…

Givenergy have bought another company 

https://wearestaffordshire.co.uk/news/givenergy-acquires-orange-power-in-a-move-set-to-shake-up-commercial-grid-services/  

so no money to stay solvent and honour their warranties but enough to buy other businesses.

Posted by: @judith

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Givenergy have bought another company 

This happened in Oct 2024 so not current news.  The article is undated which isn't very helpful!

Posted by: @downfield

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Posted by: @judith

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Givenergy have bought another company 

This happened in Oct 2024 so not current news.  The article is undated which isn't very helpful!

 

From the thisistsaffordshire web page it is indeed impossible to determine how recent that article is, so it is easy to see how confusion can arise.

The point that GE could afford to buy other companies at a time when its own share of the market was shrinking probably stands I reckon.  Maybe a desperate attempt to diversify?

According to Companies House, Orange Power is still trading with Jason Osler (of GE?) at the helm.

There really does need to be some tighter control of what the directors of failed companies can get up to, me thinks.

Here is the latest communication from GivEnergy regarding their software. It has been converted into a pdf from their email communication.

In it they confirm that their parent company has gone into administration.

Hello

We have GivEnergy Battery and Inverter installed 4 years ago. last week the Inverter did a software update and rebooted itself. Then the batteries - that were on 100% suddenly discharged themselves for no apparent reason. Now they are at 40V sleep state and the inverter won't communicate with them and I can't get them to force charge when turned on. They do go on but they both have status light turn orange to red and a green light flashing next to it.

The installer has stone walled us and they recently had their MSC certification removed. Everything has worked really well up until that stage. We had an electrician check and do a full shut down and restart but nothing helped.

I have tried to look into a solution but can only see getting a special DC charger that works with this batter to try and trickle charge it.

anyone have any advice please? spent so much on these and now over a few minutes they became worthless and redundant.

thanks for reading 

@sunnyskies, really sorry to hear this and the timing couldn't be worse given everything going on with GivEnergy right now.

I think that what you're describing is a known failure mode that others have experienced. There are cases of firmware updates failing mid-process, particularly when the battery firmware element doesn't complete cleanly, leaving the system unable to communicate either locally or with the cloud.

One thing I'd also ask (and I raise this in the context of the GivEnergy Premium situation being discussed in this thread) do you have an active account with GivEnergy's software portal? There is a possibility, though I can't confirm it definitively, that the firmware update behaviour may be linked to account or subscription status given the changes GivEnergy Software has been rolling out. Worth checking whether your portal access and system registration are still active.

Your installer stonewalling you and having their MCS certification removed is a separate problem. If you paid any element by credit card a Section 75 claim is worth exploring as I don't think any other complaint avenues will to anywhere useful.

@sunnyskies have you posted this question on the GivEnergy forum?

https://community.givenergy.cloud/

there are lots of helpful folks over there and some may have had and even solved a similar problem.

Posted by: @sunnyskies

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Then the batteries - that were on 100% suddenly discharged themselves for no apparent reason. Now they are at 40V

From where are you getting this 40v?

Have you put a multimeter onto the battery wires?

Are you sure it's genuine?
For example if one of the battery leads was no longer connected to the inverter, does the battery still read 40v?

It's possible that the very low reading is due to the inverter pulling the voltage low. So it might rise again without the inverter connected.

Please take care not to cause a short circuit by having a battery wire disconnected. Put the bare end into a plastic bag and hold it there with a rubber band 🙂 

Posted by: @sunnyskies

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I have tried to look into a solution but can only see getting a special DC charger that works with this batter to try and trickle charge it.

You don't need to use a dedicated LiFePO4 battery charger to put charge back into the cells.

If you have access to a power supply which can work up to 50+ volts that would do.
We can talk you through this if you wish.

Amazon usually have a few 60v 5A power supplies on offer, below £60. Or try Ebay. You might find a second-hand one.

Yes it might take a few hours to reach 50+ volts if the power supply can't deliver much current. But you're only needing to bring the voltage within the normal operational range of 48v – 55v.

That's very different from attempting to fully recharge the cells!

Posted by: @editor

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Your installer stonewalling you and having their MCS certification removed is a separate problem. If you paid any element by credit card a Section 75 claim is worth exploring as I don't think any other complaint avenues will to anywhere useful.

It's still worthwhile checking with Citizens Advice Bureau. Yes I realise that 4-years is beyond the timescales stipulated in the Consumer Rights Act, but they might have local knowledge of someone who sorts such problems. Perhaps that's a Community Energy group.

Frankly if the original installer doesn't want this job, then you're better off not using them. You don't want to give them access to your battery, only for another fault to arise a few weeks later.

@sunnyskies I agree with Downfield trying to ask the GE community forum since I’ve read before something about ensuring the battery doesn’t stay flat using a DC charger. That buys you time and prevents the battery permanently degrading. I can’t recall the details.

Good luck with finding someone to help.

@transparent Thank you for your reply, it is much appreciated as well as everyone else too.

When logged into the GE app it showed both batteries, primary at 39.7V and secondary at 40V with 0% above it.

The battery leads are still connected to the inverter but we switched off the batteries and turned the isolator switch off to them.

We have a power supply available near the batteries, and will purchase one of those you sent the link to me (thank you). I got a pdf from GivEnergy (after doing a search) on how to disconnect the batteries, remove the cover and attach the leads to the correct positive and negative. But will appreciate further instructions if you could walk me through this. Another local company quoted £460 ex VAT to come and charge it up, so I would rather try this ourselves instead. 

Have contacted Citizens advice but they've said we have to follow the installers customer complaints procedure first (which they don't have one, no surprise) and then take it to small claims court. Will post on the GE community form and ask too in case others in similar situation. Definitely not using the installer again - they are doing everything possible not to help. I have called a number of other local PV companies but no one is ready to assist.

I did contact Premium GE last night and they did reply, saying this is a known issue with these batteries and only solution is to bring the voltage up - but only an electrician should do this. However seems like its possible we could do it given the comments received, as we are only trying to bring up the voltage and not fully charge it.

Thank you

@editor Thank you for your reply. We do have an active GE account and access to the portal, which I where I can see all the information, as well as in the app. I contacted GE premium and they confirmed it is a known issue but not to do with a software update...I am not sure and they said it is unfortunate given the timing which is a coincidence. Unfortunately we did not pay by Credit Card and was a bank transfer so not covered there either. The consumer rights act covers for 6 years but installer is just laughing at that as difficult to force it without going to small claims court and there are procedures to follow first to lodge this (following their complaint procedure). I believe the installer will just do anything to avoid that and keep us hanging. They said they could come at some point - no definitive date if we paid £200 for the visit. Who knows if they would charge anything on top of that after they visit, which would put us in a difficult position. So as others said, we don't want them to have access in case there are further issues they don't resolve.