I have an EasySolar 48/3000/35 with built-in MPPT 150/70.
My system is grid-parallel (connected to AC In). There are no other loads in the house between the grid meter and EasySolar AC In.
I have a my-PV AC-THOR 3kW heater control connected to the AC Out of the inverter. They communicate via Modbus TCP through a network switch with static IPs.
To make AC-THOR work and catch solar excess, I have to enable export in the ESS menu: “Feed-in excess solar charger power” = ON. “Grid meter” in the ESS menu is currently set to “Inverter/Charger” because I don’t have an external meter installed yet.
The problem:
When the boiler reaches its maximum temperature and AC-THOR turns off, the solar power from the MPPT does not throttle back. The inverter continues to feed up to 2000W (my Maximum Feed-in limit) continuously into the grid, and my utility meter counts it as consumed power.
Changing the “Grid Setpoint” from 0 to +500W does absolutely nothing in this configuration, the MPPT doesn’t react and export continues. If I try to change “Grid meter” to “External meter”, the system immediately drops into “Passthru” mode and stops solar generation.
My question:
Will purchasing and installing a Carlo Gavazzi ET112 energy meter at the grid entrance and switching the ESS setting to “External meter” fix this issue? Will it finally force the EasySolar to immediately throttle the built-in MPPT down to 0W (or Grid Setpoint) the exact second AC-THOR shuts off?
If you enable DC feed-in, the system will feed-in the surplus energy.
But in the same menu you can also limit the feed-in power, set that slightly lower than the setting in the AC Thor.
Thank you for your reply, but that doesn’t solve the core issue.
My “Maximum feed-in” is already limited. But the problem occurs the exact second AC-THOR shuts off completely (its consumption drops to 0W) due to the boiler reaching its max temperature.
Even if I limit the feed-in power to 900W, when AC-THOR turns off, those 900W from the MPPT continue to stream into the grid indefinitely as a constant export. Without an external grid meter, the EasySolar simply refuses to throttle the MPPT down to 0W when the AC Out load disappears, because “Feed-in” is globally allowed.
This is why I am asking about the ET112. If I install it and change the ESS setting to “External meter”, will the Grid Setpoint finally start working and force the inverter to throttle the MPPT to 0W (or Grid Setpoint) immediately after AC-THOR shuts down?
If you set the export limit to 900W it will feed-in up to 900W.
You should set it to 0W or 100W, depending on what you configured in the settings of the AC Thor.
If I set the export limit to 0W or 100W, the AC-THOR stops working completely because it detects no solar surplus to harvest.
That is the whole dilemma: I need the MPPT to run at full power when AC-THOR is ON, but I need it to drop to 0W immediately when AC-THOR turns OFF.
If I purchase and install the ET112 meter, will it actually fix this problem and force the MPPT to throttle down immediately after AC-THOR shuts off? Or will the inverter still continue to export energy because “Feed-in” is globally allowed in the settings?
EasySolar GX (ESS menu): Grid meter = Inverter/Charger (No physical ET112 installed yet). Maximum feed-in = 2000W. My Grid setpoint was 0W, then I changed it to +500W for an experiment, but absolutely nothing changed — the MPPT didn’t throttle and export continued.
AC-THOR web interface: Ctrl Type / Signal source = Victron 1ph Manual. Control target power = 0W.
Just to be 100% clear: when you say “It definitely works”, do you mean that purchasing and installing the physical ET112 meter will solve this issue? Or can I fix this continuous export without buying the ET112?
I can take real photos of my computer screen with my camera.
Which specific setup pages do you need to see from the EasySolar GX and the AC-THOR web interface to find the error?
@ From Thor documentation. "When controlled by an inverter, a feed-in meter is required in the system. The query of the inverter otherwise provides no data." From what I can see you need an energy meter and setup following these guidelines
Grid setpoint should be around 0W.
Max feed-in 100W
AC Thor -50W
If the battery is full the MPPT starts to feed-in 100W (-100W at the grid meter) → the AC Thor should start to heat if the feed-in is more than -50 → the MPPT wants to reach 100W feed-in and starts to produce more → the AC Thor heats more …
It won’t go from 0 to 2000W immediately, it will take a few minutes but the both the MPPT and AC Thor should be go up.
I suppose the grid meter Andrej is talking about is the official grid meter, not the Victron/ESS grid meter.
And as far as i know, it is not possible to run the AC Thor without an compatible grid meter. I don’t know where the heater otherwise should get the surplus Information from. The meter in the EasySolar is not accurate and not in the right position, i would guess…?
In a single phase grid and with everything connected to the AC Out you don’t need a grid meter.
The AC Thor just reads the grid meter modbus registers of the GX device and in that case there are the measurements of the MultiPlus.
For the AC Thor it doesn’t matter if the numbers in that registers are from a MultiPlus or an external energy meter.
Yes, I agree. In such a setup this would work. But I did not read here, that this is really the case… @Andrej_Latvia could you please tell us if you have a single phase system and if all the consumers are connected at the AC_Out port of the EasySolar?
Currently, I have a temporary configuration set up, consisting only of the EasySolar and the AC-Thor. The AC Input of the EasySolar is connected to the external 230V IT-grid, which has the energy company’s meter at the house entry point. The AC-Thor is connected to the AC Out. The communication between the devices is established over the local network. Currently, “Victron 1ph manual” is selected as the Control Source in the AC-Thor settings, but the communication goes over the network to the Color Control GX. It is critical for me to achieve a system operation where the EasySolar does not export excess energy to the external grid after the AC-Thor shuts off upon reaching the set water temperature in the boiler, because I do not have export permission and the utility company’s meter counts all exported energy as consumed by me.
