OKii Thanks.
Next please check in VE.Config which country setting have you selected?
UK G98 or UK G99?
I wonder why the vast majority of other companies use watts in their descriptions. Victron is the only company I have seen that uses VA for the product description.
Even my 25 year old Trace Engineering 5548 is 5500w at 48Vā¦
Same reason as advertising cars in hp not kw 
Jip. VA x 80%. At the right temperature of course.
Look at your maximum grid power.
Seems its on 16 amps
3685:16=230vac!
So just increase your grid output to 20 amps or higher
Victron provide quite a lot of detail for their products and are targeted at a professional installer market.
I often see questions asked by folks who are installing quite large systems that make me very concerned for their safety. In my country to install any equipment of note, you need to be a licensed electrician and install it in accordance with national standards. To be licensed you need to have completed a 4 year apprenticeship.
The exchange debating power factor is concerning as with the very greatest of respect, anyone who doesnāt understand power factor should not be installing anything that is not simply āplug and playā.
I note earlier it was said that 99.7% of the population would be standing the dark. Quite right, that is why only 0.3% should be installing this equipment.
Hi,
Sorry @Nick but I canāt agree with you.
The datasheet lists several ratings ā¦ not only in VA and not only the continuous discharge at 25 Ā° C
Reading the datasheet we are RIGHT to expect a CONTINUOUS power of 5000VA, that is to say 5000W IF AND ONLY IF IT SUPPLIES ITS POWER TO A PURELY RESISTIVE LOAD
Victron is kind enough to indicate that we are entitled to expect 4000W for āclassicā loads for which we generally consider a common cosphi of 0.8
In my case (MP-2 3000 in ESS mode + 16S LiFePO4 14kWh) I am quite strongly frustrated by the difference between the datasheet and what the equipment actually delivers in real life.
I have done many tests since I got equipped. The multiplus does NOT deliver more than 2400W in ANY CASE (in fact I suppose that the limitation comes from the GX) and this WHATEVER the load considered (and therefore its cosphi)
I tested with an oven (purely resistive), with a water heater (purely resistive), including stopping practically everything at home during my tests so as not to degrade the cosphi. Result, impossible to exceed 2400W whatever the settings.
The cosphi measured at that time varied between 0.95 and 0.99 ā¦ and yet at NO TIME did the multiplus SUPPLIED more than 2400W (a few 1 second peaks at 2450W transients linked to the regulation to be fair)
If the datasheet had been respected my multiplus should have been able to deliver between 2850w and 2970W (i.e. 3000x0.95 or 3000x0.99) ā¦ this is CLEARLY not the case (and I never reached 25Ā°C during these tests, and if the temperature is so critical that Victron would be well advised to install an internal temperature sensor in the appropriate place ā¦ again this will settle any discussion once and for all between āinternal temperatureā and āambient temperatureā ā¦ again information missing in the datasheet) ā¦ and the voltage of my battery was going very well during testing.
Personally I have the painful feeling that 25% of the promised capacities were āstolenā from me (yes, 25%, because the missing 600W represent 25% of the 2400W actually available ā¦ Iām really fair here, I donāt talk about the 5500W peak power rating !!!).
This limitation is perhaps a (desired) consequence of the ESS mode ā¦ but it is a REAL limitation.
Victron is quite prompt to write tons of docs ā¦ but this limitation is NOT present in ANY.
Victron should TAKE CHARGE and add a simple line in the datasheet: ESS Max Power = 2400W ā¦ and it would be settled once and for all and for everyone (and I would have chosen an MP-2 4000 ā¦ oh sorry, 5000 ā¦ which would only be 4000 but at least it would have been clearly written in the doc, and would no longer be confusing)
And no matter how much I am told over and over again that the installation of Victron equipment should be reserved for professionals, it will not stop me from laughing out loud.
I donāt know about your country, but where I live the level of skill and knowledge of the āprosā often leaves a lot to be desired ā¦ they simply do not have the time to be up to date on every detail of each range of each brand of equipment they install ā¦ they do generic installations and do not really dig into the details.
We can also quote the classic big phrases, as read above in this topic: āIt has always been a poor design decision to size any system to run at its peak continuous rating, depending on how it is installed, it almost always will derate.ā
Here again I do not 100% share this opinion. If we have to oversize it is mainly because the specs are not respected.
I sized my system with the following need:
- ESS
- 14kWh lithium battery
- common average power: between 100 and 400W
- expected continuous power 99% of the time: 2000W ā¦ but not that often or for very long
- max continuous power (really punctual, maybe 10 minutes per week ā¦ and not every week, and on resistive loads): 2800W (background consumption of my house of 400W with the 2 fridges running + a load of 2400W during these few hoped-for minutes)
- peaks (a few short seconds from time to time): 3000W
With this expression of need and after many hours of reading the āfabulousā Victron documentation (nothing is up to date, none is exhaustive) and watch hours of video (starting with this one https://youtu.be/4SXtGIx0x5w ) I naturally went for the ā3000ā without the slightest doubt about my choice (especially with the ā5500Wā peak power specified in the datasheet, I did not feel at all in a case of undersizing !!!)
who here would dare to say that my expression of need SHOULD HAVE led me to choose a 5000 (and its higher zero load power, sorry for taking this information in consideration) ?
And if someone dares to tell me, let him not hesitate.
But then thank you for arguing it seriously with official and easily accessible documentation that will enlighten me ā¦ I would be really VERY happy to read it and then make a mea culpa!
For the moment I remain disappointed by Victron
True, but with Growatt I saw it the other way around, they specified 11kW for the pv inverter I installed. But when I connected it to the grid for the first time on a sunny day it immediately ramped up to a stunning 12kW continously for a few hours without ramping down or becoming hot.
The unit was specified 12VA and apparently the power factor was near 1 so it did 12kW although they sold it as 11kW.
Beside that the Growatt has passive cooling and makes almost no sound at all, which with victron bothers me the most, since the 5kVA multiplus has enough power for me 99% of the time. But Iām glad I didnāt but the 3kVA (which was insufficient for charging 4.8 kWp of solar anyway).
I understand your frustration and I also find the specifications misleading and incorrect. 3kVA = 3kW at power factor 1 like a simple heater which also has a crest factor lower than 3:1. They specify peak power much higher so 3kVA
would be the nominal continuous power at 25 degrees ambient temperature imo.
3) Non-linear load, crest factor 3:1
yes,
In my case the crest factor does not seem to me to be a limiting parameter in an ESS system as long as we have the grid
If this is true this explains the lower watts. So watts is the maximum continuous active power up to powerfactor 0.8 which has a higher VA, at power factor 1 the watts remain the same.
Below powerfactor 0.8 the VA remains the same but the active power (watt) drops.
Still not specified clearly if this is true imo.
and, if this is true, thatās why I 100000% agree with @Ludo when he said:
and thanks @JeroenSt for the feedback on the Growatt, this is very relevant information and will surely be useful to me for my future project
Only big downside for me is that the Growatt is connected to Chinese servers and I donāt know if it has dess. And Iām not sure if the hybrid inverters are also fanless, but as they are high frequency inverters they will not have a hum and less loss, but with the downside that the self usage of the inverter is higher.
But if youāre experienced with nodered and modbus you donāt need Chinese servers and you can make kind of dess on your own. Only downside is that a sun prediction service is hard to find for a reasonable fee.
Or just ignore sun prediction and keep the battery charged for 50% during low Tariff keeping headroom for solar energy and sell it at high Tariff.
True, although itās sold as 5000VA which it probably can deliver at powerfactor 0.8.
So not untrue, but misleading.
The Growatt/MPPSolar/Deye,etc. type of inverters have the same flexibility as Victron for configurations. So you donāt need to use their software.
They have a serial (text) type of communication for reading parameters and configuration, similar with the old modem commands (AT commands) if you remember themā¦ 
True, but building a full dess like victron offers which also uses solar energy prediction will be a lot of effort I think.
Good !
Your JKBMS told you this information, this is an āinput powerā before DC to AC conversion.
my 100balance BMS has a poor precision and gives me sometimes variable figures
And it is a DC power, if we take into account the loss of efficiency of the inverter you were probably closer to ~4500W (output power is the rated power in the datasheet) in this range of power ā¦ itās not so bad, I canāt do that on my side (I installed an independant power measurment on the Multiplus AC input)
Sometimes I wonder if the 2400W limitation (even for few second) on my side is not related to the āFrenchā grid code (VDE ā¦ VFR 2019).