Since 3 weeks, I am using the EVCS in Auto mode. Before that a few months in manual mode (because my firmware was still behind). Now running firmware v1.30. My setup was installed by a professional: victron inverter, 3 phase, fronius, victron mppt, cerbo, off grid, portal ID c0619ab39ee1.
The user manual gives a clear definition of “excess solar power” and when the EVCS should kick in in Auto mode. In the 3 phase situation, excess should at least be 3x 6A (around 4.2 kW). I understand that with v1.29, a new feature “Allow low excess solar power for auto mode:” was introduced. Initially this was set to “enabled”, but last week I set it to “disabled”. The problem is that it is still starting to charge in low excess situations. For instance, this morning with grey sky it started charging when the excess was around 1.2 - 1.5 kW:
The problem is that e.g. in the morning, it starts too early, thereby charging from the house batteries. I quite like the original 3x 6A setting for my setup, but I can’t get the EVCS to get back to this. What do I do wrong …? Thank you
EVCS doesn’t know the exact amount of the excess solar power. The only way is to start charging and check what is happening. If there is not enough excess solar power - EVCS will stop charging according to settings.
In your case increasing ‘Start charging at backup battery SoC’ can help you and EVCS will start charging not so early in the morning.
Also, you can restore EVCS settings to default by the “Reset to factory defaults” button on Settings->Backup & FW web page. But remember that EVCS will go to Access point mode and you have to make a ‘First setup’ again.
That is a reasonably clear definition to me. In case of 3 phase, this is 3x 1.38 = 4,14 kW. This is indeed the minimum value at which my EVCS charges. So, one would expect the EVCS to start charging at an excess of > 4 kW when the “Min. charge current” is set to 6A. However, my EVCS starts charging at around 1 kW. My question is: why is this happening? And, what can I do about it?
PS: This way the EVCS gets into undesired loops. Because it starts at 1 kW of PV, after 10 min (my setting to protect house batteries) of discharging the house batteries (at a rate of -3 kW) the EVCS stops charging the EV. However, it will then directly start again (because there is 1 kW of PV available), discharging house batteries again … etc. This happens at every low PV moment. For instance, at the end of the day, I observe 3 to 4 of these cycles of charging/stopping.
Sorry, I forgot to add. I actually like the option that EV charging is allowed from the battery/grid. It provides a nice continuance for when some clouds are moving in and out and for when the rest of AC load is going up and down. Both scenarios are very realistic throughout the day so I would like to keep using this. As such, it would be very helpful if the excess solar condition would at least equal the amount of minimum charging that one can configure. Reading the manual (and having run an earlier version of the firmware) I also believe that this is how the product is meant to behave.
