Grant Aerona 13KW ASHP installed in January.

GSE In Roof solar panels installed last week. 5.46KW

Ampihome 10KW battery

5KW Inverter

Eddi solar power diverter 

Very happy with all of it so far. Meeting expectations. On Octopus Tracker and also Octopus Outgoing fixed. We are away this week and just putting loads to the grid. Battery is fully charged, Eddi is topped up and today so far we have put 18kWh into the grid out of 26kWh produced. Rest has gone in battery recharge, Eddi and about 4kWh on actually powering the house since midnight.

@boblochinver I have a 5KW inverter and at points yesterday it was pumping 4.5 to the grid.

Hello

We are in the middle of our solar install. We have 23 Trinia panels with optimisers, 2 GivEnergy inverters and 4 GivEnergy 5.2Kwh batteries. Each inverter is connected to 2 batteries.

Only 1 inverter is working and thus only 2 batteries are storing. The system has not been commissioned.

The second inverter doesn't seem to connect to its 2 batteries and only 1 of these batteries seems to owkr. The other is a complete dud and won't switch on.

EB Solar ( The Installer )  say they were told by GivEnergy that 2 inverters would work on a single phase supply.

I spoke to GivEnergy tech support and was told they wouldn't recommend it and wouldn't support the set up.

So, we are stuck at the moment. The panels are working but none of the monitoring is working yet.

My question is, can you use 2 inverters on a single phase supply??

Are GivEnergy reliable ?

Many thanks

Alan

Two GE hybrid inverters CAN work on a single phase supply but it’s by no means straightforward. You can get cross-charging amongst other issues and the data gets all messed up but people have got it to work for them. GE have always taken the line that they don’t currently support this so-called ‘plant’ setup which surely they must’ve said when your installer originally asked (if they asked). They are producing an EMS system which will allow the inverters to talk clearly to each other and not fight but it’s not yet in production. If you haven’t done already, I’d highly recommend joining the GE Forum as there are many on there that will have your setup and who will help. https://community.givenergy.cloud/ GE also have a FT employee on the forum who is very helpful and has transformed GE owner satisfaction. The kit itself I’ve found reliable- they’ve had some firmware issues in the past and a few bugs are lingering still but they’ve been proactively hunting them down.

What has your installer said about this? He’s not delivered a working system so surely he needs to sort it out or offer you an alternative equivalent.

@dougmlancs Thanks for your reply and advice.

GIV have been here and have fixed the system. Faulty Battery Management System board in 1 inverter. System now working but not yet properly set up and commissioned. 

The GivEnergy app is giving some odd readings at times. Nothing much is switched on here but the app suggests we are using 1.74 kW with only the 3 domestic fridges and a few LED lights on, but I suspect its too early to draw any conclusions. So, once its all been set up etc, I will keep an eye on it.

EB Solar, who installed it all, are adamant they spoke to GIV about using 2 inverters on a single phase supply. The GIV technician also said it should work. Time will tell. However, EB Solar, will not be getting their money until it does work as specified and quoted. 

EB Solar are also adamant that they will get it all working correctly.Fingers crossed.

I will certainly join the GE forum as you suggest.

Alan

Hi - we have just had a new solar PV system put into service: -  

Luxpower LXP 6kW hybrid inverter; 3x3.2kWh Hanchu Greenlinx LFP battery system; 20 x 430W Jinko Tiger Neo panels, south and east aspects.

All seems to be running well so far, with some useful production despite a distinct lack of summer sunshine this month.  

Just finalised my self installation yesterday.

1. Growatt MOD 7KTL XH 3 phase hybrid inverter. No battery yet.
2. 7x Jinko 420w facing Southeast on one string.
3. 10x Bluesun 425w facing Southwest on one string.

The installation was easy from a technical point of view. Dragging panels up the roof by myself was the most annoying part.

I am pleased to see that absent any actual sunshine, this setup easily covers my 300w baseload and manages about 1100-1200w in cloudy circumstances. 

Currently I am running our heat pump once a day for hot water. That pushes total demand up to 1700w which is still covered with solar for the biggest part in cloudy circumstances.

As soon as the heat pump runs 24/7 for heating, it will take any solar power available and there will be higher and consistent savings. 

Posted by: @mphb

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Just finalised my self installation yesterday.

1. Growatt MOD 7KTL XH 3 phase hybrid inverter. No battery yet.
2. 7x Jinko 420w facing Southeast on one string.
3. 10x Bluesun 425w facing Southwest on one string.

The installation was easy from a technical point of view. Dragging panels up the roof by myself was the most annoying part.

I am pleased to see that absent any actual sunshine, this setup easily covers my 300w baseload and manages about 1100-1200w in cloudy circumstances. 

Currently I am running our heat pump once a day for hot water. That pushes total demand up to 1700w which is still covered with solar for the biggest part in cloudy circumstances.

As soon as the heat pump runs 24/7 for heating, it will take any solar power available and there will be higher and consistent savings. 

To better utilise your solar PV system, you could consider installing a Power Diverter to heat your hot water via an immersion heater. This has the benefit of only using excess PV generation that would normally be exported to the grid, and also removes the need to run your heat pump, which may in fact be importing from the grid.

Ok. Update on our new PV system. EB Solar accepted the twin Giv system wasn't working correctly.The twin GivEnergy inverter system has been removed and replaced with CYG Skyline system as follows

1. 2 x 6 kwh CYG Skyline Hybrid inverters, one configured as slave and the other master.
2. 4 x 5.2 kWh CYG Skyline batteries in banks of 2 below each inverter.
3. System seems to be working but the Solar Touch app appears very comprehensive but not user friendly. CYG are still developing it.
4. The 23 x  420w Trinia panels remain unaltered in 2 strings with TIGI optlmisers.

I'm on Octopus Cosy tariff as we have 2 x 14kw Mitsubishi heat pumps. Am wondering what tariffs other are on with similar set ups and does anyone have any alternative suggestions.

We a PHEV but not a full EV.

Cheers

Alan

@alanb Our set-up is not that dissimilar to yours; we have 8.1 kWp of PV various orientations either side of south facing, 2 x Powerwall 2’s, an 8 kW/h Daikin ASHP, a Sunamp ePV210 DHW heater fed by solar/grid via a MyEnergi Eddi, no EV’s or any other transport other than Shanks Pony or public transport. I’m retired and have a nerdish relationship with Octopus Agile and check the cheapest/greenest times each day and set the Teslas to charge then, likewise, the Sunamp can be fed from cheapest grid power if the export rate for our solar production is more favourable to send our excess to the grid or not. Hope this is informative and useful, Regards, Toodles.

It partly depends on whether you want to switch tariffs either side of the generation season (you can change most tariffs apart from tracker every 30 days with 🐙). I’m on Octopus Flux at the moment and will switch to Cosy around October for the heating season and then back to Flux (or I might try Intelligent Flux) in March/April when I’m back to exporting more than I’m using. 

If you’d rather not change tariffs then Cosy will still allow you to have Outgoing Fixed/Agile but you’ll likely earn much less than on Flux over the generation season.

@dougmlancs I have been keeping a close eye on the various newer tariffs from OE, I have been using Agile with nerdish enthusiasm during the last year. I think (but am open to correction from the wiser users) that the half hourly rates offered by Agile are generally competitive with the Cosy cheaper times - and also with the Flux rates etc.; perhaps I am missing something here but to me, it looks like the average Agile rate is still lower than the others almost all the time. I would be interested to know if anyone has done any in-depth comparisons please. I suppose that with any fixed rates (even if there are three of them at different times of the day) in use, there is some peace of mind factors in knowing there will be no surprises! As a nerd, I spend a few minutes each day checking the Agile rates for the next day and adjust my charging and DHW heating times to best utilise the cheapest times. I can usually keep the smugness factor on ‘high’. Of course, I may have this wrong and am only kidding myself that I am fairing as well as possible at present current exorbitant rates (not Octopus Energy to blame I know!) Regards, Toodles.