In November 2022, VRM started showing ‘AC Loads’ as 0W and ‘Total Consumption’ & ‘Grid’ displayed only the Critical Load, rather than the figures for the whole house.
My Solar PV was fitted 5 years ago by a Victron dealer who has since gone bust and now the only Victron agent in Kent wants £780 to look at it. He told me to update the CCGX firmware from v1.74 to version v2.92 which I did (with trepidation) but I think this has made my situation worse.
Until this week, I knew nothing of PV systems, so please allow a little latitude while I try & explain;-
I believe i have a HUB 4 system, now known as ESS. It comprises: CCGX, MultiPlus Compact 12/1200/50-16, 3 x Lead Acid batteries, 2 x Solis PV Invertors and an EM24 energy meter. The EM24 is linked to the CCGX via Cat5 cable, but I think it is a serial model with an RS485 to USB interface hidden behind the CCGX.
The CCGX Settings (firmware v1.74) contained ‘Wired AC sensors’ and the EM24 appeared as “BQ21600350013” where it was set to ‘Grid meter + PV inverter’.
In firmware v2.92 there is no ‘Wired AC sensors’, but the EM24 appears under ‘Energy Meters’ but can only be set to ‘Grid meter OR ‘PV inverter’ (not both). The Phase type ‘Single Phase’ and ‘PV inverter on phase 2’ with ‘AC Input 1’ have been carried over from the previous firmware.
Whatever I do, I cannot get the EM24 to appear in the CCGX ‘Device List’. I think it is Modbus RTU (different to’ Modbus TCP’) but in desperation I enabled ‘Modbus TCP’ in ‘Services’ and scanned but of course nothing was found. Help! I am really out of my depth.
All I know is that VRM displayed accurate Grid and Solar figures up until November last year and no hardware has been changed. The EM24 local display is still showing the Grid on L1 and the PV Invertors on L2 so my theory is that an automatic CCGX update to v1.74 lost the connection with the energy meter and upgrading to v2.92 has not helped.
I have found that Victron now say “using an EM24 to measure both Grid and Solar PV on a single-phase installation does not work properly”, and they recommend using an ET340 instead. Is that because the firmware does not support the EM24 anymore? If so, what version of firmware will I need to downgrade to, in order to restore VRM back to reading correct Grid and Solar figures?
Lastly, am I doing any harm running the system without a Grid/Solar meter? I know it is still saving me energy because on a recent bright day, my smart meter was showing 0 watts and the EM24 had a negative figure on L1), I don’t think the solar battery was charging.
