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 the clamp needs turning round, whether a firmware update has reset an old engineering setting, and whether you can turn it on the call or need an engineer, before you commit to a site visit.
Book your free remote diagnosticGivEnergy hubNot affiliated with GivEnergy Ltd. Independent diagnosis and configuration.
Ron diagnosed the problem remotely - efficiently and order the part identified as the fault - this part came directly from to me and Ron visited within a few days and within the hour corrected the problem and since everything has been excellent -highly recommended - very pleasant manner and lovely to work with . Ivor Morris.
My GivEnergy hybrid inverter + battery system had worked faultlessly for 3 years when it suddenly stopped charging and discharging the battery. On contacting my supplier, who had used a sub-contractor for the installation work, I was provided with an email address at GivEnergy but, as it turned out, this is only for GivEnergy Software who are not able to assist. A Google search led to the Solar Tech Support web site, which contains a wealth of helpful information. I requested a remote solar diagnostic, and after providing Ron access to my inverter, he was able to identify and fix the problem within minutes. I am very impressed by Ron’s expertise and knowledge, which included useful information on the current state of GivEnergy Ltd. I would thoroughly recommend Solar Tech Support.
As a Givenergy customer I have been forced to get familiar with my system since it developed battery failure. I managed to find someone to repair the battery and managed to do the physical install and connection. I reached out to Ron at Solar Tech Support and with the help of whatsapp and many screenshots of the system, cloud and App Ron managed to get me through getting it all up and running. Big thanks to Ron.👏👏
Solar Tech Support answered my initial enquiry swiftly. They provided remote support to establish what the issue was, and through their experience and network, managed to get my clients system back online. Once the system was online, STS managed to diagnose the main issue to get the ac coupled inverter and battery back online, a battery repair was required. A site visit was organise and within a few days, the system was tested and back up and running. This has saved my client, and probably myself huge costs and inconvenience now the system is back online and working correctly. Would highly recommend.
What an Amazing service and so helpful . I have had problems with a faulty GivEnergy inverter and Ron has been so diligent in investigating and reporting on it . I’d give him more than 5 stars if I could for his help in diagnosis and potential solution. Thoroughly recommend .
Had a fault on a GivEnergy AC coupled 3kW home battery and was getting no joy from multiple companies I contacted, as well as the original installer. Contacted Solar Tech Support and they sorted it really quickly, now working perfectly again, can’t recommend them highly enough, professional and very responsive!
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. On the GivEnergy portal, grid power is a single signed figure: negative means importing, positive means exporting. The reading should therefore be negative, typically -100W to -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.
There is a CT direction setting in the normal GivEnergy portal menus, and it is the first thing most people try. It applies to the BLUE SOLAR CT, not to the grid meter clamp, so it will not put backwards grid readings right. A separate engineering setting, not in the normal portal menus, does reverse how the inverter reads the grid meter. It can make the portal read correctly, but it masks the fault rather than fixing it.
GivEnergy sometimes applied this setting after a grid meter CT was installed backwards. A firmware update can reset it. If import and export swapped over straight after an update, on a system that read correctly before, this is the likely cause.
The setting only changes what the inverter and the portal see. The grid meter's own display still reads import as export, because the clamp is still the wrong way round. The proper fix is to install the meter and its clamp the right way round, so the meter's display and the portal both read correctly, and to switch the engineering setting off at the same time if it is still on.
Turning the clamp round is the proper fix. The meter's own display then reads import and export correctly, the portal agrees with it, and a firmware update cannot undo it. Where the clamp sits on the insulated part of the meter tails, a confident owner can turn it round with us on the call. Anything inside the consumer unit needs a qualified engineer on 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 checks the reading on the meter's own display and 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. A clamp on the insulated outer part of the tails opens and closes without touching anything live, which is why you can turn it with us on the call. If it is inside the consumer unit or the meter enclosure, or the cable insulation is damaged, it is a job for a qualified electrician.
Either way, we check the readings with you afterwards: the meter's own display and the portal should both show import when the house is drawing from the grid.
Once the clamp has been turned round, 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.
See battery not charging →Another configuration setting that affects what the portal reports and how the system behaves.
See export limit →Understanding what GivEnergy portal readings should look like on a correctly configured system.
See monitoring setup →All GivEnergy fault guides, configuration pages, and services.
See GivEnergy hub →Share access to your portal data and we'll review the import/export readings to confirm whether the CT is reversed, whether a firmware update has reset an old engineering setting, 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 £125 if we fix it, free if we don’t.
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