How to programme an alarm for powerassist

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jaywhitesparks asked Oct 18, '21

How to programme an alarm for powerassist

I am installing a multiplus (24/3000/70) on a large houseboat permanently connected to shore power. The boat has frankly too many systems for the 16a shore breaker, and the idea is that the PowerAssist feature will prevent startup spikes from AirCon etc. from tripping the breaker. My concern, however, is that the occupants will abuse this feature and destroy their own battery bank. Ideally, I want to set an alarm to let them know when PowerAssist has been on for more than 1 minute, or failing that, set a limit after which PowerAssist will stop and simply trip the breaker (cheapest way they’ll learn!). It seems like this should be a feature as there are three programmable alarm outputs, but I can’t find anywhere how to achieve this. Any help appreciated!

alarm powerassist

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Answer 1 · 2021-10-18T10:50:24Z

JohnC answered · Oct 18, 2021 at 10:50 AM

Hi @Jaywhitesparks

You don't say what other Victron kit might be involved, so we can only assume you have just the Multi to derive the 'alarm' from. Have a look at using the Assistants.. https://www.victronenergy.com/live/assistants:start

You may need to open the mindset somewhat to devise something suitable, but there's plenty to play with..

Eg. The Multi cannot charge and PowerAssist at the same time, so battery Voltage could indicate when PA is in use. So an alarm there is possible.

And at a secondary level it would be possible to actually shut off the offending load(s) if they were wired to ACOUT2. Whatever it is, an aircon? or somesuch. So rather than tripping the shore breaker, trip the offending heavy load. And leave normal loads fed from shore power via ACOUT1 unaffected. (No cost involved so far).

Of course with a GX device and batt monitor the options open wider. VRM portal can email warnings as set there, and Batt SOC is a common start point for alarms and switching set at local level or via portal.

Just a coupla things you could consider..

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