I am looking to find an experienced installer that is VE approved {or expert with real time experience of VE Battery Storage systems} for an installation in Motherwell, Scotland
I am both an electrical and electronics engineer and I really don’t want to do this myself UNLESS I REALLY HAVE TO
So far I cannot find a VE installer, anyone I speak so says “YES WE CAN DO THAT” but when i ask how many VE/Pylontech battery storage systems have you installed
Hi David,
This should not be too difficult to complete, and there are many of these installations world wide.
This forum can provide help and diagnostics should you run into any problems. First steps would be to establish equipment lists and schematics - also as an electronic engineer, I would prefer to do this myself, as it leads to a far better understanding of the system .
I have a FIT solar system so I will need the current sense transformer, so my inverter will know when I have excess energy that I can use to charge my batteries. I am going to change my tariff to Octopus GO probably the GO Intelligent tariff for overnight charging of the batteries
I am NOT sure if i need the Victron Energy Meter ET112
Victron Inverter PLUS other Victron Items needed
Victron MultiPlus-II 48V/5000VA/70A-50/230V Inverter Charger
Victron Cerbo GX
Victron GX Touch 50
Victron GX Touch 50 Wall Mount
Victron Lynx Distributor
Victron MEGA-fuse 125A/80V (package of 5 pcs [for Lynx Distributor])
Victron Current Transformer 100A:50mA for MultiPlus-II (1m) Wire-end
Victron Energy Meter ET112 - Single Phase - Max 100A
Victron RS485 to USB Interface 5m
Victron VE.Can to CAN-bus BMS type A Cable 5m
Victron Interface MK3-USB (VE.Bus to USB) OR Victron VE.Direct to USB interface cable
Victron Fuse holder for MEGA-fuse
Victron MEGA-fuse 200A/58V for 48V
CAT5e Shielded Patch Cable 3m x 2
Pylon US5000 4.8kWh Lithium BatteryUS5000 x 2 {perhaps 1 maybe 3)
Pylon Cable Pack for US Series Pylon Batteries x 2 (1, 2 or 3)
Pylon US5000 Bracket
Blue Sea Systems E-Series 48V On/Off Battery Switch x 3
OK it begins yesterday after a 1300-mile round trip drive to three different locations one in South Wales one in Lancashire and one in Yorkshire I purchased {at fantastic prices}
ONE 21U 19" rack mount cabinet
TWO {NEW} Pylontech US5000 -1C batteries
TWO {USED} Pylontech US5000 batteries {tested and checked them out [all good]}
BAD NEWS
Driving over 1000 miles in one day is a RPITA
Finding LPG Gas stations for my V70R is another RPITA {doubly so with Morrisons now charging £1.00 a litre {managed to fill up twice at 88ppl, but that required a wee detour off of the direct routing}
The Pylontech US5000’s are BLUDDY HEAVY. The car was quite happy, but thankfully the 21U rack mount cabinet and batteries were loaded for me, getting them into the house (they are still in the car as I write this} will require some assistance {probably from my two sons}
Connection of the US5000 batteries to the MP2 Via a Lynx Distributor.
SO should I have each individual, US5000 connected to the distributor and then mount another distributor to take the battery output into the MP2 inverter leaving me with three spare connections for additional battery connections
Saving some money and connections could be done by parallelling up the batteries in pairs, so I have only two outputs from the batteries however that has the possibility to overload these cables rated for 125A, as the battery can output 100A, then two in parallel we could have 200A melting these cable maybe even starting a fire so probably a very bad idea
OK actually I did mean BOTH an EV charger and a EV {car}
I purchased a very cheap Nissan Leaf 2013 ZE0 with a 24kWh battery that is well past its sell by date and I also have purchased a 40kWh battery to upgrade the battery on the Leaf. ATM I am using the granny charger mostly when the sun is shining and when I have an excess of energy So far I am getting ‘free driving’ BUT with only 65mile range IF the battery is fully charged. As the battery is on its last legs I am charging to 100% by the cars lying battery state of charge display. Leaf Spy says 94% The other day when we had no sun for a few days and I had been drivng the car, the battery was not at 100% SOC The car said 46 miles range and I needed to drive a 40 mile round trip {serious range anxiety} into Glasgow. I managed that and got home with the car complaining that it NEEDED To be Charged abut half way home in fact at the start of the journey home it had said chrge the car NOW!!! BUT amazingly it was saying 11 miles range still in the battery when I reached home AND the sun was shining FREE BATTERY TOP UP
Back to my Battery Storage System.
I discovered that my supply to the Consumer Unit was NOT ISOLATED I was told to contact the DNO to get that fitted, they said NOPE we stopped doing that in 2018 contact your energy supplier. SO a quick call to Octopus and I got an appointment the next week to install an AC Isolator. This was done yesterday in under an hour and my electrician is coming next week to install a DUAL CU. This will have the house circuits on the bottom of this CU and all the new ones on the top - BSS, EV Charger, Garage, FIT Solar and with room for some additional circuits. Inside this CU is going to be the Victron ET112 Energy Meter for measuring the FIT Solar Output so the MP2 can use that energy to charge the batteries and a 125A change over switch
so the MP2 and BSS can be isolated so that the house can be connected directly to the grid during any maintenance
Glad you are getting it sorted, note that the EV needs to be upstream of the multiplus 2 otherwise you will find yourself with no storage as the multiples starts to think of it as a load. Will you be using ESS both on AC in and AC 1 out? As @victronitnerd mentioned you should have been able to spoof without an EV, just with a compatible IGO charger and the sparks EV charger test kit
Getting MORE confused as things get closer to installation time.
Where to Start???
Well I bought a nice cheap Nissan Leaf Tekna ZE0 2013 UK built car
So far I have been using my solar {obviously only on sunny days} to charge the car battery using the granny charger
The car has a 24kWh battery that is well past it sell by day and it is lost a lot of its capacity so I do have RANGE AXIETY he he with about 65 mile range when the car says 100% charged, Leaf Spy says 94% I am panning to change the battery to a 40kWh version which I also manged to get at a nice price, fitting it as it weighs over 300kg is going to be fun. I was planning to swap the Leaf for a Nissan e-NV200 40kWh van and use that for local shopping while simultaneously converting it into a CamperVan with VE bits providing the 240V for an ALL Electric CamperVan. BUT then discovered the barstewds in westmonster just changed VED for electric vans from £0 to £345 pounds on 1st April 2025 some April fool joke NOT - The Leaf being a 2013 car then VED is only £20
SO that Electric CamperVan project is on hold for a while
Back to my Battery storage system
Without doing a wiring diagram {which free software should I use for that}?
This week Octopus came and fitted the AC Isolator and my electrician is planning to come early next week to install the DUAL Consumer unit.
The Changeover switch and the ET 112 energy meter should be here Monday
I think!!! OH HELP that the change over switch is connected One side goes to the Consumer Unit, hot rail and switches to the grid {supply from the newly installed AC Isolator switch} and then the grid connection gets switched over and goes to the Multiplus AC-OUT-1 to give me UPS abilities. {this will be the normal setting for the change over switch} In the panel is a 50A RCBO and that goes to AC-IN
The ET112 NOT measuring GRID POWER is {to be} connected between the output of the FIT Solar meter and the grid this is ONLY to measure excess solar energy to use to charge the Pylontech Batteries. I am NOT putting a ET112 in the main power line as my understanding is that the MP2 can manage a [no grid energy usage situation} without needing an ET112 on the grid power in line.
YES I ‘think’ I will be using ESS for this Battery Storage System TOO MANY TLA’s for my brain to evaluate
It will of course be an electrician that carries out all of the AC work even the AC power connections to the Multiplus. Pre that I will have installed connected and wired up the all the components of the Battery Storage System myself and then once it has AC power, program it {more fun on the way I suspect}
Correct! ET112 connects In to the PV out then ET112 out to MCB/RCBO there is a trace neutral for the ET112 think from memory it’s a 500mA quick blow fuse
“I am NOT putting a ET112 in the main power line as my understanding is that the MP2 can manage a [no grid energy usage situation} without needing an ET112 on the grid power in line.”
No it can only do this if it’s before all loads and everything connected to AC1 out otherwise you need a CT of some sort to tell it what other loads it needs to cater for
and the intelligent Flux tariff demands that i only use FOUR battery manufactures
So far I am getting ‘free driving’ BUT with only 65mile range IF the battery is fully charged. As the battery is on its last legs I am charging to 100% by the cars lying battery state of charge display. Leaf Spy says 94% The other day when we had no sun for a few days and I had been drivng the car, the battery was not at 100% SOC The car said 46 miles range and I needed to drive a 40 mile round trip {serious range anxiety} into Glasgow. I managed that and got home with the car complaining that it NEEDED To be Charged abut half way home in fact at the start of the journey home it had said chrge the car NOW!!! BUT amazingly it was saying 11 miles range still in the battery when I reached home AND the sun was shining FREE BATTERY TOP UP 