Using a PV inverter on Multigrid AC Out and a Venus GX, can I set priorities like:
1. active loads are powered by PV inverter
2. remaining power charges the batteries
3. If batteries are charged too, my electrical car will be AC charged (e.g. fire up the wallbox by a relay)
Hello, No , these system settings can only be done when the inverter itself is programmed directly by the computer (Using Ve Configure)
Thanks,
so this means it is possible, which is perfect. :)
Keen to see my multi arriving soon so I can start playing with it
I am afraid I was cheering too fast... I don't have Victron Inverters which I could configure by VEConfig. I have different brands of inverters connected to AC in and AC out1
Can't this function be done by configuring the Virtual Switch somehow ?
For sure I'll need this function to dump my PV into my electrical car, else I'll waste quite some PV.
Any thought or help aprecciated.
Seems like the programmable relay assistant will do it. Will play around as soon as sun is back, hopefully the next days.
SOC is easy to use as a trigger, but I didn't find an option where I could compare excessive (remaining) PV vs current Load :o( . Anybody an idea "how to" ?
Still don't have any charging priorities, other than what Multigrid offers. However made some experience telling me my idea isn'wasn't well thought.
Lets assume loads are powered and battery is full. If I then connect my E-car, power is also drawn from the battery, which makes no sense at all, because I want to save the energy to supply the house at night.
So the questionaire for you experst goes on...;o)
Is there a way to reserve the battery power for the nighttime ? Something like defininga a schedule when discharging is allowed ?
If you connect your car charger, the Victron cannot control how much power the car charger is pulling, it just tries to supply as much as possible depending on the grid setpoint / other users / etc. What you can do is switch of the relay controlling the car charger when battery SOC or voltage gets below a certain threshold. this way the battery is not discharged below that, or doesn't get discharged at all (but be aware of oscillations, you'll probably have to tweak a little)
You didn't tell us what kind of batteries you use so can't give the best advice here.
There is no standard way to keep battery charged until a set time, but it is possible through modbus / mqtt / node red if you want to.
But can you expain why you would want to use the battery only at night? I don't see what would be the advantage of that, but I might oversee things.
Thanks for your feedback
I am still a Newbie in the Victron world and always happy to learn from experienced guys (( and girls of course ;o) ).
The battery I am using is a LG Chem RESU 6.5. System setup, see below.
My Panels are affected by some shades of neighbors' trees... but during different times of the day. So I will never see full power on all PVs. 2.4kwP AC in, 3.4kWp AC out1.
I had the first somehow sunny day with all panels operating yesterday, so I am still capturing data and observing how the system is behaving - and this is fun already.
One of my main goals is to avoid use of grid power at night and the minimum of it during the day. "Night power" might not only be hydro power...
part 2 follows
part 2
The battery is just big enough to feed my house through the night. So ideally I would be able to use the battery during the day, but reserving x amount of Ah for the night.
The PV power will exceed the daily consumption of the house for sure (good sunny day). This excessive PV, shall go into the electric car then.
My charger has 9 settings which I could theoretically use to optimize the charging power, however to build this adaptation would be an overkill.
Currently my wife is the human intelligence changing the settings based on excessive PV shown by the remote console., but that is not real time of course.
This means some "waste" going to the grid. This is the theory :o) and there is the main factor of sunshine (or not).
I am fully aware all this is tricky and will require tweaking and patience; and the sunshine is hard to predict, but for me this is fun and a kind of personal challenge.
It is not to earn money short time for sure.
So any thoughts and hints are aprpreciated.
There has to be a signal connection between the EV charger and the rest of the system, and as far as I know you'll have to program things yourself to do what you want.
But ultimately, the result is the same if you just switch on the charger at when the battery is like 90-95% charged, and switch off when back at 80-85% (choose your range)
Keep in mind that your battery lasts longer when not fully charged, so this will lengthen the life of the battery (it will only charge to 100% when the EV is fully charged, or not plugged in)
I have a signal connection between Multigrid and EV, thats not the issue. With the "overkill" I did not mean this connection, which is easy, but to use the 9 different power settings depending on excessive PV.
I might want to read myself into th eprogramming later on, is there a good source about how to read/write access the Multi?
Also I will try another option. which came to my mind..
Based on VRM data, I know the time span when PV yield is best usually, so I only have to check if there is enough sunlight during this timespan and switch on EV charger - based on time and brightness. I' am sure ll have to play around with delays to avoid heavy oscillating.
I can do this by my home automation system.
