On my canal boat I’m running some AC greenhouse heaters during the winter to keep the temperature above freezing. We have shore power as well as solar. But it looks like I’m always pulling shore power to run the AC loads even when there is plenty of solar coming in. The solar is just going towards keeping the batteries topped up. I’ve included a video from VRM.
What settings need to change to be able to use solar to run the AC loads when it’s available and only falling back to shore power when needed? I read up on ESS but it says not to use that for marine systems.
You can use the “virtual switch” in Multi to set it so that it only connects to the grid when … and here you can then set the conditions such as SOC or the load on the ACout etc … .
You would essentially be “off-grid” until these conditions are met … once they are no longer applicable … it disconnects from the grid again.
I am in exactly the same position on my narrowboat and have what you want working well. You need to set up “prefer renewable energy” function on the Multiplus. This is also called “solar and wind priority”.
I’ve got the solar and wind priority option turned on but I’m not seeing solar used to run AC loads. I think it only affects DC loads and battery charging. So it looks like 8 need to dig into the Ignore AC Input options right?
I think so. That way, your small load will also be discharged via the battery and not constantly supplied via the mains.
You can experiment a little with the SOC… or do you also have larger loads to supply… then the virtual switch would also need to receive this information..