I have 20kWh of batteries and I use around 15kWh daily with 3x Multis5000 in 3 phase.
I have almost 16kWp with 36 panels divided between 10 on east, 9 on south and 17 on west. All this installed in September, so I haven’t yet experienced peak performance.
This being said, I love automation, my home assistant is a deep rabbit hole, but in this case, also due to the wife approval factor, I decided to trust the KISS method and not going in the node red hole.
When the sun shines without interruptions, batteries are full around 11:30.
Since my dynamic price is the one largely used in europe, I have the epex integration where I can follow the prices daily and see if something abnormal comes up.
My configuration, is purely offgrid with the grid connection as if a backup generator was.
So I have one of the ignore AC methods and a cable between the cerbo relay and the multi input. This allows me to press a button in my vrm and start the “generator”.
The “generator” can also auto start when the soc reaches 12% and stop at whatever soc is programmed by you. It also can start at cell voltage, but this I need to investigate further.
I use the quiet hours to define 2 different start and stop points.
My quiet hours period starts at 17:00 and ends at 12:00 from next day. This gives time for the battery to fill or almost on a clear day.
I defined the quiet hours start generator at 12% and stop at 30. Out of this time it starts at 45% and stops at 65%
This covers the big majority of days when the sun doesn’t shine, because if the sun shines, the mppt goes off below noon due to the battery being full. If its lower than 45%, I take advantage of the second cheapest price around noon, if its full, no grid is used.
I have no interest in injection, I prefer to start devices when soc is above 95%.
Now in your case, due to the tariffs u have, probably you are better with some node red magic. To be honest you are leaving me to think if I should go get my rabbit hole digging equipment…
I had a look to this generator trick, however, as I have a multiplus 2 GX, the cerbo is integrated and I still need to find if and how I could rely on such method.
I actually do not understand well how the generator trick differs from switching the inverter to « inverter only ». Maybe you have a clue on this ?
I have been relying on HA for a long time, but I am thinking it is always better if the equipment is self sufficient (or as much as possible), rather than relying on many layers that are communicating (and each layer creates a potential breach in reliability)
This is incorrect information. In “inverter only” mode only the loads on AC-Out are powered. AC-In is disconnected. I have nothing connected to AC-out, all my loads are on AC-In (ESS parallel config). Inverter only mode is doing nothing in this case. MP stays in idle mode.
For now, I went with a node red flow that basically (when appropriate vs my grid constraints)
sets ESS SOC to 100% & switch to mode ON to launch charge
once inverter is in bulk mode, then there is a loop starting to check the current SOC vs my actual wished SOC (I’m doing the launch at 100% to bypass the unwanted behavior of having the Multiplus not charging in case of target SOC below 5% of current state)
once target SOC is reached, switch back to inverter only (case current time is within 6am-10pm) or stays ON
I also implemented a battery low SOC/voltage “security” flow that triggers under certain threshold and pump a bit the battery up to a certain SOC.
hello
Do you have the EDF tempo contract? Yes, much cheaper during off-peak hours in France, it’s 0.1296 cents per kW, during the red period, peak hours, it’s very expensive, 75 cents per kW! Same as you, I charge from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
My logic now also embeds charging only when it is worth to do so (considering the stored energy stock (thus including loss during AC/DC then DC/AC transformation), not the kWh paid).
hello
glad to have someone who thinks like me for the multiplus!
I also have this reflection since at the moment the sun is not present the PV gives me only 1kw per day!
so in period for the moment no red period here (paris region paris) but I already had 5 white days more expensive than the blue periods
so yes I charged at night from 10pm to 6am 0.1296cts per kw while the white days in hp are at 0.1894cts I also did the calculation with the loss in charge and discharge it is 12% loss approximately
so we are winning 22% per kw so yes it is worth it even in white period, in red period it is a very big saving it is 70% saving!
after you have to plan a big battery pack because the red days in France can last 5 days in a row!
on my side I have 45KW of battery
and for you?
are you in France?
see you soon
laur
