We can confirm a CT clamp direction error remotely by reviewing your portal's import/export readings and power flow data. We'll tell you whether it's a software fix or requires a physical reversal — before you commit to a site visit.
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Brilliant support to get my solar battery working again. I didn’t expect help on a Saturday but Ron answered the phone, listened and sent me the information I needed to get it going, answered questions etc. A brilliant service I’d happily recommend.
Ron was brilliant. He really tried to help. He spent hours trying to fix our GivEnergy AIO and ultimately it became apparent that it needed parts to fix the BMS management system. As there appears to be no replacement parts available on the market, he gave excellent advice on what options are now available to move forward. He is incredibly helpful and knowledgeable.
Called back within a day and gave good advice.
Ron was extremely helpful and tried his best to repair/reset our GivEnergy inverter remotely. In the event he was unsuccessful but he couldn’t have been more helpful. If you have problems with a GivEnergy system please contact him. Highly recommended
Big thanks to Ron. He was incredibly patient and helpful over the phone, taking the time to walk myself and the installer through every troubleshooting step. Through lots of testing he figured out the issue was definitely a hardware issue, which allows us to consider our next steps. Support fees are clear and they operate a “no fix no fee” policy. It is rare to find that kind of honesty combined with dedicated phone support nowadays. I highly recommend Ron, if you need help with your solar system don’t hesitate to give him a call.
A superb service from Ron who went beyond the normal service received from other Tech support companies. I live abroad and was badly let down when my givenergy system failed (and the company went bankrupt) and the local supplier ran away from the problem. Ron sorted the problem and even accessed specialist coding for the inverter that would not be available for suppliers. Ron also ran a full diagnostic to insure that all was in good working order afterwards. Without Rons support and patient assistance I doubt I would ever have got the system back up and running. Well done and thankyou and you have a customer for the future.
Brilliant support to get my solar battery working again. I didn’t expect help on a Saturday but Ron answered the phone, listened and sent me the information I needed to get it going, answered questions etc. A brilliant service I’d happily recommend.
Ron was brilliant. He really tried to help. He spent hours trying to fix our GivEnergy AIO and ultimately it became apparent that it needed parts to fix the BMS management system. As there appears to be no replacement parts available on the market, he gave excellent advice on what options are now available to move forward. He is incredibly helpful and knowledgeable.
Called back within a day and gave good advice.
Ron was extremely helpful and tried his best to repair/reset our GivEnergy inverter remotely. In the event he was unsuccessful but he couldn’t have been more helpful. If you have problems with a GivEnergy system please contact him. Highly recommended
Big thanks to Ron. He was incredibly patient and helpful over the phone, taking the time to walk myself and the installer through every troubleshooting step. Through lots of testing he figured out the issue was definitely a hardware issue, which allows us to consider our next steps. Support fees are clear and they operate a “no fix no fee” policy. It is rare to find that kind of honesty combined with dedicated phone support nowadays. I highly recommend Ron, if you need help with your solar system don’t hesitate to give him a call.
A superb service from Ron who went beyond the normal service received from other Tech support companies. I live abroad and was badly let down when my givenergy system failed (and the company went bankrupt) and the local supplier ran away from the problem. Ron sorted the problem and even accessed specialist coding for the inverter that would not be available for suppliers. Ron also ran a full diagnostic to insure that all was in good working order afterwards. Without Rons support and patient assistance I doubt I would ever have got the system back up and running. Well done and thankyou and you have a customer for the future.
Understanding what the CT clamp does makes it much easier to spot when it's wrong.
A CT (Current Transformer) clamp is a small sensor that clips around a live cable — typically the main grid import cable at the consumer unit or meter — and measures the current flowing through it. It sends this reading to the inverter as a small signal voltage.
The GivEnergy inverter uses this reading to understand how much power the house is currently importing from or exporting to the grid at any given moment.
The CT clamp is directional — it measures both the magnitude and the direction of current flow. If installed facing the wrong way on the cable, it correctly measures the magnitude but reports the direction as the opposite of what it actually is.
To the inverter, import becomes export and export becomes import. The inverter then makes all its decisions — when to charge, when to discharge, when to export — based on this inverted information.
A reversed CT produces a consistent, identifiable pattern. The system appears to be working — the battery charges and discharges, the portal shows data — but the behaviour is wrong in ways that only make sense once you understand what the CT is reporting.
You do not need to be at the property to confirm this fault. The GivEnergy portal's power flow diagram and daily energy graphs contain everything needed to identify a reversed CT with high confidence.
Three-step diagnostic test
Check the portal power flow at any time during the night when solar generation is zero and the battery is not charging or discharging. At this point, the house is running entirely from grid import. The grid reading should show a positive import figure — typically 100W–500W for a house with basic standby loads.
Check the power flow on a clear day around midday when solar generation is at its peak and the battery is full. If the system is generating more than the house is consuming, there should be grid export. If the battery is still charging or the house is still consuming, there should be zero export or slight import.
In the portal's energy summary, check the total grid export figure for the past month. If the system has a backwards CT and is on a self-consumption mode, it may show implausibly high export figures — far more than the solar array could realistically generate after self-consumption. Conversely, an installed system that appears to have never exported anything is also suspicious.
Some GivEnergy inverter models include a CT orientation or CT direction setting in the portal that can invert the reading in software — correcting a backwards CT without a site visit. This is worth trying first before arranging a physical fix.
After changing the CT orientation setting, the portal readings should immediately correct. Verify using the night-time test: check the grid reading at night with no battery activity — it should now show a small import figure rather than export.
Also check whether the battery behaviour has corrected — it should now charge from solar when generation exceeds consumption, and stop importing from the grid unnecessarily during solar hours.
If the software CT orientation setting is not available on your model, or if you prefer to correct the physical installation, the CT clamp must be physically reversed on the cable. This requires a qualified engineer to attend the site.
The CT clamp clips around the main grid cable — typically the live (brown) cable on the meter tails or at the consumer unit. An engineer isolates the relevant section, opens the clip, reverses it so the directional arrow faces the correct way, and clips it back onto the cable.
The job itself takes 15–30 minutes on site. The engineer then verifies the corrected reading in the portal before leaving.
The CT clamp sits on the main grid supply cable, which is live and cannot be fully isolated by the homeowner — the section between the meter and the consumer unit remains live even when the main switch is off. Working on or near this cable requires a qualified electrician.
Additionally, confirming the direction correction requires someone who knows what correct readings should look like in the portal and can verify the fix properly before leaving.
Once the CT direction is corrected — by software or physical reversal — the system needs to be verified and in some cases reconfigured.
If the system has been running with a backwards CT for a significant period, the energy history in the portal will show incorrect data — high export figures that didn't actually happen, or import figures that were really exports. This data cannot be corrected retroactively.
Also check your system mode settings — the inverter's scheduling decisions were based on wrong data, so it's worth reviewing whether the current mode and charge windows are still correct for your usage after the fix. See the battery charging configuration guide.
A backwards CT silently undermines the entire point of having a battery. On a time-of-use tariff like Octopus Go or Agile, the battery is meant to charge during cheap overnight periods and discharge during expensive peak hours. With the CT reversed, the inverter's decisions are based on the wrong data — the system may discharge during cheap periods and charge during expensive ones, or simply fail to optimise at all.
A backwards CT is one of the most common reasons charging fails on a time-of-use tariff.
Another configuration setting that affects what the portal reports and how the system behaves.
Understanding what GivEnergy portal readings should look like on a correctly configured system.
All GivEnergy fault guides, configuration pages, and services.
Share access to your portal data and we'll review the import/export readings to confirm whether the CT is reversed, whether a software fix is possible for your model, and whether a site visit is needed. Written report included.
I’ve worked on hundreds of GivEnergy systems and know the kit inside out. If yours is playing up, my promise is simple — no fix, no fee: just £75 if we fix it, free if we don’t.
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