In some countries the grid is unreliable having huge voltage spikes potentially harming electronics.
Is possible to build a micro grid for the house and recharge the same from separated Smart IP43 Charger and control the charger via Ve.direct?
You are free to use DC charging sources, just no AC.
Some external control/automation likely needed to manage that.
Microgrid is not an architecture suitable for the DIY market. It is complex.
Hello @nickdb
maybe you got me wrong with the term “microgrid”. Maybe offgrid system that get re-charged by grid is more precise.
Idea is to have one charger/PSU connected to the grid which powers the DC bus. The Smart IO43 charger with 48V would be a perfect match…
To the very same DC bus an offgrid system is connected e.g. Multi RS 230 or Multi RS 6000 Solar.
With the efficient of high frequency inverter a double conversion AC-DC-AC has less loss compared to the MP2s.
An industrial solution is:
I think Victron has all needed hardware available. Question: Does the software support this kind of operation?
Is it possible to control the Smart IP43 charger via Venus.OS maybe Node Red via Ve.Direct and DVCC?
If I read this community correct, there would be a market in Africa but also in risk areas of France, the Netherlands and honestly Greek where I am in holiday and experience grid outages several times every day.
Fair enough. Microgrid is a very specific piece of Victron functionality.
Wanting to be “offgrid” with a grid connected DC charger is not uncommon.
I am considering this myself to circumvent grid restrictions for export-capable inverter/chargers.
Unfortunately, there are no suitable high-power 48V AC chargers capable of integrating with DVCC in the portfolio and a charger only Multiplus doesn’t meet requirements.
We usually use a second set of inverters to do the job of charging if you need the amps.
That way there is clean power in the premises and still the availablity of using the grid if needed.
If I remember correctly the IP43 charger doesn’t get controlled via DVCC, you will need to build your own control with NodeRED.
The IP43 48/13 costs 500€* , for 624€* you get a MultiPlus 48/3000/35.
Almost three times the current and DVCC control.
IMO all 48V chargers from Victron are too expensive, with a MultiPlus you get more charging power per €.
*price from the pricelist
Ok, then a Multi RS 230 or MP2 might be better choice. Haven’t found prices jet.
As this is a quite common question in this community, maybe Victron considers this asymmetric scenario creating a unique selling proposition to separate bad grid from clean home.
Maybe one of the expert @M_Lange , @lxonline , @nickdb can forward this to Victron.
You can have an asymetric installation with victron inverters (as long as it is the same model). If you aren’t using ess, you can have different number of units per phase.
If you are talking about model mixing that is different.
So if you are setting up an offgrid or grid separate system this is possible.
Needing to charge from grid while not connecting to it requires a different approach.
The inverter RS for example. Has no AC input so is cheaper. There are/were models with no solar.
Set up a system with that and have a couple pf mP2s or something else to charge from grid. Those don’t even need to be symmetrical or clever.
The flexibility is there.
I guess the retail price here in Germany will be around 900-1000€ + VAT.
As the other guys mentioned, this scenario calls for one or more Multi’s in a separate VE.Bus group with an MK3-USB adapter connected to the same GX device. Then you have DVCC control as they said.
One thing to consider when talking about bad grid quality is the voltage/frequency input range of the multiplus (or whaterver inverter) vs a regular charger. For example the mp2 5000 does 187V-265V AC 45Hz-65Hz and the IP43 charger does 85V-250V AC 45Hz-65Hz. I can imagine the charger being less fussy about grid quality, does anyone have experience with this?
I do not. My country is going to hell in a handbasket, but our grid hasn’t gotten to that point yet 
Give it another couple of years and maybe… haha