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t0mb0 avatar image
t0mb0 asked

Victron ESS solutions

Hi,

I'm afraid this is a somewhat general query, rather that a specific technical question. I'm looking for a home battery solution for a grid-connected home with solar panels and EV, with the following objectives:


1) To time-shift cheap energy provided by Octopus Intelligent.

2) To store excess solar energy.

3) To provide backup in the event of a power cut.


Now, there are some obvious candidates (Tesla/Givenergy/etc) with this specific use case in mind. But I was considering Victron as an alternative because I have Victron kit in my camper van and know it's excellent quality hardware and (correct me if I'm wrong) I think it's less reliant in terms of day-to-day operation on some back-end cloud system, but also the price per kWh could be quite reasonable with a stack of third party batteries.

However, after reading around a bit about Victron ESS setups, I get the impression that the scenario I'm describing, whilst certainly possible, isn't exactly the natural environment that Victron solutions are designed for, which seem maybe more industrial, off-grid and marine. Is this fair to say? Would I have to work harder at the configuration and software side of things to achieve what I want?

At a minimum, I'd need a system where I have a time-based SOC target, e.g 100% overnight which would force it into charge-only mode and a target of 10% during the day where it would happily discharge down to 10%. Ideally, I'd also have some other logic which would put it into charge-only mode during cheap slots during the day, which could be home assistant based or similar.

I think this is an extremely common use case in the growing home battery market, and I'd really appreciate any pointers to my questions.

ESS
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5 Answers
Jason - UK avatar image
Jason - UK answered ·

@t0mb0 Im basiclly doing exactly wat you state. Charging using the Octopus off-peak cheap rate, batteries provide both ESS & UPS. My whole house is on the Multiplus apart from the EV.

On the below link, on the photos section is a schemaitc of my system.

https://vrm.victronenergy.com/installation/171934/share/db6807bb


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t0mb0 avatar image t0mb0 commented ·
That's awesome, thanks very much. Do I take it that on your system schematic your house is all under the "Critical Loads" box and the EV charger is the only thing under "AC Loads"?
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Jason - UK avatar image Jason - UK t0mb0 commented ·
@t0mb0 Correct, everything apart from the EV charger is on the AC-Out of the Multiplus unit which means my system is both ESS, and UPS in the event of a power cut.
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andy156 avatar image
andy156 answered ·

I'm the same and it works very well. Although I have my own solution the Victron ESS will do the same. Ie it will use the local solar forecast to make sure that you don't just blindly charge to 100%. It will charge up enough for your load and then leave enough room in the battery for solar.


It was a while ago but last time I looked the Tesla power wall uses the last few days to determine the weather. If that was how the weather worked we wouldn't need a load of mainframes.

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atebee avatar image
atebee answered ·

Victron kit perfectly suited to what you want to achieve. The solution is less all-in-one than other manufacturers so there are a few more components required to get a complete solution.

The built-in ESS settings will do most of what you want regarding scheduled charging. More advanced stuff can be done with Home Assistant. I used this for charging in cheap Agile slots, very effective.

There is also Node-Red for any really bespoke automation requirements.

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t0mb0 avatar image
t0mb0 answered ·

Some reassuring replies there, thanks very much! Sounds like a Victron ESS system can do what I want. The tricky bit might be finding an installer (I'm based in Kent).

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markess avatar image markess commented ·

I used https://www.selectsolar.co.uk/, very Victron knowledgeable. National but based your way.


Note that an advantage of Victron which you don't always get from others is configurability, especially using e.g. Node-RED running on the Cerbo. Tarrifs come and go, but I'm always able to modify my system behaviour appropriately, whereas some other systems seem to struggle with this.

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bladerunnervf avatar image
bladerunnervf answered ·

There is some development of 'dynamic ESS' going on in the background too, see the modifications part of the forum

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