The click of death is one of the most disruptive GivEnergy faults — the inverter produces no power and the relay cycling causes progressive wear. We diagnose the cause and provide a clear fix plan, usually without a site visit.
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The "click of death" is informal but widely used terminology for a specific GivEnergy failure mode: the inverter repeatedly attempts to synchronise with and connect to the AC grid, immediately trips its own protection circuit, and then tries again — endlessly. The audible result is a rapid mechanical clicking, typically 1–3 clicks per second, coming from the relay inside the inverter chassis.
The clicking is not just annoying — it is mechanically destructive. Every click is the relay switching under load. Relays have a finite switching life (typically 100,000–500,000 operations). If the inverter cycles 2 clicks per second, it can exhaust years of relay life in a matter of days.
While the inverter is clicking, it generates no power — your home is running entirely from the grid. Battery charging is also suspended. The sooner the cause is identified and the clicking stopped, the better for the hardware.
Do not open the inverter. The inverter contains live high-voltage DC from the solar panels (present whenever light reaches the panels) and high-voltage AC from the grid. Do not attempt to inspect or repair relay components yourself. All diagnostics on this page are done through the portal and app only.
Before investigating specific causes, run through these three checks to gather the information needed for an accurate diagnosis.
Log into givenergy.cloud → My Inverter → Event Log. Look at entries from when clicking started. Common codes associated with click of death: AC voltage out of range (V too high/low), grid frequency fault, relay fault, or connection timeout errors. Note the exact code — it often identifies the cause immediately. Cross-reference with the GivEnergy fault code index.
In the portal's live overview, look for the Grid Voltage reading. UK grid voltage should be 230 V ±10%, giving an acceptable range of approximately 207–253 V. If the reading is consistently above 253 V, the inverter is correctly refusing to connect because grid voltage exceeds G99 limits. This is a DNO issue, not a GivEnergy fault — see the high voltage section below.
Was there a firmware update just before clicking started? Did it start after a power cut or grid outage? Did it start on a very hot day? Did it start after a storm or lightning nearby? The timing often points directly to the cause: firmware update → check firmware section; power cut → try a full restart; hot weather → check for overtemperature fault codes; storm → suspect a hardware fault requiring an engineer visit.
High grid voltage is the single most common cause of the click of death on GivEnergy systems. When grid voltage rises above 253 V (the G99 upper limit), the inverter is legally and technically required to disconnect from the grid. If the voltage stays high, the inverter will keep attempting to reconnect — and keep immediately disconnecting — producing the characteristic clicking.
Check the portal live monitoring for the Grid Voltage reading. If it shows 253 V or higher during clicking, high voltage is confirmed as the cause.
Clicking that happens mainly in the middle of the day on sunny days — and stops in the evening or on cloudy days — is almost always a high voltage issue.
Your Distribution Network Operator (DNO) is legally required to maintain voltage within statutory limits. Report the high voltage — include your address, the dates and times of the problem, and the voltage readings from your portal. In England and Wales, voltage must be maintained within ±10% of 230 V under the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002.
GivEnergy inverters have a voltage ride-through setting that allows operation at slightly elevated voltages, and a reactive power (VAR) response mode that helps push voltage down by absorbing reactive power. These are engineer-level settings not available in the standard portal — ask an engineer experienced with these units, or STS, to assess whether these are appropriate for your installation.
Reducing the export limit reduces the power pushed onto the grid, which reduces voltage rise from your installation. This won't fix the underlying DNO issue but may allow the inverter to connect on borderline days while you pursue the DNO complaint. Note: this reduces how much you can export, affecting SEG payments.
The relay inside the GivEnergy inverter is a mechanical component that physically opens and closes the grid connection. Relays have a finite operational life measured in switching cycles. If the relay has been weakened — either by age, previous fault conditions, or by the relay cycling accelerated by the click of death itself — it may fail to make a clean connection, causing the inverter's internal self-tests to reject the connection every time it attempts to close.
GivEnergy inverters installed from 11 September 2023 came with a 12-year warranty. Earlier ones had 5 years, or 10 years if an extended warranty was paid for: your paperwork shows which. But GivEnergy Ltd entered administration on 9 April 2026 and ceased trading. The administrator has been explicit that "no further hardware warranties will be honoured by GivEnergy Ltd", so a direct claim against the manufacturer is unlikely to succeed. Routes that may still be open: workmanship cover from your installer if they are still trading, an insurance-backed guarantee if your installer carried one, Section 75 if you paid by credit card, or MCS Consumer Code redress. Our GivEnergy warranty page works through each route, and the administration page sets out the record.
On the repair itself, be realistic. Manufacturer parts supply has stopped and third-party stock is uncertain, so component-level relay work on an out-of-warranty unit is often not economic. On an older inverter a replacement inverter supplied and installed at a fixed price is usually the cheaper answer, and sometimes the honest answer is that the unit has reached the end of its life. We confirm the relay is genuinely the fault first, on a free remote diagnostic, and tell you which of the two you are looking at before you spend anything.
Several GivEnergy firmware versions have introduced bugs that alter grid connection logic, changing voltage thresholds or connection timing in ways that cause the relay to cycle. If clicking started immediately following a firmware update, the update is the prime suspect.
Go to My Inverter → Event Log and look for a firmware update event in the days before clicking started. If a firmware update event immediately precedes the first relay clicking event, firmware is the likely cause.
Note the current firmware version shown in My Inverter. Owner forums and installer groups still carry reports of relay cycling tied to particular builds, and we keep our own notes on which versions caused trouble. GivEnergy Ltd's own support material is no longer maintained, so treat anything you find there as a historical record.
There is no manufacturer to escalate to. GivEnergy Ltd entered administration on 9 April 2026 and ceased trading, so nobody is issuing corrective builds and there is no residential support line to report the fault to. Changing firmware version is a manual job: STS holds the GivEnergy firmware and either does it on a callout or talks you or your electrician through it remotely with the right build. Do not try to flash firmware without us and do not download build files from forums or resellers: the wrong file can brick the inverter. The GivEnergy portal and app do offer updates, but we do not advise starting one yourself: we do firmware manually, to our own written procedures.
A full power cycle — in the correct sequence — allows the inverter firmware to reinitialise its grid connection logic from a clean state. This clears transient relay faults, resets protection thresholds that may have latched in a fault state, and re-establishes communication between the inverter and battery. It should be the first active step for any click of death fault.
The battery goes off first and the DC MCB last, then the AC comes back on first. Shutting the inverter down while the battery is still live can latch a BMS protection state, so the order matters. Follow the full sequence for a Hybrid or an AIO, including the wait before you switch back on.
If the inverter runs normally for 5–10 minutes without clicking, the transient fault has cleared. Check the portal for any remaining fault codes.
If clicking resumes after the restart, the cause is not a transient fault — it is either high grid voltage (which will still be present after restart), a hardware relay fault (which will still manifest), or a firmware issue. Proceed with the specific cause sections above to narrow down which it is.
Safety reminder: Do not open the inverter enclosure or the consumer unit. The DC side of the system is live at all times when light reaches the panels — voltages can exceed 400 V DC. The AC side is live from the grid. All diagnostics on this page are done through the GivEnergy portal only.
We review your portal event log, grid voltage history, and firmware version to identify the cause — and come back with a clear fix plan, usually without needing a site visit.
Status light colours, isolator positions, restart sequence, and hardware checks for all GivEnergy models.
See hardware diagnostics →What a red, amber or green status light means on GivEnergy inverters and batteries.
See red status light →What to do when a firmware update breaks settings or system behaviour.
See firmware updates →Similar clicking but on the DC side — battery isolator tripping from cable, inverter or breaker faults.
See DC MCB tripping →This is a brand-specific version of our general inverter not turning on guide, which covers all brands.
Tell us what you're seeing — when the clicking started, what the portal event log shows, and what the grid voltage reading is. We'll identify the cause and advise on the correct fix, usually without needing a site visit.
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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