question

regina avatar image
regina asked

Power in house goes out while connected to generator

We are completely off grid and Using MultiPlus 48volt/5000va/70amp/230v. Had a week with no sun, so batteries were drained. Had to hook up backup generator. Generator had been on for 15 mins +/- and I heated something in the microwave and the power went out. Tried flipping main switch on power panel inside house - did not work. Had to flip the "On/Off/Charge Only" button on the inverter box to restore power to the house. When the generator is on, shouldn't everything work? Before we got our new system we had to frequently use the backup generator. As long as it was on, everything in the house would work. Thanks for any help.

Generatoroffgrid
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snoobler answered ·

Microwaves can be power hogs. A 1000W microwave will consume 1500-1600W of input current.


If you have PowerAssist enabled, and your battery was extremely low, and your loads+charging exceeded the AC input limit, you may have triggered the inverter to use PowerAssist and you may have hit the battery low voltage disconnect (LVD) limit.


When powerassist kicks on, it overcompensates to prevent the generator from getting overloaded. It then tapers the powerassist to only what is needed. The initial hit may have been enough to trigger the battery LVD.


The inverter has one transformer. It can't invert to provide loads and then charge separately from AC in. It's passing through the AC input and charging with any surplus. If you have a 2000W generator, you are effectively limited to 2000W of system power, and it's mostly the user's responsibility to stay within this limit. Victron provides PowerAssist to help prevent the generator from being overloaded, but this terminates charging and pulls from the batteries to provide the excess. If trying to recover from a deep discharge, you should restrict power use as much as possible to reserve more incoming AC for battery charging.


Recommend you review your settings and confirm the AC input limit and charging current are within the limits of your generator.


Recommend you read the generator FAQ:


https://www.victronenergy.com/live/multiplus_faq

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