Victron mppt 100/20 relay trigger at float

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Simon asked Jul 31, '19

Victron mppt 100/20 relay trigger at float

Hi all, newbie here, I'm new to victron but not new to solar.

My parents have a dual system of 2 victron mppt 100/20s, one at 12v and the other at 24v.

Is there a way to reliably ask the mppt controller to switch either the load on at float to trigger a relay for switching an inverter, on or can I use the virtual load to trigger this somehow?

I have a 600w epever inverter hooked up to the 24v battery bank and it runs a koi pond skimmer filter and air bubblers.

The system has s voltage dropper to provide the house with 12v lighting which runs through the load output but these are needed 24hrs a day.

The filters don't need to be on apart from at float but I'd like it, if like my outback fm60 the victron could trigger the inverter.

Is this possibly at all? Or would I need to trigger at a voltage set point?

Many thanks for reading and any help received.

Simon

MPPT Controllers

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Answer 1 · 2019-08-01T03:05:23Z

Mark answered · Aug 01, 2019 at 03:05 AM

I just had a look at VictronConnect and unfortunately it seems that you cant trigger the load output or even a VE.Direct TX digital cable based on the charge phase.

With the larger MPPT models there is an inbuilt relay and one of the options is to trigger the relay based on 'Float or storage state' - but this option does not seem to exist with your 100/20 MPPT.

So currently your only options is to see if one of the voltage trigger options for the load output might work for you, then run that output to trigger a relay for any larger loads.

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Answer 2 · 2019-08-01T09:40:33Z

David answered · Aug 01, 2019 at 09:40 AM

One problem I could see with using a simple charge status as a trigger for an inverter especially (but may apply to quite a few other devices) is as soon as the inverter starts, the voltage will drop and the MPPT will almost certainly switch charging mode back to bulk initially, so the relay will be going on and off unless you added in a timer for it to stay on for x minutes once enabled?

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Answer 3 · 2019-08-02T00:25:55Z

adev answered · Aug 02, 2019 at 12:25 AM

Couldn’t you just have the pond stuff run at night with the lighting function? Or tun It from the load terminals and experiment with the low voltage load cutoff voltages.

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Answer 4 · 2019-08-02T18:39:28Z

Simon answered · Aug 02, 2019 at 06:39 PM

Thanks for the replies! I'm going to use a 24v split charge relay, I think I can use this to trigger the inverter.

The problem is that my dad ordered the controllers without me advising so hes stuck with these now :)

One of the pond pumps is for a skimmer so possibly I might need to use either a timer and leave the inverter switched on or like has been said use a voltage trigger. I might try to incorporate a raspberry pi into the circuit but I'm not sure yet

Thanks for your advice on this :)

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