Great advice from Ronald at Solar Tech Support, got my inverter back on line and stable.
Mervyn Ethelston · Aug 2026 Google
Technical guides
Solar system guides
Plain-English technical explainers for UK homeowners and installers. How solar batteries actually work. What CT clamps measure and why direction matters. What to check when your system is first installed. Written from hands-on experience, not from a marketing brief.
- Engineer-written
- Standards-referenced
- Updated from live fault data
Something not working?
If your system has a specific fault — battery not charging, inverter fault codes — a remote diagnostic gets to root cause faster than reading guides. Most faults diagnosed in a single session. If your monitoring is down because the dongle has lost your WiFi, start with the free WiFi guides on this site. If it still won't connect, we set it up on site, from £195: we connect it to your WiFi, set up your router, including a separate 2.4 GHz network if it needs one, and check it's reporting.
Book your free remote diagnosticSolar not working? Start hereMy GivEnergy Solar/Inverter/Batteries system went down and the GivEnergy Administrators are totally non- existent/useless. Luckily, I found Ron, who used to be a GivEnergy Installer, and beyond my wildest dreams, he sorted everything out remotely from 200 miles away. His approach to everything is very professional and I cannot recommend him more highly. Thanks very much Ron!!
Jerry Robson · Aug 2026 Trustpilot
When my GivEnergy battery started playing up it became basically useless and several companies I called said they couldn’t help. Solar Tech Support really knew their stuff, communicated very well and resolved the problem quickly. Without them I’d have had to buy a replacement battery.
A D · Jun 2026 Google
Ronald was great to help me sort out my giv energy inverter issue since company has gone bankrupt in april 26.
Ankur Kr. Gupta · Jun 2026 Google
Very speedy response. Handled by a real human who took my system through a logical process with the desired outcome within minutes of them accessing my inverter settings. Ron passed me on to Ash, they are both ex-Givenergy people who clearly know their stuff and can give the reassurance of proper technical support now that the Givenergy support desk has closed. A worthwhile investment in ensuring my expensive kit is kept fully functioning.
Paul · Jul 2026 Google
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.
Dean Wilkinson · Jul 2026 Google
Just had solar installed?
New solar owner
Everything you need in your first year — how your system works, how to maximise savings, maintenance basics, and what to do when something goes wrong. One hub, all the essentials.
Hub
New solar owner — complete guide hub
Your starting point. Links to every guide that matters in your first year — system fundamentals, savings optimisation, maintenance, backup power, and troubleshooting.
Explore hub →Savings
Maximising your system — tariffs, export and self-consumption
Get the best financial return. Self-consumption vs export, tariff selection, battery scheduling, and the settings most people miss. Worth £200–£500/year.
Read guide →Maintenance
Maintenance and system health — the owner's checklist
What to check monthly, quarterly, and annually. Panel cleaning, inverter ventilation, battery health, firmware, warranties, and when to call an engineer.
Read guide →Tariffs
Choosing the right energy tariff for your solar and battery system
Fixed vs variable, Octopus Go vs Flux vs Agile, export tariffs explained, and how to match your tariff to your battery setup for maximum savings.
Read guide →
Technical explainers
How solar and battery systems work
Understanding the fundamentals helps you diagnose problems, interpret your monitoring data, and make better decisions about your system.
Core guide
How home battery storage works
Battery chemistry, BMS operation, charge cycles, round-trip efficiency, SoC vs DoD, AC/DC coupling, and why systems degrade over time. The technical foundation behind every battery fault.
Read guide →Core guide
CT clamps explained — what they measure and why direction matters
What a current transformer does, why a backwards CT clamp causes battery not to charge, how to perform the kettle test, single vs three-phase, and when to call an engineer.
Read guide →Guide
How solar inverters work
DC to AC conversion, MPPT tracking, anti-islanding protection, grid frequency response, and what happens inside the inverter when the grid voltage drops.
Read guide →EV + Solar
CT clamp placement with EV chargers
Where to position grid, generation, and EV CT clamps when your home has solar, a battery, and an EV charger. The three configurations, Henley block solution, and how to test your setup.
Read guide →3-phase
CT clamps for single vs 3-phase systems
Why a single-phase inverter on a 3-phase house drains the battery while the kitchen runs flat out. The four common topologies compared with animated flow diagrams.
Read guide →Guide
How backup power works — EPS, UPS and island mode
Why your system shuts down during a power cut even with a battery, what anti-islanding is, EPS vs UPS, how island mode works, and what you can realistically power from a battery.
Read guide →
Practical guides
Installation and commissioning
What to look for, what to ask, and what to do when things aren't installed correctly.
For homeowners
Solar installation day checklist
What to check when your solar or battery system is being installed — roof penetrations, cable labelling, inverter location, commissioning tests, and the documentation you must receive. MCS 3002, 3012, BS 7671 referenced.
Read checklist →Guide
Export limitation explained
Why DNOs set export limits, what G98 and G99 require, how inverters enforce limits using CT clamp data, and what happens when the limit is misconfigured.
Read guide →Guide
Smart Export Guarantee explained
How SEG works, which tariffs are available, what your system needs to qualify, and how to check you're being paid the correct amount for your solar exports.
Read guide →Firmware
Solar firmware update risks
Settings resets, stalled updates, version incompatibility, and bricked hardware — what can go wrong when updating inverter or battery firmware, and how to recover.
Read guide →Grid & DNO
G98 vs G99 explained
Which grid connection standard applies to your system, how Fast Track G99 works, timelines, and what to do if DNO registration was never completed.
Read guide →Monitoring
How solar monitoring works
How data flows from your panels to your phone, what the key portal figures mean, why monitoring goes offline, and how to access it after buying a house with solar.
Read guide →Tariff
Octopus Flux with solar
How Flux's three-period day works, whether it is worth switching, how to configure every major inverter brand, and what to do when the BST clock shift breaks your schedule.
Read guide →FIT
Upgrading panels on a FIT system
Can you replace old panels with higher wattage modules and keep your Feed-in Tariff? Yes — Ofgem confirmed it. How payments are pro-rated, the step-by-step process, and when it makes financial sense.
Read guide →Safety
How to shut down your solar system safely
Step-by-step shutdown and restart procedure for maintenance, emergencies, or roof work. AC and DC isolation sequence, battery shutdown, and brand-specific notes for all major inverters.
Read guide →Diagnostics
How to read inverter fault codes
What fault codes mean, where to find them, how to read error logs, and when a code means you need an engineer vs when you can fix it yourself. All brands covered.
Read guide →
Off-grid & hybrid
Off-grid solar guides
Technical guides for off-grid and hybrid systems — sizing, generator integration, cold weather performance, and the settings that keep an autonomous system running through the winter.
Core guide
Off-grid system sizing — battery, solar & generator
How to size battery capacity, solar array, and backup generator for a UK off-grid property. Load profiling, days of autonomy, seasonal irradiance, and common oversizing mistakes.
Read guide →Seasonal
Cold weather battery performance — LiFePO4 winter guide
How LiFePO4 capacity drops in cold weather, low-temperature charge cutoffs, UK winter performance data, thermal management strategies, and how to prevent cold-temperature charging damage.
Read guide →Off-grid
Off-grid generator integration — sizing, auto-start & charge
Generator sizing, auto-start SoC thresholds, AC input current limits, charge profile settings, runtime balance, and Victron MultiPlus AC coupling — for reliable off-grid operation year-round.
Read guide →Looking for something specific?
Guides explain the principles. If you have an active fault, these sections get you to a diagnosis faster.
Solar system problems
Battery not charging, inverter red light, monitoring offline, system underperforming. Fault-specific guides for the most common UK solar problems.
Browse problems →GivEnergy — full support hub
The most in-depth GivEnergy resource outside of GivEnergy themselves. 48+ pages covering faults, setup, configuration, account management, and products.
GivEnergy hub →Fault codes
Inverter showing an error code? Look up GivEnergy, SolarEdge, Growatt, Sunsynk, Solis, Enphase, Fronius, and Huawei fault codes with plain-English explanations.
Look up fault codes →Common questions
The most common reason is that the timed charge schedule in your inverter or portal is not set correctly, or was reset by a firmware update. Check that timed charge is enabled, the charge window matches your tariff cheap-rate hours, and the target SoC is above your current battery level. If settings look correct, a reversed CT clamp can also prevent overnight charging — the inverter cannot correctly measure grid import, so the charge control logic misfires. See our CT clamps guide and battery not charging for full diagnosis steps.
A CT clamp (current transformer) is a sensor that measures electrical current. On a solar system, CT clamps tell the inverter how much power is being imported from or exported to the grid. If the CT clamp is installed backwards, or on the wrong cable, the inverter receives incorrect data — leading to the battery not charging, the system exporting when it should import, or monitoring showing wrong figures. Most CT clamp issues can be diagnosed remotely using your monitoring data. See the CT clamps guide for the full technical explanation.
Most LiFePO₄ batteries are rated for 4,000–6,000 charge cycles at 80% depth of discharge — roughly 10–15 years of daily use. The main factors affecting lifespan are depth of discharge (shallower cycles = longer life), operating temperature (batteries degrade faster above 35°C or below 5°C), and charge rate. GivEnergy batteries installed from 11 September 2023 carried a 12-year warranty, and earlier ones 10 years at 70% capacity, on the terms in your own paperwork. GivEnergy Ltd entered administration on 9 April 2026 and is no longer honouring hardware warranties. See how home battery storage works for the full technical picture.
Key checks include: roof penetrations are sealed, all isolators are correctly labelled, the inverter is mounted in a ventilated location away from direct sunlight, the WiFi dongle is connected and reporting, export limitation is configured if your DNO requires it, the installer runs a full generation test before leaving, and you receive your MCS certificate, G98/G99 notification reference, electrical installation certificate, and system user guide. See the full installation day checklist for every item with its relevant standard.
Yes — the technical guides cover principles that apply across all brands. Battery chemistry, CT clamp physics, and installation standards are the same whether your system is GivEnergy, Solis, SolarEdge, Growatt, or Sunsynk. Where brand-specific settings or behaviours differ, the guides note this and link to the relevant brand page. For brand-specific fault diagnosis, see the Brands section or Fault Codes.
Talk to an engineer — not a chatbot
Guides explain the principles. A 30-minute remote diagnostic session gets to root cause faster — with direct access to your monitoring data, inverter logs, and settings.
Service notice
We’re busier than ever. Thank you for your patience.
Due to unprecedented demand we’re currently only carrying out on-site work in Yorkshire, and replies are taking up to 7 days. Remote diagnostics continue for the whole UK as normal.
Every message is read and answered, so please don’t send it twice; that only slows the queue.
Ronald Director, Solar Tech Support
On-site: Yorkshire only, for now
Remote: UK-wide, as usual
Remote fix: £125 if we fix it, no charge if we don’t
Replies: within 7 days
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