Growatt battery not discharging

[thfctom]

Hi all,

I had my Growatt batteries installed last week, and they don’t seem to be discharging.

As you can see from the image of my grid usage, the panels are providing the energy during the day, but when it’s dark, the battery is not kicking in.

The battery has been at 100% for a few days (losing about 1% a day through what I assume is drain).

Has anybody had this problem before?

Cheers!

Tom

 

[johnb2713]

Thats a very low usage you have shown (I assume from the Octopus app?). Are you sure the Growatt isnt feeding into your system? What does the shineapp show you?

 

[thfctom]

Thats a very low usage you have shown (I assume from the Octopus app?). Are you sure the Growatt isnt feeding into your system? What does the shineapp show you?

Yeh, that’s the Octopus app. And it’s not much, I agree, but nearly 2kW in a day should be manageable from the battery right? The app is saying the battery never got used.

 

[johnb2713]

What settings do you have in the inverter ?

Heres an example of mine:-



Do you know if you hae a current transformer (CT) or a power meter for the solar?

Could you take a photograph of your meter and surrounding equipment and post it here, we may be able to spot something.

 

[thfctom]

Here are my settings - they are the same as yours. I'll go and get some phots of the system now.

Cheers!

 

[thfctom]

Here are the photos of my system.

 

[johnb2713]

Here are the photos of my system.

Whilst I cant see your meter tails to confirm the presence of a CT, you do have a generation meter You probably need to change WIREDCT to METER in the power harvester. The password you need is the date in YYYYMMDD format so today is 20230618.

 

[thfctom]

Ok thanks, I've changed that now.

I'll give it some time to settle, and report back. However right now the battery is still at 100%, not discharging, panels are generating next to nothing, and the house is using energy from the grid.

Thanks for your help so far!

 

[johnb2713]

Ok thanks, I've changed that now.

I'll give it some time to settle, and report back. However right now the battery is still at 100%, not discharging, panels are generating next to nothing, and the house is using energy from the grid.

Thanks for your help so far!

That seems strange, what does the shine app show, this part of the screen:-

 

[thfctom]

 

[johnb2713]

On photo number 3 with the batteries link in and link out are wrong. Link out of one battery needs to go to Link IN of the other.

 

[thfctom]

There is a cable that runs from Link-Out of one battery to the Link-In of the other battery.

 

[johnb2713]

View attachment 15643

There is a cable that runs from Link-Out of one battery to the Link-In of the other battery.

It didnt look that way from the other photo.

 

[johnb2713]

The Shineapp only updates about every 10 minutes. Hopefully you will see some activity from the batteries now youve changed to meter.

 

[thfctom]

Yeh I can see it looked that way, the cables were a bit mangled and hidden.

It’s still not discharging the battery, I’ll give up this evening and see what it’s doing tomorrow.

Cheers!

 

[user 36882]

I read this with interest, this is the same issue I have with our Growatt installation. The battery does not discharge, also the growatt app does not show import and export to/from grid. Our usage o/night is around 1.0 - 1.5 kWh that should easily be accommodated by the batteries. Our daytime consumption is minimal and is currently easily taken care of by PV generation. Installer was back for 7th time in 6 months and insists the installation and equipment are fine and has nothing more to offer in terms of problem solving.
My previous post on this subject.
I'd be really interested to know of possible solutions/causes.
May I ask @thfctom what happens if you use TOU discharge/grid first command to force discharge battery?
Thanks

 

[thfctom]

Hi,

I haven’t actually changed anything, other than turn the settings back to John’s original screenshot (but actually on WIREDCT and not meter).

I’ve been out this evening, haven’t touched it, and I’m finally getting discharge from the battery, with no import from the grid.

I’ve read your thread though, and I also have the issue where there’s no reading for import from grid. However, now that I have the battery working, hopefully I don’t need to read anything from that again!

Sorry I couldn’t be more help!

 

[thfctom]

Scratch that, battery is still not discharging and I’m still importing energy from the grid at night or during the rain this morning.

Very annoying. I have a case open with the installer but I don’t have much hope, based on your dealings with your installer @milomonster. Out of interest, who was your installer?

 

[johnb2713]

Hi,

I haven’t actually changed anything, other than turn the settings back to John’s original screenshot (but actually on WIREDCT and not meter).

I’ve been out this evening, haven’t touched it, and I’m finally getting discharge from the battery, with no import from the grid.

I’ve read your thread though, and I also have the issue where there’s no reading for import from grid. However, now that I have the battery working, hopefully I don’t need to read anything from that again!

Sorry I couldn’t be more help!

Are you on a wiredCT? could you post a photograph of the CT please.

 

[thfctom]

Are you on a wiredCT? could you post a photograph of the CT please.

Yeh I believe so. It’s clipped to the live wire here.