solar

Hallo zusammen,

bin recht neu in dieser Szene und bin von der Software von Victron ganz angetan.

Ich möchte gerne eine Solaranlage, die direkt den Strom quasi an den Verbrauchern weiter gibt, solang sonne da ist, aber ohne Speicherung, jedoch den fehlenden Strom bei wenig Sonne mit Netzstrom füllt.

Beispiel:
Solarstrom 50% Netz 50%
Solarstrom 20% Netz 80%

Gibt es die Möglichkeit dazu, ohne den Strom ins öffentliche Netz einzuspeisen?
Falls ja, könnt ihr mir paar Geräte nennen von Victron.


Vielen Dank

SETUP: Home system, US based. I'm thinking to split off critical loads into their own sub-panel. Victron gear [quattro?+autotransformer] would be supplied by IN power from a circuit off the main panels (grid) and solar/battery on the other IN. Some loads are US 240V (well pump), hence the autotransformer to get both 240 and 120 into the panel. Intent is to use solar-first on the crit loads panel, and supplement with grid as needed. No desire to feed back to the grid.

QUESTION: Is the Quattro the right product? Can it do this solar+grid balancing, or is something like Schneider's XW Pro a more appropriate fit?

Thanks for your input.

I'm tearing my hair out - My Multiplus is connected to an MPPS and 300ah battery stack. In the past few months the system is still taking power from mains when there is up to 100% SOC and plenty of sunlight. I do have some AC ignore rules, but these haven't changed since I first set it up. If I reset the Multi everything returns to normal - The system resumes pulling from the batteries and/or the solar. After about 12 hours it reverts to pulling, unnecessarily from mains.

Hallo, Vermutlich wurde diese Frage schon hunderte mal gestellt. Ich habe eine bestehende 12V Solaranlage mit 3x Steca 45Ah Master & Slave Mode im Betrieb. Nun mit dem Multiplus II und der Online Box würde ich gern diese dem System bekannt machen, Spannung & Leistung. Gibt es da Möglichkeiten ohne sich einen 12v/100Ah MPPT Laderegler von Victron zu kaufen?

Vielleicht stand ja schon mal jemand vor der gleichen Frage.

Ik wil mijn Vctron laders gebruiken om het overschot aan zonne-energie (dus wat niet binnenshuis wordt opgemaakt) in accu's te stoppen. Ik heb een meter die kan meten of mijn huis exporteert en hoeveel en dan voor 5 of 10 minuten een smartplug aan kan zetten, waarin ik de lader plug.

Is het voor de lader of de accu slecht dat er steeds 5 of 10 minuten geladen wordt en de lader dan weer uit gaat?

I installed a cut off switch on my solar panels so as to not interfere with a BMS operating when engine on.

i believe this situation may have caused TWO lightning strikes this season from static buildup.

Looking for validity and solutions.

Hello,

My question is can the rs smart solar 48v/6000 invert power from the solar panels to the grid without a battery pack connected ?

second question, how does this device know if your house needs power or it needs to store the energy in the battery or sell power to grid ?(gx device with current clamp ?)

kind regards bram

Campervan electrics

I am currently rebuilding a Fiat Ducato van into a campervan. For the electrical system we want to use a 230v fridge, a roof fan, Led lights and some smaller accesoires such as usb chargers etc.

A rough estimate of powerusage:

	Watt	Hours p/d	Wh	Ah @12v
Fridge 230v	20	24	480	40,0
Usb	14	1,4	19,6	1,6
Lights	20	3	60	5,0
Fan	35	6	210	17,5
Laptop/bikechargers etc.	90	1	90	7,5
Waterpump	100	0,5	50	4,2
		Total	909,6 Wh	75 Ah

Adding losses, I estimate a bit less than 100Ah/day.

Charging

• Multiplus 800VA
• Orion DC/DC smart 18A or 30A
• Mppt 75/15 with +- 200Wp solar

Storage

The intended use of the camper van is to travel around, stay a day or to and then move again. so alternator charging and solar should be most of the charging required. Going with a multiplus is a nice to have, as adding a charger later would require a lot of components if I buy a separate inverter.

I am still looking into what I can afford,100Ah lithium sounds great, but 220Ah AGM is also reasonable for our uses. Due to a smart alternator a DC/DC charger seems needed anyways, so all should be easily set up for both chemistries. We’d prefer using a 12v system, as this is commonly used.

Do you have any remarks on this schematic?

(Apart from the not displayed safety on the 230v AC, and the non-calculated wire gauge.)

[image]

My question;

Can I combine the Multiplus, orion smart and mppt without a shunt or GX device or is this not advisable? As far as I can tell this is mostly for monitoring?

The multi and orion won't interfere with the ignition switch used, so it is mainly the communication between the MPPT and other chargers that could be problematic?

Thanks in advance!

Bram

Beste,

Ik heb thuis een multiplus II GX aangesloten op het Net met een 10Kw lithium batterij.

Alles in mooi aangesloten zoals het in de manual beschreven staat en het systeem werkt ook gewoon perfect, Maar nu is de keuring langs geweest om het systeem te keuren en dat wilde hij niet doen omdat de omvormer in serie was aangesloten met het electriciteitsnet en niet in parallel. (Ik vertelde hem dat dit systeem enkel maar in serie kan worden aangesloten en dat alle meet apparatuur vanbinnen in de multiplus aanwezig is, en dat dit toestel aan alle veiligheids voorzieningen voldoet en gekeurd is door Synergrid belgie)

Kan iemand mij helpen met info of voorbeelden van iemand anders die dit ook zo gedaan heeft thuis, zodat ik dit kan voorleggen aan de keurder? Of heb ik zelf iets over het hoofd gezien?

In bijlage de schets van hoe het is aangesloten:

[image]

[image]

Met vriendelijke groeten

Aaron

Hi everyone,

a question in regards to the Multiplus II and ESS:
As per my understanding, when we have AC solar on the Multi's output (with the 1.0 rule obeyed), the solar delivers power to the load first, excess will be used to charge the battery and once they are full it will export to the grid.

So the question is can this be changed to: power the load first, export to the grid afterwards without ever charging the batteries? The charger can be turned on and off in the software I have seen. So, if it is off, would all excess energy be fed into the grid automatically?

[image]

The reason is a very high fed in tariff I have for this solar and of course I want to export as much as possible. The batteries will be charged form MPPTs solely.

Thank you.

Hello,

on my catamaran I would like to get rid of the generator.

I will intall 2000W of solar, 1200 AH LiFePo4 batteries and two MultiPlus 3000 in parallel. But this is not sufficient for two reasons:

1) redundancy

2) weather impact (no sun)

As a backup I would like to be able to charge my batteries FAST!! with the two 57 HP Yanmar diesel engines. How do I do that?

Thank you + kind regards,

Peter

I am in the final stages of designing a battery backup system with the Multiplus II. The main purpose of the Multiplus II would be to have a backup power source for when the grid goes down. The Multiplus II would be fed from the grid to ensure the batteries remain fully charged. This would be the first stage of the install and gives me a very good indication of the power draw throughout the day for my critical loads.

The second part of the install would be to connect a PV system (MPPT) that would keep the batteries charged throughout the day. I would then allow a certain % discharge going into the evening. The PV array will be sized based on the power draw of the critical loads and the solar yield on an overcast day on the shortest day of the year (New Zealand - relatively high sunlight levels). On sunny days there will always be excess power available and I would like to dump the excess power into a hot water cylinder. I am looking at including the fronius Ohmpilot that would be connected to the AC-out (non critical load) of the Multiplus II. This way there will only be limited amount of power going back into the grid. I will only be installing the fronius smart meter and leaving out the Victron smart meter upstream of all the electrical loads as the fronius smart meter would be the only meter that needs to determine if the load is dumped into the hot water cylinder or if it is being exported back into the grid. I assume this is correct? Below is an overview of how I would like the final system to look:

[image]

I look forward to comments and feedback on the above.

I currently have the following Victron products and want to add solar and 240v charging to my system

I also need to add some more 12v appliances and upgrade the current battery for a trip

Here is what I have currently

1 Cyrix CT 230a connecting the starter and 100ah AGM battery

2 BMV712 and Shunt

I have individually fused connections to the battery for DC loads (Fridge and lights) and want to tidy it all up when adding the solar and mains charging

Is the following diagram the correct way to incorporate the solar controller and 230v charger ?

Specifically should I connect all the 3 charging inputs positives to the POS BUS BAR and all the Negatives to the SHUNT ? if so which side ?

[image]

Hi - my single frustration with the system I have is that once my batteries are charged my solar during the day (typically 3500w) reduces and any excess is pulled from the grid - can this be solved… (I am not a technician or solar expert but this was installed recently by a “solar expert”)

[image]

i

Hi again

In a previous post I shared the scheme of my Van electrical system. It is almost set now, but I have some small doubts...

https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/33770/van-solar-electric-scheme-24v-and-12v.html?childToView=33841#answer-33841

Mostly about Negative / Ground

here I share a scheme with three options on how to connect Orion 12/24 to the negative busbar
which one is more correct?

[image]

many thanks

Hi there, community!

I wanna charge my campers’ leisure batteries both via the alternator (Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC Charger Isolated) and solar (SmartSolar 100 / 20 20A MPPT). Can I use both products simultaneously? Thanks!

I have had this problem both small (just one Victron SmartSolar 75/15 in a van) and large (large offgrid installation with Multiplus and Cerbo GX)

The problem is that you remove the battery because of an external reason, or the battery disconnects itself by the BMS, connected devices are still powered directly by solar. Which leads to unpredicting results. Not only from safety point of few, but also for the devices possibly not getting enough power and acting weird.

So in most cases you want the solar power to disconnect as well. I am thinking what the best way is to do this?

On my larger installation is a larger SmartSolar 250/85, which has a remote input (and no load output). This I want to let disconnect by a relais when the BMS kicks in and disconnects the battery. That way the system will go down. Is that the proper way? Perhaps there is an application note or some other document about this.

On the smaller system, the SmartSolar doesn't feature a remote input, so I should probably have a contactor/relay between solar and load output.

Hi All. I'm going to install my set, having 4 100/30 each one connected only to a single 450W PV, in a 12v installation. This is already discussed in a previous discussion, and this approach is for the shadows managing and also for the cost and redundancy, beeing better 4 than 1 regulator.

I wonder if, in order to save cabling from 4 to 1, and routing and path (it is thin and strechy), I can connect all the PV negatives to a single 1 cable negative in the PV side, with a section 4 times AWG previuosly selected, and way this to reach all the regulators site, where I will spread again each negative to every regulator PV- input

Positive cables will run independiently , 4 .

Can be possible?

Is there any cons, apart from that if I added new panels I must to run new negatives?

Thanks

Hi. Just wondering whether or not there is any difference in terms of functionality and remote control between Smartsolar VE Direct and VE Can products. Is there anyone that have some experience with both that can explain?

Thanks in advance for your help

I've got a 160W portable solar panel feeding a Victron SmartSolar 75/15, which charges a 12V LifePO4 lithium battery (with its own battery management system).

I've rewired the solar panel in series to reduce voltage drop over a long extension, so that it now has an open circuit voltage of 44V, and an operating output of 36V and 4.4A. The panels have bypass diodes so I believe that should help with shading. If I shade one panel then it should have an output of 18V and 4.4A.

It works fine sometimes. But other times if I just partly shade one panel the SmartSolar app shows its input is around 40V, but the current is only 0.1A. I thought maybe the SmartSolar has a delay in making a change, for some reason, but I've watched it for over a minute and it doesn't improve.

Can anyone explain what's going on here?

[image]

[image]

Hello,

I installed an external temp sensor to cool the controller through fans in case it reaches 40°C.

Therefore I noticed that the internal temp sensor always shows 6° too much, no matter if it's day or night.

Yes, I double checked the external sensor electronics with another temp meter - they show the same...

Is there any way to recalibrate the sensor of the controller to get accurate measurements?

Thanks a lot in advance and happy sun ray hunting,

Flow

I have a 3 bank battery charger on my boat. I have connected my SmartSolar MPPT 100/50 to a Victron FET battery Isolator. I have several questions that I would like to talk / email with technical support.
1) Is this a recommended installation configuration?
2) Is there a problem using this configuration. The controller is only powered when the solar panels can supply power. This is not a perfect situation, but liveable.
2) The Diode in the Victron Isolator prevents battery current from keeping power to the MPPT controller. I do not wish to direct connect a battery to the common terminal on the isolator as this will result in the common connected battery to charge downstream batteries. If a downstream battery fails, this would bring unsatisfactory results. Is there a way to use the alternator energizer to power the controller? Is there another method?
3) If I could get an email address, I could send more detail system schematic for consideration.

Hello,

Currently I have a solar controller Sunware Fox 320.

This controller can load 2 different batteries, currently the starter battery for 10 minutes und the consumer battery for 50 minutes.

Is there a similar controller in the viltron portfolio?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards

Jens

Howdy! I'm looking for a little help as I've figured out the beginning and end of my solar set-up but it seems like there's multiple ways to fill out the middle. I was originally piecing together a build based off of youtube but I like the idea of a mostly victron system where I can still cheap out on a couple of the components.

---

Here's what I'm working with so far:

• 4* 400W solar panels (50.4V / 10.18A)
• 24v Lithium battery bank

My panels are going to be wired in series so I've been eyeing up the EasySolar II since it seems capable of handling the 200v input from the panels. I will be using 120VAC and 12VDC in the bus so I need to figure out the best way to handle the 240VAC output from an easy solar II unit.

Alternatively, it seems like I could just get a 250|70 mppt solar controller and work that into a cheaper 2000W 24V inverter connected to a battery monitor and then the battery bank.

Will there be a 120v easysolar ii coming out? Is there a different product(s) that makes better sense for assembling my system?

Side question: how feasible/complicated/expensive would it be to integrate my 24v solar power system with the 12v system of the schoolbus?

Thanks in advance for any insight!

Hey Folks,

Appreciate you stopping by. I’m new to this area, but I’ve done a bit of research to solution for various other issues.. That said, i now am a bit stumped and would appreciate some help.

Background on my set up:

• 180w NewPowa solar panel x2 (Run in parallel & Fully tested before and after install)
• Victron MPPT Controler 100| 30
• Battle Born LiFePO4 (lithium) 100Ah 12v battery x3 (total 300Ah) run in parallel
• Victron BMV 712 Smart Monitor

Configuration for Victron systems:

Pictured below are my key setting configurations for my set up. I used the manual as well as some other threads to determine my settings.

Settings for the 100| 30 Controler :

[image]

Settings for the 712 Smart Monitor:

[image]

Questions/Concerns:

1. Based on my Whole electric system, does my configuration above seem to be accurate or are there pieces that I should re-evaluate?
2. Today and yesterday (during the day) my system has been stuck in ”Bulk”, which from what I read, means that the batteries are low and the system will bring in large amounts of power to charge them. The issue is that the batteries are very close to being fully charged. (below is some data from the app showing that I’m stuck on float) . I think its important to point out that I have been able to put a load on this and see my numbers and battery voltage adjust but I continue to stay in “bulk” . What could be causing this?

   [image]

   [image]

3. Possibly related to #2, today during a sunny day, my solar panels were barely bringing in any watts 30-50w range, while in bulk model. My battery on the monitor was at 95% or 13.4v but it didnt seem like it was going up at all. Any reason why this was happening?

Any help is greatly appreciate. Happy to provide more details around certain aspects.

Here are some additional data grabs...

Below is a picture from the monitor today while having a slight load on it (fan, heater, lights):

[image]

Here’s a picture of the van when I bought it.. It’s changed a lottttt since then.

[image]

Hello,

If anyone could tell me what is the name of the plug/connector type model I would be much happier person :-)

I did check documentation also looked at different connector types and could not find a simple thing - what is the connector type model. I also can't find Victron cable that is meant for this port.

Here is the photo of the port itself:

[image]

Earlier today, right before noon, my main solar panel array on SmartSolar 150/100 stopped producing power. My smaller one (100/30) is still working. It was decently windy today, but my panels have survived much worse. I walked the cable and everything appears fine. Open circuit at the panels is 114v, right before the MPPT is 74v after a 150foot aluminum cable run. When I connect it to the MPPT, the panel voltage drops to that of the battery voltage and there is zero amperage. I tried resetting it, disconnecting and reconnecting it, etc. Does anyone know what the problem could be? This has bee working great producing 3k+ watts for the past few months. Here's a screenshot of when the failure occurred - is this a hardware issue?

[image]

Hello, my mmpt smartsolar 100/20 indicates a nominal pv power of 580w.

I don't understand why is this value indicated as the datasheet indicated that maximum current will be limited at 20A and maximum voltage supported is 100v.

Then maximum power should be 2000w.

So why is there a limit of 580w indicated?

nominal pv power means that sum of WC of each pannel should be lass than this value right ?

Hi I want to update my solar installation. It is in a boat, alway anchored,so she is moving all the time around the anchor. Weather is always tropical, close to the ecuador

To update it, I though to set 2 solar panel, 450W each one, in series, 900W. Voc= 49.27 and Vmp=41,37 I want to use MPPT 100/50. If I set the panels in series, Voc total is = 98,54v. It will be 2 sets, 2 regulators, 4 panels, and total 1800W. If I use bigger regulators, I should go to 150/60, so I will double the budget, as I will have 2 sets

Please my questions:

1º - PV MPPT 100/50 limit is 100v. Can it be keep it below limit with stated above, keeping in mind that the PV would be always between 15ºC and 60, and I can assume that it will be some lost in 6 cable meters and joins?. And important too, in a boat, with my old installation, I never reached maximums, as the boat is always moving around the anchor, so there is no a optimal and fix orientation towards the sun, and there are some few objects (mast, aerogen, radar), which cast shadows to the PVs?. E.G., in my old I have 500W, but never got more that 340W( 14vx24A), with sun at zenit

2º In the same way, what is the tolerance +/- of the 100v limit for the regulator? Within the manual, there is nothing about it. I meant, if the real limit is 120v, it will be safe I guess.

3º Can I put in paralell the 450w PV increasing AWG cable but lowering the max voltage? I guess in a MPPT would be not suitable do that?

4º Can I set a voltage limitator for 100V just in the inbound of the regulator?. Maybe some kind of varistor.

5º I tried to use the victron excel tool, but I couldn't as per there is some problem if you open it using open office (xlsm format), and I cant use with excel 2003. I tried with opencpn, but it was overflow (value!), when I tried to set parameters, and a new PV , custom. Any idea?

Thanks for your time, BR

Hi there,

I have a van that I am building out and trying to straighten some things out in my system as I design for kitchen.

The basics:

• I have 400W of solar on roof.
• I have 200ah Lithium Ion in battery bank. (I ran some calcs early on and was looking at ~180ah of use per day, so 200ah seemed doable. I left a space open to drop in another if needed.)
• I have the 3000W 12 V MultiPlus Inverter Charger. (Some of my calculated items pulled a good bit of wattage (hot water kettle=1k W, induction stove ~1-1.8k W) so I figured Ok lets do the 3k W.)

I am hitting a lot of points where the inverter just won't budge though. Sometimes I'll be at a good charge say 75 - 80% of capacity and the inverter light will switch to "low battery" when I turn on the 1k watt hot water kettle. Really, at 1kW? No go. If I start the car, the kettle works. I haven't even bought the induction stove yet since I'm running into these issues.

I saw somewhere that potentially I would need at least 3 x 100ah batteries just to give enough current to the 3K W Inverter to do its thing. Is that right??

I'm hesitant to drop another $1k on a battery, although I would do it if it let me run my whole setup with the induction stove smoothly. It starts to worry me though that maybe I couldn't fill the 300ah battery bank fully with only 400W of solar. I've heard good rule of thumb is 200W solar per 100ah battery charge. I have enough room on the roof for another 50V panel..maaaybe 100W. So I'd be at 450W-500W, not the ideal 2:1 ratio. I do have an Orion that charges while I drive... so there is that. I would hardly ever be parked anywhere for days on end without moving. This is mostly a family extended trip mobile. Going for several days up to 2 months at a time remote work/travel trips. I also have a shore power hookup but don't plan on relying on that for steady refill, more of an emergency backup thing if in a pinch.

The other option would be to just swap out the 3k W inverter charger for the smaller 2k W inverter charger - if that is in fact a more appropriate current draw on 200ah batteries- not buy another battery, and just go propane setup for the kitchen stove instead of the induction stove. Thoughts? What say ye?

Recap:

1. Could my 3kW inverter charger (and solar setup) function smoothly with an additional 100ah battery and be able to supply for induction stove? Or
2. Cutting it too close and best to go to 2k W inverter charger + propane setup?