GivEnergy Local Monitoring — Real-Time Data Without the Cloud
How to monitor and control a GivEnergy system on your local network. Covers the GivEnergy app's built-in local connection mode, GivTCP and givenergy-local for Home Assistant, and direct Modbus TCP access for custom integrations.
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Whether you need help getting the app's local connection working, setting up GivTCP with Home Assistant, or configuring Modbus access — we can help in a remote session.
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Why set up local monitoring?
GivEnergy systems support both cloud and local monitoring. The cloud portal at givenergy.cloud provides remote access from anywhere, but local monitoring gives you faster data, works during cloud outages, and opens up automation that the portal cannot do on its own.
The GivEnergy app's cloud connection refreshes every 5 minutes. In local mode it refreshes every 10–15 seconds. GivTCP and givenergy-local update even faster over Modbus. If you are diagnosing an intermittent fault or verifying that a charge command has taken effect, local data is far more useful than cloud data.
GivEnergy's cloud portal can be unavailable during maintenance or server issues. Local monitoring tools talk directly to the inverter on your home network — they continue working even when the portal is down. If you rely on monitoring for fault diagnosis or schedule management, local access provides a reliable fallback.
With GivTCP or givenergy-local and Home Assistant, you can automate charge and discharge schedules based on live Octopus Agile prices, weather forecasts, or household consumption patterns. This level of automation is not possible with the cloud portal alone and is one of the most powerful reasons to set up local monitoring.
Local monitoring via Modbus is a direct hardware protocol between your network and the inverter. It continues to work regardless of changes to cloud platforms, app updates, or server infrastructure. Your monitoring data stays on your own network.
GivEnergy app local connection — the easiest option
The GivEnergy app has a built-in local connection mode that talks directly to the inverter over your home WiFi. No additional software, no Home Assistant, no technical setup. This is the place to start for most homeowners.
How to enable local monitoring in the app
Open the GivEnergy app and tap the menu icon (three lines, top left).
Go to Settings → Local Monitoring.
Tap Scan for your inverter. Your phone must be on the same WiFi network as the GivEnergy dongle. Be patient — an IP address should appear below the scan option.
Once discovered, the app switches to Home mode. Data now refreshes every 10–15 seconds instead of the cloud's 5-minute interval.
Home mode vs Away mode
The GivEnergy app has two connection modes that determine how it communicates with the inverter:
Your phone talks directly to the inverter over your home WiFi. Data refreshes every 10–15 seconds. You must be on the same network as the dongle. Shows real-time solar generation, battery state of charge, grid import/export, and house consumption as it happens.
Data is routed through GivEnergy's cloud servers. Refreshes every 5 minutes. Works from anywhere with internet. Subject to cloud outages and server maintenance windows.
The app switches between Home and Away mode automatically based on whether it can reach the inverter locally. Both modes give you full access to schedules, system modes, and settings — the difference is data freshness.
Troubleshooting local connection
If the app cannot find the inverter locally or keeps falling back to Away mode:
Confirm your phone is on the same WiFi network as the dongle — not mobile data, not a guest network, and not a 5GHz-only connection if the dongle is on 2.4GHz.
Check that client isolation (sometimes called AP isolation) is disabled on your router. This setting blocks devices from talking to each other on the same network.
If you use a VPN app on your phone, it can route local traffic through the VPN tunnel and prevent the app from reaching the inverter. Disable the VPN or configure split tunnelling to exclude the GivEnergy app.
Try entering the dongle's IP address manually in Settings → Local Monitoring instead of relying on auto-discovery.
GivTCP — full local control with Home Assistant
GivTCP is the most capable local monitoring and control solution for GivEnergy systems. It communicates directly with the inverter via Modbus TCP on port 8899 and integrates with Home Assistant for data logging, dashboards, and full automation.
What GivTCP provides
All inverter registers exposed as Home Assistant entities — solar generation, battery state of charge, grid import and export, house load, inverter temperature, and more. Data updates every few seconds with no cloud lag.
Set charge and discharge schedules, system mode, and state-of-charge limits directly from Home Assistant. Automations can change settings based on time, tariff price, weather, or any other Home Assistant data source — without touching the cloud portal.
Combined with Home Assistant's Octopus Energy integration, GivTCP can automatically schedule charging during the cheapest Agile periods and discharge or export during the most expensive. This is one of the most popular reasons for setting up GivTCP.
Requirements and installation
A Home Assistant instance running on your network — Home Assistant OS on a Raspberry Pi, a Mini PC, or a Home Assistant Container installation.
The GivEnergy dongle connected to your home WiFi with a static IP address reserved on your router.
Install GivTCP via HACS (Home Assistant Community Store). The integration handles installation and configuration — enter the dongle's IP address and GivTCP connects over Modbus TCP on port 8899.
givenergy-local — a lighter Home Assistant integration
An alternative community integration for Home Assistant that also connects via Modbus TCP on port 8899. Developed by cdpuk, it focuses on monitoring and basic control with entities that plug directly into the Home Assistant energy dashboard.
Installation via HACS
Open HACS in Home Assistant and go to Integrations → Custom Repositories.
Add the repository URL: https://github.com/cdpuk/givenergy-local
Go to Configuration → Devices & Services → Add Integration, find GivEnergy Local in the list, and enter the dongle's IP address when prompted.
The integration exposes inverter and battery entities that work with the HA energy dashboard out of the box. It uses an embedded fork of the givenergy-modbus library, so there are no external dependencies to manage.
GivTCP vs givenergy-local — which to choose?
Both connect to the same Modbus TCP endpoint on port 8899. The main differences:
GivTCP is the more feature-rich option. Full schedule control, system mode switching, and deeper Octopus tariff automation. Better suited if you want to actively control the inverter from Home Assistant.
givenergy-local is lighter and more focused on monitoring. Good if you primarily want energy dashboard data and basic controls without the additional overhead.
You should only use one of these integrations at a time — do not run both simultaneously, as they would compete for the same Modbus TCP connection.
Direct Modbus TCP — for developers and custom systems
GivEnergy inverters expose a Modbus TCP server through the WiFi dongle. Any Modbus-compatible software can connect directly to read inverter registers without GivTCP, givenergy-local, or any intermediary.
Connection details
Port: 8899
Unit ID: 1
Port 8899 is supported by both the standard WiFi dongle and the newer AECC dongle. The register map is documented by the GivTCP project on GitHub. Read-only access to monitoring registers is available without authentication.
Compatible tools
Node-RED — visual automation flows with Modbus nodes for read and write operations.
PyModbus — Python library for custom scripts and energy management systems.
Grafana + InfluxDB — long-term data logging and custom dashboards from Modbus register data.
The dongle interface at 10.10.100.254 is for WiFi setup — not monitoring
There is a common misconception that the dongle's hotspot interface at 10.10.100.254 is a local monitoring tool. It is not. That interface is used exclusively during initial WiFi setup to connect the dongle to your home router.
What 10.10.100.254 actually does
When you hold the dongle's reset button (or on first power-up), it broadcasts its own WiFi hotspot. Connecting to that hotspot and navigating to 10.10.100.254 opens a basic setup page where you enter your home WiFi credentials. Once the dongle connects to your router, the hotspot closes and that interface is no longer accessible.
For local monitoring, use the GivEnergy app's local connection mode, GivTCP, givenergy-local, or direct Modbus TCP — all of which connect to the dongle's network IP address assigned by your router, not the hotspot IP.
If the app's local connection is not finding the inverter, GivTCP is not connecting, or you need help configuring automated tariff scheduling — we can diagnose and fix it in a remote session. We work with GivEnergy systems daily.
Connect or reconnect the GivEnergy dongle to your home WiFi network.
How to update the WiFi dongle chipset firmware.
Why GivEnergy shows the inverter offline and how to restore connectivity.
Configure GivEnergy for Octopus Go, Agile, Intelligent, Economy 7 and more.
GivEnergy local monitoring questions
Open the GivEnergy app, tap the menu icon (three lines, top left), then go to Settings → Local Monitoring. Tap Scan for your inverter — your phone must be connected to the same WiFi network as the dongle. Once the inverter is discovered, the app switches to Home mode and data refreshes every 10–15 seconds. If auto-discovery fails, enter the dongle's IP address manually. Reserve that IP on your router so it does not change after reboots.
Home mode is the local connection — your phone talks directly to the inverter over WiFi and data refreshes every 10–15 seconds. Away mode is the cloud connection through GivEnergy's servers, where data refreshes every 5 minutes. The app switches automatically depending on whether it can reach the inverter locally, but you can configure the IP address manually in Settings → Local Monitoring.
Yes. The GivEnergy app's Home mode, GivTCP, and givenergy-local all communicate directly with the inverter on your local network and do not require internet access. Modbus TCP on port 8899 also works entirely on the local network. The only features that require internet are the cloud portal at givenergy.cloud and the app's Away mode.
Both are community Home Assistant integrations that connect via Modbus TCP on port 8899. GivTCP is the more feature-rich option — full schedule control, system mode switching, and Octopus tariff automation. givenergy-local by cdpuk is lighter and focused on monitoring with entities that plug directly into the HA energy dashboard. Use one or the other — do not run both at the same time as they would compete for the Modbus connection.
GivEnergy inverters expose Modbus TCP on port 8899 at the dongle's network IP address with Unit ID 1. This is different from the standard Modbus TCP port 502 — make sure your Modbus client is configured for port 8899. The register map is documented by the GivTCP project on GitHub.
Need help with local monitoring?
Whether the app's local connection is not working, you need GivTCP configured, or you want automated tariff scheduling set up — tell us what you're trying to achieve and we'll get it working in a remote session.