I’m new with Victron GX and Multiplus. I installed an Easy Solar II GX. Even this question was maybe already asked, I did not find anything here. I want to use the system as offgrid system with grid backup. Currently the Multiplus II is charging the Battery whenever AC input is available. But I want to use the battery (Inverter) until a specific Battery SOC is reached (maybe 15%) and then switch AC In to AC out (passthrough when battery is empty). I do not want to install ESS because I’m not allowed to inject into grid. I can accept a short outage on AC1 output (the systems behind already have a small UPS installed). Is there any way to use the virtual switch for that? If so, how can this be configured? I understood ‘ignore ac’ should do this job, but how? Do I need to configure this all by VE configure software or is there another way? The charger I want to switch on, whenever it is sunny and I get more power than I use. Thanks in advance for help.
Robert
Order that I want:
1st AC-IN is not passed through and Inverter uses battery
2nd Inverter switch off when battery is low (around 15% SOC)
3rd AC-IN goes in passthrough mode and delivers to AC-OUT 1 or 2
I should be able to switch on the charger every time to charge the battery, independently of the Inverter. I have another PV Inverter which injects into grid.
Ok, you should be able to do this with VE configure, downloadable from Victron’s software downloads area. You will need a Mk3 and a laptop.
Once you set the ignore AC in virtual switch condition, you then get 2 tabs for setting the virtual switch ON and VS off. These can be done on battery voltage (best) rather than SOC (derived).
If you don’t want to recharge the batter from AC, then you need to set the current to zero or a low value in the charger tab.
You don’t need a MK3 adapter for that. Since a while it’s also possible to download the configuration from the VRM portal, change it on PC and then upload it again. You need the MultiPlus connected to a GX device for that.
Thanks a lot Manuel & Mike. I’ll try this soon. Just one question. Why not use SOC? I have connected the Pylontech battery on VE Bus to the gx device. I think SOC should be accurately submitted by the battery to the gx? I fear that battery voltage will break down when I have a higher load on the inverter and the switch will be triggered too early then.
Normally you have a SOC drift, which means your SOC is much more inaccurate then the voltage. If you have LFP batteries, then the voltage curve is pretty flat in the middle, which makes it difficult to estimate the SOC, but below 3.2 and 3.4 V/cell the curve gets steeper.
I could try this now. Unfortunately I had the following effect:
I tried to set the threshold for VS on for testing to 49.3V and VS off to 52,5V. For first everything looked good. It disabled AC-IN and I got a warning AC-IN lost what might be OK, as it ignores it until 49.3V. Then I reached the threshold, which was in my case around 85% battery soc. In the app I could see that AC-IN was shortly activated. The relays switched - klick, klack, klick… but a second later the AC-IN was off again and the Multi was still inverting, until Pylontech US5000 battery is completely empty and switches off. I just could get AC-IN back by restoring the original VE config Any idea if there is somewhere a condition to consider which switches AC-IN to off permanently?
Just do not want to leave that open. I restored the complete original ve.config. After that I changed the values as said again and transferred it to the Victron. This time it was working. Seems something happened with the transfer. Now the Multiplus switch on AC as soon as a dedicated value of Battery voltage is reached.
Unfortunately I need to look for another solution, because the disadvantage of this is that I cannot charge the battery as long as AC is disconnected Means I always have to empty the battery until I can charge it again via AC in.
Any idea if there is somewhere a condition to consider which switches AC-IN to off permanently?