Hi, New to the group. How do you find an Victron installer/engineer in the UK please. North West England ideally.
Thanks, Clay
8 Answers
I have two Cerbo GX units and am wondering if there is a specific way to configure the second (slave?) to show the tank inputs on the display connected to the first (main?) Cerbo.
The two units are connected via VE.Can (with a termination plug at both ends of the system), perhaps I should try VE.Bus?
The Touch 70 on the main shows a second device.
I turned on and configured the tank inputs on the slave by plugging in the Touch 70 into the slave.
Cannot figure out how to get the tanks plugged into the slave to show on the main unit.
1 Answer
Hi everyone.
I'm currently using a MPPT 100/15 with a 12V battery bank (2 x 12V 100Ah Lead Acid batteries in parallel) with 2x100W solar panels. The solar controller's settings are on 14.4V absorption and 13.9V float. The equalization voltage was set to 16.2V but it is disabled and I've never manually triggered the equalization.
I also have a BlueSmart 12/15 charger which I set on power supply mode during the day with a voltage of 13.4V while the solar panels provide power to my system. It's charge mode's settings are similar to the solar charge controller (14.4V absorption, 13.8V float and 13.4V storage).
Earlier today I noticed a strange series of events.
1. The power from my solar panels dropped from around 130W to zero. (it's a sunny day, panels had no shade, I measured the panel voltages and everything seemed fine on the panels and at the cable going into the solar charge controller when unplugged - around 70-80V open circuit voltage). After this the Victron app stated that the charging state is "Off".
2. The reported voltage on the victron connect app showed that the voltage from my solar panels dropped from the normal 65-ish Volts to just above the battery voltage. This was thus different to what I measured with my multimeter at the cables going into the charge controller while they were unplugged.
3. I changed the BlueSmart charger from power supply mode to charger mode, detached the solar panels and measured their voltage (mentioned in point 1).
4. I re-attached the solar panels.
5. Soon thereafter I heard a boiling sound coming from the batteries and noticed the battery voltage going over 15V and steadily climbing.
6. I immediately switched off the BlueSmart charger, but it had no effect.
7. I then detached the solar panels which brought the voltage down again.
8. To investigate I tested this by leaving the BlueSmart charger switched off, and re-attached the solar panels. The voltage started climbing again.
Afterwards I took some screenshots (below). It's quite clear on the screenshots that the voltage climbed each time I re-attached the solar panels.
What I'm seeing is:
- The solar charge controller is in an "off" state.
- The charging current was showing zero
- The power and current from the solar panels were showing zero
- The battery voltage kept on climbing and I heard the Lead Acid batteries boiling.
- Even though an audible boiling sound came from the batteries, the solar power and current and battery charge current all showed zero.
What am I missing?
It almost seem like the battery voltage was chasing the solar voltage. I don't think this was an equalization happening because during "step 7" I did decrease the equalization voltage to 14.5V and the battery voltage still climbed past it to 16V+ before I detached the panels again.
Did my SmartSolar MPPT charge controller break? It's only a few months old now.
Did it perhaps somehow decide the batteries are 24? I double checked the settings and the battery is set to 12V. At no point in time was the battery cables disconnected.
I will be testing everything again in the morning when the sun is back up and if anything changes I will comment on this post.
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1 Answer
Hi! me and my partner are planning our electrical system in our campervan. Does this look okay? Does anyone know what diameter of cables are needed? We are both newbies at this :P ![image]
2 Answers
Hi,
Login for this forum doesnt work for me. I only can log in via lost password. I set a new password and logout. Login in with that new password fails again ... .
Any hints?
Regards Ralf
2 Answers
Hi
I havent been able to ID this inverter/charger so far. please can anyone help. I'm looking for the right user manual.
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1 Answer
I have an existing system that I am trying to upgrade/correct. Our original van installer undersized everything and we've been dealing with some issues. The upgrade includes adding appropriate fuses, adding a bus bar (Lynx), swapping an isolator for a DC to DC charger, and upgrading from AGM to Lithium batteries. I already have a Renogy 3000W inverter and a Renogy Wanderer 30A Solar Charger.
Can anyone provide feedback on my wiring diagram to confirm that I'm connecting things correctly? Or, provide insight into what needs to be changed?
Note: I did not add all necessary fuses/disconnects to the diagram. I plan to have a 300A fuse and disconnect between the battery and the Lynx Distributor. In addition, we'll have (1) 125A fuse for 6AWG wire to DC to DC charger, (2) 200A fuses to 2AWG wire to house loads and solar wanderer, and (1) 300A fuse to 4/0 wire to inverter within the Lynx. We will also have a Victron Smart shunt connected between the battery negative and the Lynx.
2 Answers
Hi all, my phoenix 12/375 inverter does not show any load information on the dial. What could be wrong?
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4 Answers
Hello community.
I’m long time reader not so much contributor…
I’ve recently installed EasySolar. It works in off-grid as all attempts on connecting to grid failed miserably. I would like to have it so grid can feed excess of demand (above 3kW)
I’m sure it must be a simple way but me and my mate electrician scratching heads with no results…
The way we’ve tried: grid is connected to consumer unit and this is where I have AC-IN fed from. Then AC-OUT from Inverter goes to the same consumer unit. Apparently that should work. Should it? The system also have a current sensor on LIVE grid line, but it doesn’t seem working…
Any suggestions will be very helpful and appreciated.
3 Answers
Hi everyone why is it so hard to try and contact victron? I am wanting parts the part number is SBP210110020 I have told my dealer he says victron haven’t got back yet really seem getting nowhere can anyone on here please help thank you.
1 Answer
Please see attached drawing for my proposed system - I have already bought the Multiplus ii 12/3000 and 4 x Bosch L5013 Leisure batteries.
I have seen in the Victron wiring unlimited info that the 12/3000 may need a 1000a shunt, is that correct or will a 500A be sufficient? I was planning to buy a smartshunt.
Wiring to/from the inverter and battery bank interlinks are 2x50mm2 with 2 x 200A fuses to protect the inverter connection. Also a 300A on the negative side of the leisure battery bank to protect that from vehicle short. Are any other fuses required/too small or large/in the wrong places? Hopefully my drawing is clear enough!
Also I have read about it being undesirable to go from TT to IT in terms of earthing arrangement, do I just run the CU earthing to the vehicle ground which is also connected to the earth of the inverter? I presume the inverter deals with fault current by linking the neutral and earth internally when the shore power is disconnected?
Any advice relating to any of that is helpful, thank you in advance! Is a BatteryProtect a good item to add to the system also? Where would this go? is anything else worth adding? I want no displays internally, all off the phone if possible, to go in a 7m class A motorhome.
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2 Answers
Hi All,
I'm about to install an ET340 and now insanity has kicked in.
My brain is telling me that the bottom of the ET340 (pin 4, 5 and 6) are IN (coming from the main switch/provider), and pin 1, 2 and 3 are OUT going to the "house".
However. Looking at the side of the ET340 the arrows are pointing the other way.
Anyone here who can tell me what the correct direction is?
Thank you.
2 Answers
Hi all,
I have a new Multiplus II 48/10000/140 and it worked fine for 3 days then all of a sudden it shut down. It triggered the short circuit protection on my batteries and the AC pass-thru doesn’t work either, it just sends the AC for a couple of seconds and then stops.
I’ve disconnected the batteries and tested those and they’re working fine and the short circuit alarm clears as soon as they’re disconnected.
The battery terminals on the multi show as a short circuit on my meter but I read this could be due to the capacitors and the resistance does increase the longer I hold my meter on. However, if I connect my Cerbo to the battery terminals on the multi with 51v that isn’t able to draw power either but works fine powered from another source.
Does anybody have any idea what’s going on and how to fix this or is it likely a faulty unit?
Thanks very much,
Jamie.
2 Answers
Hi,
I am a keen beginner in becoming more power self-sufficient and am planning a battery/inverter/solar system.
I have included a diagram of the sort of setup I want to go for to be able to make use Victon equipment and Pylon-tech batteries to create an ESS to take advantage of cheap electricity tariffs at night here in the UK and power my house during the day through the use of a Mulitplus II inverter while also using power generated from solar for additional power and storing it using batteries. I am not at this stage wanting to feed back and export any additional power that's generated.
After reading a lot of Victron documentation and watching a fair amount about this I think I have got the general idea about how to set this up but have a few questions about the specifics of what I need which I was looking for help on.
I plan on leaving the current consumer unit in place and using it to power any heavy load items that might be needed and then using a circuit on this main consumer unit to feed into the A/C in of the Multiplus.
I am wanting to go for a Multiplus 15000/48/200 so my first question is what size/gauge of wire and fuse/mcb/rcbo do I need to feed into the Multiplus from my current CU?
The Multiplus 15000/48/200 can handle a peak of 27 000 watt using a power factor of 0.8 for average household appliances, but I believe this is only for a short amount of time (0.5 Seconds), it also seems to be able to maintain 150% for 5 seconds (18000 watts) and 130% for 30 mins (15600 watts). After looking at my usage over the last 12 months this should be plenty for my whole house at any time even when cooking on the hob and oven, using the washing machine and dishwasher along with the microwave and kettle. Any heavy-duty loads could be added directly to the main consumer unit and used mainly at night when there is cheap electricity (EV charger) but after monitoring the house usage over the last year this should be within those numbers.
The maximum feed in power is 15000va so the unit can draw approximately 12,000 watts , at 240 volt this would equate to 50 amps, what size mcb do I need to feed in, should it be an rcbo or can an rcd protected mcb be used instead, should I use a 50 amp or 63 amp breaker?
What cable should I use here, the distance is around 5-10meters, can I get away with using 10mm2? my other option is to run 25mm2 tails as I am already planning on running 1 set from the henley blocks to the UPS consumer unit directly so I can make use of a changeover switch in the UPS CU to allow for maintenance or to be able to isolate the Multiplus out of the equation. Would 25mm2 tails be overkill which is just going to cause unnecessary problems when routing in the main CU?
For the A/C out from the Multiplus to the UPS CU should I use 25 mm2 tails or is this overkill too?
Would it be wise to add further isolation other than that provided by the change over switch and the master switch in the CU?
If so should I just use the same as (a) before getting to the change over switch (j)
Do I need a current sensor, ET112-1 (b) for the Multiplus to know whats going on in this setup?
If I don't already have an isolation switch (a) before the current sensor (b) would it make sense to add one? Would it also make sense to add one after the Henley blocks for each CU to be able to isolate them independently or is this overkill and unnecessary expense?
Can I set up all 6 batteries in one bank or should they be in two banks, and depending on which , what gauge of cable do I need (f) and what isolating switches do I need (g) ?
With Victron equipment and Pylontech batteries, before connecting, do I also need to precharge the capacitors in the Multiplus with a resistor to initially charge them before connecting to the batteries?
I was looking at some 405w solar panels and have room for about 10 and was planning a series setup with a Victron MPPT, what voltage/amp of isolator (i) do I need? And what gauge of cables (h) do I need? between solar panels and MPPT (i) ? and MPPT and Lynx ditributor/Multiplus (h)? Do I need an isolator in both location?
I understand there are a lot of questions here so any help and/or links to resources is much appreciated.
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solar system layout.png8 Answers
I have a stand alone system with this Inverter and solar battery system using Outback MX89 MPPT Chargers and 32KVA LiFePO4 battery.
I had my electrician connect the my 7.5KVA generator to AC 1 in to allow it to be used in extended overcast conditions to recharge the battery and take most of the load in those conditions.
On starting the generator, it had an output of 260VAC and the inverter indicators Mains on and Bulk charging came on, then went off. I tried adding load to the generator output to help drop the output voltage (in case that was the cause of the lack of charging), but nothing helped . The generator will carry the load of 3 kettles at once, but the inverter does not like to connect to it.
Are there settings I can change to help it accept the generator power?
What do I need to connect my notebook PC to the Inverter?
1 Answer