Battery temperature

Ifgow

Hi - would it be possible to display GivEnergy battery temperature on the home page display, as it seems this has a profound effect on throttling charge/discharge rate?

Regards,

Iain

admin

Ifgow Yeah we can look at that, won't be available as easily on other inverters due to not officially published APIs.

Ifgow

admin Thanks, seems to have been a bit of an issue with the Givenergy Batteries and charging/discharging this week especially with the cold spell.

KristianS

Ifgow Just a quick question - assuming the point of your request - is your GivEnergy battery set outside in the elements?

Ifgow

KristianS no, it’s in the loft, but was getting down to 3°C last week and not been over 20°C this week.

Kevin

Is that something that can be read from growatt batteries? And if so where?
End of last week my charging rate was completely in the toilet, was getting 0.6kw and lower at one point whilst in the summer I was getting 3+kw
My batteries are in the loft and I really didn't think it would get that cold up there!

admin

Kevin I can't see any way of getting it from Growatt. Doesn't seem to be available in their dashboard even?

Kevin

admin I certainly couldn't find anything, was just checking with the hive-mind that is the WW community!

Kevin

admin I have now found a way to get this information (although me it at least is a little convoluted!) There is a field BatteryCellMaxTemp(℃) in the historical data.
To get to this I had to share the plant to myself (different email address to the one Growatt have for me!) and then I get the option to view the "history data" in my photovoltaic devices. (Also had to open the link in incognito mode!)
You've got to wonder why Growatt are making this so difficult to find/see!
Anyways, I have now boxed my battery in with Kingspan and the battery temp has gone from being 10/11degrees to a healthy 26/27 degrees and now charging a hellava lot better.
Loadsa posts on the Growatt Uk fb page have concerned me and I have also ordered a smoke detector to install alongside it!

MrMessy

Ifgow can you adjust you're charge rate/schedules so the battery is always doing something? That would help keep the cell temps up.

Failing that, wrap them in some Kingspan (other insulation is available), just don't forget to remove it in spring.

Crazysquares

Ifgow
Make a cover out of 50mm Kingspan. Foil tape, tape measure and a sharp knife is all you need. It will only take an hour or so. Small thermostatic heat pad optional.

Ifgow

MrMessy over the last couple of days there is now a winter setting in the GivEnergy app, which gives the battery a little tickle every 10 min if it falls below 2°C 👍🏻

Ifgow

Crazysquares I wondered about that but wasn’t sure about ventilation requirements for the battery.

MrMessy

Ifgow mine are inside, so not an issue for me. Also, I have 2x9.5 and a Gen2 5kW inverter, which effectively eliminates the reduced discharge issue anyway.

Ifgow there's no ventilation requirement for the batteries, only the inverter. If you had an AIO, the batteries are at the bottom and inverter at the top, so just insulate the bottom 2/3 of the unit.

JayC

Thank you Ifgow I'd not noticed this arrive.
@admin what impact would you expect enabling this function to have on WW instructions? Specifically would you expect the AIO to return to WW setting post 'tickle' as Ifgow has named it?

Crazysquares

I figured it wasn't an air tight fit as such and has some holes cut for the cabling etc so likely drafty enough. There are no ventilation holes on the battery itself so nothing being blocked in that respect. Worth checking yours for any.

KevinD

MrMessy
Thank you Mr Messy. I am at the design phase of my customised box using 50mm sheet insulation from B+Q, your comment has just reduced my B.O.M. 👍

admin

JayC Yeah, this would interrupt and overwrite any schedules/automations (including WW's) and mess things up.

admin

Kevin Thanks for digging this info out. Sounds like a bit of a faff!

JayC

Kevin I had a hell of a job getting my smoke alarm (which the installer informed was a regs requirement) to connect. Eventually realised I had effectively built a Kingspan faraday cage insulating the eaves where the gateway and solar inverter live.

KevinD

JayC

JayC
Before retirement one of the lads at work built a remote alarm system that used the mobile network to alert if anyone broke into a quarry / stone crushing plant ( loads of heavy copper cables to nick )
Everything tested ok so he moved it from a glass reinforced plastic box into a more sturdy steel one. It took a while for the penny to drop as when he took of the lid check the circuitry and connections it started working again....