Hot weather seems to have reduced PV production

Since a week or two ago we have had sunny weather every day here in western france. It's not that hot, 20 - 25C but I have noticed a 1kw drop in max production (from 4.4kw nominal power installation).

Is this normal due to higher panel temperatures or should I be looking for a problem somewhere?

usernamepasswordbs asked
giampaolo answered ·

1 Answer

Placement of installation solar

Hello, I am installing a small solar system. I have 2 solar Panels 460w , 1 MPPT150/35 victron ,1 Phoenix 24v1200w victron ,1 Battery Balancer victron ,1 BMV 712 smart and 2 Hubble Lithium batteries 12v100Ah .The solar panels will be installed on the garage roof ; my house is 15meter from the garage . My questions is do I set up the system in the garage and run an electric cable to the house or do I install the system in the house and run the solar cables to the house . This is just a small back up installation due to load shedding and I need to run a TV ,TVBOX ,Wifi and double door fridge.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Philippe

philippe-touche asked
philippe-touche commented ·

3 Answers

Why is MPPT reporting nearly 3V higher than Pylontech and multimeter value?

Cerbo GX v2.89

MP 48/5000/70-100 v476

MPPT 250/100 VE.Can r2 v3.10

Pylontech batteries

DVCC forced on

SVS forced off

Pylontech is default battery monitor


Unable to charge above about 40% SoC


MPPT current starts throttling when MPPT reaches 52.4V while Pylontech/multimeter reports 49.6V. MPPT reports being under external control.


Why isn't MPPT being fed the Pylontech BMS voltage value?


This is not a new system. Uncertain of timing, but batteries were able to mostly charge to full pretty regularly, but not being able to attain more than 40% somewhat recently.


Originally there were four batteries. Two have generated faults and are being tested by the distributor. The remaining two do not indicate any faults.

[image]


Please note that this ~3V delta is present under charge AND discharge.


EDIT: I have enabled the MP battery monitor on the dashboard, and it reports within 0.1V of the Pylontech value.

snoobler asked
agroventuresperu edited ·

8 Answers

Redirect Solar DC when Battery is full to other use

Hello

I want to use the power of my solar to do other things after my battery’s are charged.

This has been asked in several ways. But let’s make it more general.

Setup:

200W Solar

Mppt smartSolar 75/15

Smart shunt

160Ah AGM battery

I have this setup deployed in several offgrit applications (vans, Garden, etc), the main purpose is to charge the battery’s to store energy for later use. But 80% of the time my battery’s are full and the system just idles. This is wasted potential, therefore I would like to automatically redirect the power from the panels. Let’s stay my smart shut is telling me I’m charged 100% I want to redirect the DC from the panel to another use, and recharge the battery’s if they drop below 90%. I would need to redirect between mppt and Panels to power eg. a solar pump that fills my water tank or let my van act like a small scale balcony power plant.

I understand the smart shunt can not trigger a relay. Just using the Load out put of the Mppt, triggered by battery voltage thresholds, would also drain my battery’s creating unnecessary changes cycles.


Is there any way I can use the information that smart shunt is giving me to redirect where I want to put the energy Im potentially producing?

If no, how can I pull this off?

Edit:

- One way would be to enable the SmartSolar face decisions based on VE.Smart network information. (like it does with a low temperature charge cutoff)



Thanks in advance

Kai

kai-fuchs asked
kai-fuchs commented ·

1 Answer

CERBO GX - FAILURE MORE INFO

I have now had 3 CERBO GX units.

I) Brand new out the box CERBO GX (series that had apparent 48VDC issues)
No issues with VE-CAN, BMS-CAN or VE-BUS. Also HDMi worked flawlessly on a std HDMi screen.
I changed the screen to an older LCD with VGA input and an HDMi to VGA converter. The moment the
HDMI to VGA converter was plugged in the HDMi port blew. I wrote this down to a faulty VGA to HDMi
converter. Send it back, not stock, Victron took over two months to repair / replace, supplier supplied
a new unit (in fairness he did say he wasn't sure if it was okay or not and to test).

II) Installed unit received as mentioned in point I), left out HDMi. Plugged in order:
- USB 1 (LEFT) power monitor
- USB 2 (Middle) power monitor
- VE-CAN (MPPT), Terminator
- BMS-CAN (Battery comms), Terminator
Before I could even plug in the power connector the battery BMS made a tick sound and everything
turned off, BMS dead. Plugged in Cerbo power and cerbo is also dead. Had to send it for repairs,
still waiting for it to be returned.

III) Received a brand new Cerbo GX as a replacement for the very first unit that had the HDMi issue,
took 2 months.
Plugged in order:
- USB 1 (Left) power monitor
- USB 2 (Middle) Power monitor
- Ve-CAN (MPPT), Terminator
- BMS-CAN TERMINATOR (left out Victron Type A cable)
Everything ran perfectly, tested VRM portal and all 100%.
- Plugged in BMS-CAN Cable, within 15 seconds battery BMS shuts down. Same problem as before
BMS damaged, tracks burnt on BMS PCB. So had BMS replaced again. At this point it is obvious that
Pylontech's Force LV1 BMS is absolute rubbish, clearly that's why they discontinued it. Replaced the
BMS but this time NO COMMS. And it worked great.
- Tried the HDMi port and it was completely dead with native HDMi and VGA adapter, no display. Just
left the screen out, no big issue. Note that the VGA adapter had been replaced an is working 100%

Still the same Cerbo GX as point III) still no BMS-CAN. Worked 100%, installed a new Multiplus ii 48/8000 had that up and running on VE-BUS. Logged perfectly. So today I started reading up on the "modify" side and noted that one can get past the blank HDMi screen by SSH and changing some parameters. So I connect the very same HDMi cable (screen is not even turned on yet) and the unit goes shhh dwah! and that's it, another Cerbo GX in the garbage. Note that at this point no modifications had been done yet.


All the above mentioned Cerbo GX units fall within the 48VDC issue models.
In my 23 years in data cabling, CCTV and Solar installs I have never, up to now, blown a port on a CAN, RS485, RS232 or network. Not even without incorrect cable pinouts.
I refuse to believe that all these failures are coincidental or "user error"

anacrhy2007 asked
anacrhy2007 edited ·

0 Answers

Energy Meter ET112 + Cerbo GX

Hello,

It is recommended in the ET112 manual to use an RS485 to USB cable. This is what I'm going to do to be Ok.

But I read at the bottom of page 4 (pdf): "The red, green and brown wire coming out of the USB to RS485 cable are not used. Note: You can wire on a RJ45 plug which can plug into the front of either RJ45 socket of the Energy meter, it has the same pin out. "

It is understood that it is to lengthen the cable.

I'm curious and my question is in two parts:

- what are the two RJ45 sockets on the front of the ET112 for?

(Matthis replied in another post that these are not ethernet sockets).

- can we connect an ET112 and a Cerbo GX in RJ45 to RJ45 (Cerbo's BMS-Can socket)?

Thank you in advance for your answers which may help other people.

Kind regards

Serge Della Signora asked
daza commented ·

5 Answers

Orion TR Smart 12/12-18a fuse and wire gauge chart

Is there a fuse amperage and cable gauge/length table for the Orion TR Smart 12/12 18 isolated charger?

The online manual lists fuse amperages for input and output batteries and cable gauges for various lengths, but the suggested fuse is 60 amps at both the input and output batteries. That seems rather excessive for a charger outputting 18 amps.

I definitely can't let the charger try to pull that kind of amperage on my installed cables which are presently fused at 30a.


patrickj asked
patrickj commented ·

1 Answer

New MultiPlus-II 12/800/35 overload alert with no load connected

Hi There,

just bought a MultiPlus-II 12/800/35 for a small installation in my planned camper.

Today i wanted to test the device but MP-II shows an overload alert when cutting of AC power an switching to inverter mode.

It's just a testbuild with a LiTime 100Ah LiFePo4 battery and no other device connected.

Updated firmware to v502 and used VictronConnect via MK3-USB-Adapter to check configuration an alert messages.

AC throughput works.

Charger starts in bulk mode but with 0A and does not change to absorption or float.

Battery fully charged an voltage is at 13,55V. No powerloss between battery an MP-II connectors. Cables (25mm²) are short with a mega fuse and mainswitch to cut off battery connection.

Configured MP-II via VoctronConnect to LiFePo4 and checked voltage settings.

Missing informations?

Any hint is welcome!

geordy asked
geordy edited ·

0 Answers

MPPT overload 14.5V

Hello everyone.

I'm the owner of a MPPT 75/30, who was working really fine for 2 years. I have Lithium battery 100AMP connected to the MPPT and a solar panel 200W in 12V.

Battery : 100AMP Lithium

MPTT : 75/30

Solar panel : 200Watts

Settings : Absorption : 14.5 - Float : 13.3


Here my problem : When the batterie start to be full, and I'm going in absorption mode, the voltage sometime rise to 15V or even 16V! I have notice it first by checking historic and after...


I arrive to track it to live. The solar panel was in absorption with 0 watts, and out of nowhere, surge to 90watts, and voltage switch to 14.4 to 15.5 for example.

Notice that this situation happened without using any device in the same time.

Do you have an idear if it's normal or not and how can I fixe it?


[image]


maxime-im-nomade asked

0 Answers

EVCS waiting for sun

I have a EVCS on Firmware 1.25 here. I can start the charge manually, but with automatic it will remain on "waiting for sun". No matter if the battery is full or we are feeding in to the grid.

Under what situation, the EVCS will start charging?


[image]



[image]

kai-rottleb asked
kai-rottleb commented ·

1 Answer

VTAC Battery current wrong direction

I just added a VTAC Battery to my System. Everything works out great, the Battery is recorgnized as LG Resu. The only Problem is the current flow direction in venus charge is shown with - and discharge as +. Is there a way to change this?

[image]

[image]

stagepower asked
andre-godinho answered ·

4 Answers

Two MPPT, one generating little charging

I have two pairs of solar panels each with own smart solar MPPT.

First pair are 2x 120W panels with 100/20 controller generated over 1Kw yesterday. Happy with this.

[image]


Second pair are 2x 80w panels with 75/15 controller only generated 30w. Something is wrong. When first installed these could generate 700w in a day. The panel voltage/current seems ok but it's just not getting pushed into my batteries.

[image]


[image]

Images show history from yesterday when I was not using shore power and current status of the suspect set of panels. I read this as 29W network but only 3W charging. Is that correct?

Any thoughts on what could be going wrong?


ningaloo asked
ningaloo commented ·

2 Answers

Frequency instability on AC OUT of Multi-II

Hi, I have the following AC coupled configuration

[image]


The 2 PV arrays are IQ7 Enphase micro's at each panel

The 2 Multi's are 48/5000/70-50 and are configured with ESS assistant and frequency shift capability according https://www4.enphase.com/en-au/support/ac-coupling-enphase-microinverters-grid-applications.

The battery system is 500Ahr


The problem I am having is that the frequency of the AC OUT of both Multi's is continuously jumping from 50 to 53 Hz (approx. every 5 - 10 sec.). The IQ7's don't like this and report frequency/grid instability errors and therefor don't produce any power. They work fine when directly connected to the grid. Battery still 60% SoC but getting lower as we speak, because there is no charge.


Please help me resolve this issue ? Why is the frequency jumping ?

frankhendrikx asked
Alexis Kalogerakis commented ·

2 Answers

Shelly Pro 3EM as Grid Meter with Venus OS 3.0 and dbus-shelly

Hi folks,

with Venus OS 3.0 it is very easy to add a Shelly Pro 3EM (the updated version of the 3EM, with LAN connector). Simply enter the Cerbo IP in the Shelly Web GUI under „Outbound Websocket“ with port 8000 and it appears in the Cerbo device list with readings for L1 to L3.

[image]

The role in the settings is „Grid Meter“ but the overview page still shows the measurements of the MultiPlus

[image]

Any ideas, how to fix this?

By the way: ESS is regulating to 0W as the sum of all three phases as expected.

I really appreciate your help!

Best regards

Wolfgang

wkirmair asked

0 Answers

Ve.Bus intermittent low battery alarm and high DC Ripple

Ve.Bus (275) intermittent low battery alarm and high DC Ripple using Blue Nova Lithium batteries although the battery voltage is ok both on the Battery Voltage and Current (512) and VE.Bus DC Voltage and Current (276). I get the alarm intermittently when grid is lost momentarily. No Battery Warning and Alarm (512) is raised. This issue causes the inverter to switch to off and then restart.

[image]

[image]

[image]

[image]

timstander1 asked
anacrhy2007 edited ·

3 Answers

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