Grid Back Feed / VRM Capabilities

[Northmeadow (Scott)]

Howdy Everyone,

I am new to the Victron Energy family (Which I love by the way) but have worked with electronics and power systems all my life. I am in the process of outfitting my home with a full ESS. And was hoping the community could assist me in a couple questions I have.

I am currently running 1,200 Watts of Solar Cells into two MPPT 100/50 SmartSolar charge controllers with a third MPPT 150/70 ordered. In anticipation of adding an additional 1,200 Watts of panels to max out those three controllers. I am running a 12v system with 599ah of battery capacity. Of course I would like to both increase the voltage and capacity to increase efficiency but currently I am running a phoenix 12/1200 inverter.

But my first question comes from picking a inverter/charger. I am looking at the multiplus and quattro and from what i can see the only difference is the capacity of the inverter and charger. But i want to be sure before purchasing one. I am trying to totally power my house with solar and back feed whatever is left to the batteries or back into the grid. Which might be tricky as i live in the US. So i curious if that’s possible with Victron gear and if so what gear.

My second question comes from the VRM interface and the dashboard landing page. I have been playing around with the sources and loads. I have an extra smart shunt which I tried connecting a AC charger to and also a third party solar charger to but whenever i do that they do not show up in the dashboard when i configure the shunt as a dc meter and the proper source. My question is what can the dashboard display and what can it not display. I have seen pictures where loads and sources do show up in separate boxes instead of the normal 4/5 boxes but i can never get them to show up despite having everything connected to my cerbo GX correctly. Specifically is there a limit to the number of devices that can be shown. For example, in the PV charger section I currently have two charge controllers. Will i be able to see all three once my new controller arrives or will i be limited?

I assume either the interface cant do what im to do or I am not doing something correctly. Any help would be amazing as I am DIYing all of this myself.

My site is linked below if that helps anyone.

https://vrm.victronenergy.com/installation/448979/share/967d54dc

Thank you!

[ricardocello (Rick)]

Greetings. Running a legal ESS in the US is going to be a difficult ride, unless your power company and Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) will sign off on it. You might start by only considering the UL listed mutliplus or quattros, which are very limited at this time. I wouldn’t purchase anything unless you have approvals from the power company (Net metering or similar arrangement).

12V is really challenging to run a house on due to the excessive currents required. If you want to go big, 48V is where it’s at.

[ricardocello (Rick)]

I also have an AC charger and second shunt, and it does not show up in the VRM dashboard.

But it does show up in the new GUI interface for the Cerbo (still in Beta).

[Northmeadow (Scott)]

@ricardocello

I also have an AC charger and second shunt, and it does not show up in the VRM dashboard.

But it does show up in the new GUI interface for the Cerbo (still in Beta).

Thank you, Rick.

I have noticed the same thing with the GUI-V2 interface. Everything shows up there, just not on the VRM dashboard. Perhaps Victron will add that feature in the future.

And yes 100% about the 12v vs 48v. I happened to have 2 12v 100ah batteries and 3 100 watt solar panels laying around with an old mppt charge controller when I first started tinkering. So it was easy to build from there with 12v. But you’re right, I already pull 100 amps when running the inverter at 1,200 watts.

Do you happen to know the limitation on VRM about the devices displayed in say the PV charger section on the dashboard. I just received my third MPPT controller and I am curious if all three will be displayed or if it is limited to only displaying two.

Again, thank you!

[ricardocello (Rick)]

@Northmeadow

Do you happen to know the limitation on VRM about the devices displayed in say the PV charger section on the dashboard. I just received my third MPPT controller and I am curious if all three will be displayed or if it is limited to only displaying two.

The blurry picture on this page shows 4 MPPTs. I’m guessing they will all show up.

[Northmeadow (Scott)]

@ricardocello

That is correct! My third controller showed up the moment I plugged it in.