If your battery isn't charging, your tariff schedule isn't working, or your system isn't performing as expected, we can check your settings remotely. The diagnostic is free and the fix is £125, charged only if we fix it. Setting up a new tariff schedule on its own is a fixed £45.
Book your free remote diagnostic← Back to New Solar Owner hubContacted Solar Tech Support in desperation. After explaining the issues I had with my system a diagnosis was made and a solution proposed. Fantastic service, even contacted a manufacturer to arrange replacement parts for me. Great communications, explained all they were doing and what I had to do, clearly and precisly. Followed up to confirm all was ok. Excellent service.
Amazing support, went out of his way to help try and get us back up and running
Ron was very knowledgeable and patient as we worked through the cause of Givenergy Hybrid Inverter suddenly failing (with 0W grid). He was able to quickly identify the probable cause, and point me in the right direction to identify the ‘burnt out’ AC isolator switch & piece of cable, which I was able to find a local electrician to replace. The best £95 I have spent. Thanks Ron.
Roland is a true gentleman. He provided a refurbished inverter when my givenergy one failed. The install was a pain and took him hours. I was expecting a big bill but he honoured his price despite the extra effort. While here he diagnosed a battery fault. He helped me get the battery down and recommended an excellent company who could repair the battery. Absolute legend of a person and company
I have a GivEnergy system consisting of two batteries, two inverters and a controlling EMS (Energy Management System) which has not worked since Nov 2025. After six months I discovered Solar Tech Support, reached out to them and Ron phoned me back – how often do you get that service? Could not be more helpful – worked directly with me over the phone, outside what I would call normal working hours. Lucid explanations and we were able to discuss the issues and history using camera and email history. As this was a very rare setup, Ron was able to access an EMS expert in the field to confirm the solution. One sunny day in, I am now only paying for standing charge and a few pence for spikes in grid consumption while battery catches up with house demand.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5-Star Review – Solar Tech Support Installing solar panels is only the first step! To get the best possible performance and maximise your investment, you need to make sure your system is configured correctly and all settings are properly optimised. **Solar Tech Support did exactly that for me, and I couldn't be happier with their professional service!** Their knowledge, expertise, and attention to detail helped me optimise my solar system to get the most out of it. If you already have solar panels and battery storage, I highly recommend contacting Solar Tech Support for professional advice, system optimisation, and technical support. Don't just install solar panels – make sure you're getting the maximum benefit from your investment! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Highly recommended! Thank you, Solar Tech Support, for your excellent service!
Self-consumption is the percentage of your solar generation that your home uses directly, rather than sending it to the grid. It is the most important number for your financial return — more important than system size, panel efficiency, or which brand you have.
Every kWh you use directly saves roughly 24p (the current retail electricity rate). Every kWh you export earns between 0p and 15p. The gap between 24p and 4–15p is your self-consumption premium — and it's why increasing self-consumption is almost always the best first step.
Typical self-consumption: 30–50%. Most solar generation happens during the day when many households are at work. Surplus is exported. The main lever is shifting appliance usage to solar hours.
Typical self-consumption: 70–85%. The battery stores surplus daytime solar and releases it in the evening. Self-consumption above 85% usually means the battery is not big enough to capture all surplus, or evening consumption is very high.
Your electricity tariff is the second biggest lever on your savings. The right tariff depends on whether you have a battery, how much you export, and how flexible your energy usage is.
Tariffs like Octopus Flux, Octopus Go, and Intelligent Octopus Go offer different rates at different times of day. Typically: cheap overnight (7–12p/kWh), standard daytime (20–24p/kWh), and sometimes a premium peak export rate (up to 25p/kWh). The strategy: charge the battery cheaply overnight, use solar during the day, and either use or export stored energy during expensive peak hours.
If you don't have a battery, or prefer simplicity, a competitive flat-rate import tariff combined with a good Smart Export Guarantee rate works well. You save the full import rate on every kWh you self-consume and earn the export rate on every kWh you send to the grid. No scheduling required — the system just does its thing.
Regardless of your import tariff, you should always have an export tariff in place. Without one, every kWh you export earns nothing. The SEG is free to sign up for and you can choose any participating supplier — it does not need to match your import supplier. Rates range from 3p to 15p per kWh. Even 4p/kWh adds up to £80–£120/year for a typical 4kW system.
If you have a battery and a time-of-use tariff, the battery schedule is where the savings happen. The concept is simple: charge when electricity is cheap, use or export when it's expensive. The execution involves getting the right settings configured in your inverter portal.
The times above are only an example. The exact times depend on your tariff. Flux uses 02:00–05:00. The Octopus Go cheap window is currently 00:30–05:30, five hours, with legacy and regional variants including the older four-hour 00:30–04:30, so check your own tariff agreement rather than copying a window from a guide. Agile has variable half-hourly rates, requiring a more dynamic approach — some systems integrate with APIs to automate this. Check your tariff details for the exact rate periods.
In your inverter's monitoring portal or app. Look for: "Timed charge", "Force charge", "Battery schedule", "Work mode", or "Energy management". The exact menu varies by brand. On GivEnergy, it's in the Battery section. On Sunsynk and Growatt, it's in the System Mode section. On SolaX, it's under Battery Settings.
When the clocks change in March and October, check your charge schedule. Some inverters use UTC internally and adjust automatically. Others don't — and your 02:00–05:00 charge window suddenly becomes 01:00–04:00 or 03:00–06:00, missing the cheap rate entirely. Our Flux guide covers the BST fix for each brand.
Load shifting means running your highest-consumption appliances during peak solar hours instead of during the evening. It costs nothing, requires no new equipment, and can increase your self-consumption by 10–20 percentage points.
Use delay timers on your washing machine and dishwasher to start during peak solar hours. If you work from home, this is easy. If you're out during the day, most modern appliances have programmable start times. EV charging is the single biggest opportunity — charging your car during solar hours instead of overnight can absorb 7kW of solar generation for several hours.
Your monitoring portal shows you exactly where your energy is going. Learning to read this data is the key to ongoing optimisation — it tells you whether your settings are working and where the remaining savings opportunities are.
We see these repeatedly in diagnostic sessions. Each one is easy to fix once identified — and some can save £100–£300 per year.
Surprisingly common. If your installer didn't set up an export tariff, every kWh you export earns nothing. Fix: sign up for the Smart Export Guarantee — it takes 10 minutes and you can choose any participating supplier.
Many systems ship with timed charge disabled. If you're on a time-of-use tariff but the battery only charges from solar, you're missing the cheap overnight charging opportunity. Fix: enable timed charge in your inverter portal and set the window to match your tariff's cheap hours.
Your DNO may have imposed an export limit (3.68kW is a common figure). If this setting is configured incorrectly — limiting generation instead of just export — your system produces less energy than it should. Fix: check the export limit setting in your inverter and ensure it is configured as an export limit, not a generation limit.
A reversed CT clamp causes the inverter to misread import as export and vice versa. Symptoms include: battery not charging, system exporting when it should be self-consuming, or monitoring showing negative generation. Fix: an engineer or electrician can reverse the CT clamp orientation in under 5 minutes.
When the clocks change, some inverters adjust their schedules automatically and some don't. If yours doesn't, your battery charges at the wrong time — potentially at full rate instead of the cheap rate. Fix: check and adjust your timed charge window twice a year, in March and October.
How SEG works, current rates, eligibility, and how to sign up with the best-paying supplier.
See Smart Export Guarantee Explained →Full setup guide for Flux's three-period tariff, including brand-specific inverter configuration.
See Octopus Flux with Solar →Battery chemistry, BMS, charge cycles, degradation — the technical foundation for battery scheduling.
See How Battery Storage Works →Why CT clamp direction matters for battery charging, self-consumption, and monitoring accuracy.
See CT Clamps Explained →How export limits work, what your DNO requires, and what happens when the setting is misconfigured.
See Export Limitation Explained →Flat-rate vs time-of-use, Octopus Flux, Go, Agile — how to pick the tariff that matches your system.
See Choosing the Right Tariff →What to check monthly, quarterly, and annually to keep your system performing at its best.
See Maintenance and System Health →The remote diagnostic is free: we check your tariff configuration, battery schedule, charge and discharge rates, CT clamp readings, and export limiter settings, and tell you exactly what to change and what it is worth in annual savings. If something is set wrong, the fix is £125, charged only if we fix it. Setting up a new tariff schedule on its own, with nothing wrong, is a fixed £45.
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.
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