solar

I’ve just ordered a GlobalLink 520 for remote monitoring of my boat solar but can find a difinitive map coverage for the uk. Mainly Gloucestershire.

Has anyone got one in the uk?

Hello, I will try to be precise. I have contacted my distributor of victron devices, and he has stopped selling, so I wonder if you could give me an indication here.

My system. Camper van, lifepo4 280ah 12v battery. 5 100W solar panels in parallel, mppt 100/50, orion 12/12, smartshunt, multiplus 12/1600/70 and CerboGx.

I would like to have the panels in series, but they can reach 116v and my charger is the 100/50. I can't fit another 100W plate to do series-parallel.

Since 9 days ago, my batteries have been discharging down to 20% (then I get the vrm warning). During the day the solar generates about 40-60W on average, before (even last summer, I had about 150-160wh).

Since a few days ago, the plates do not generate more than 40-60W, at some point of the day they can reach 150W (but only for a moment), then sometimes it goes down to 0W (lots of sun and no clouds).

I have checked all the connections and everything seems to be in order. I just need to check the mc4 connections of the solar panels, but it is quite inaccessible for maintenance and I would like to discard everything else first.

The battery is below 80% (I have done the tests with the SOC from 20% to 90%, same results.)

I have tried charging the battery from the alternator (Orion) it takes 18amps, and from the multiplus (takes 65amps) no problem. The battery is fine, and the cells are balanced.

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A few days ago (as always, fine)

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Now:

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Just to add it, half of the time, the SCC is not giving any W as can be seen here (it never did it something like this, at least with the battery not full).

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Thank you for your time, I hope I can fix it..

I have installed a Multiplus II on my boat. I also have solar panels connected through two MPPTs, and a Smart Shunt connected to the house battery bank (5 - 12V AGM batteries). The system is connected to a Cerbo GX with a touch 50.

My question is this: Is there an easy way to prioritize solar power over shore power when the boat is connected to shore power?

I have seen many posts from a few years ago but there seems to be no clear answer. The ideal situation would be when the sun is shining the batteries remain at 100% SOC and the solar powers the boat. If the load exceeds the solar output, the Multiplus II would make up the difference using shore power.

I look forward to hearing back from the community.

Thank you,

Ralph

Just added some new panels to a small system running at home based on a Multiplus-II with a Smartsolar MPPT controller and the ESS assistant running. It's all been running fine with no errors...until I shut off the solar panel power feed to the MPPT to wire in the new panels.

Apparently, there is something in the ESS/Multiplus-II/Smartsolar that causes the Low Battery LED on the Multiplus to start flashing when the solar power is abruptly cut. I got out a meter and checked the actual voltage at the Multiplus input and it was a very stable 13.18 volts -- definitely not low. Bypassing and powering down the Multiplus extinguished the flashing light. There was no entry in the Notifications log for the ESS of anything being wrong.

I duplicated the error again today but was able to recover by just completely removing the load from the Multiplus for a few seconds. Not a significant problem, but it does give quite the start after weeks of good performance only to see a flashing red LED on the most expensive piece of the kit.

FWIW

Jim

I have 3 160watt solarpanels on the roof of my van.

Most of the day the battery bank is full, so am wasting solar watt :-)

Is it possible to put a separate second smaller Smart Solar from the same 3 panels that is only charging my car battery? or will that screw up the first Smart solar...

Hi,

I have a grid-connected system (no feedback) with Multiplus 3000/24/70 and VenusGX.

I can run most of my electronics from the inverter, but when it comes to the washing machines (2000W) the inverter can't cope since there is additionally some 200W to 400W AC loads connected. So, I have set a condition to switch to grid if AC loads > 1800W. But to take advantage of Solar, I have put a limit in the AC input in the order of 3 to 6A. This will make the System use Powerassist and use much of the Solar (either direct or from battery) and get another part of energy from Grid.

The issue that I want to address is that if I want to really take advantage of solar - I have >3000Wp installed, I would like the inverter to fetch from grid only what it really needs to complete the AC loads needs. That is, use the Maximum AC load that I set as condition to switch to grid to be the inverter set point (in my case 1800W) and get the remaining from grid.

Instead, what currently happens is that system will use the maximum that it can from Grid and then complements with Solar. I would like this in reverse...

Is there any way to do it?

(note: I can't use ESS...)

Hello. My name is Andrey.

I’m designing system for my small camper. I’m going to put camper on the land and build house from solar energy. There is no grid on the land, so it will be off-grid system with support of generator.

My plan is to start small and then grow the system to power the whole house. I calculated my daily load to be around 75ah at max at the moment. Can be reduced to 20-30ah for cloudy days. I have purchased 2kW inverter generator.

This is the list of products I’m thinking to get:

- Solar panel 360W-24V Mono

- SmartSolar MPPT 100/30

- MultiPlus 12/1200/50-16

- VE.Bus Smart dongle

- Interface MK3-USB (VE.Bus to USB)

- Cerbo GX

- Lynx Power In

- SmartShunt 500A/50mV

- Battery switch on/off 275A

- Lithium SuperPack 12,8V/100Ah High current (M8)

- Cables, fuse holders, fuses, circuit breakers, etc..

The total power of the system will be 3kW with power assist from Multi.

Does that look like a good working system? It seems that I can upgrade it with just extra batteries and more solar panels (maybe a bigger MPPT controller needed in front, like 100/50). What would be a nice way to grow the system otherwise? E.g. if I want to switch to 24/48v system for house. Or what I can modify in my design to be able to expand it in the future?

Thank you.

Hello everyone,

my dad decided to exchange the hardware of his solar charger and batteries to Victron. I was not involved but after he realized that he can't deal with he setup, he reached out to me. my apologies right in the beginning for my silly questions, but in fact it's not plug and play and I need help.

The Multi RS Solar is connected to the solar panels and to the batteries, I did also establish the power line from the 230V grid, the output line of 230V is connected too. Except missing settings for the batteries, everything is running well. The wireless connection is established to house wireless through Bluetooth.

So far so good. But now I tried to connect the Cerbo GX with the Multi Rs Solar. The wireless is connected and I can remotely access the Cerbo GX.but there seems to be no connection with the Multi Rs Solar and when accessing the platform it's empty.

When I tried to connect Cerbo and Multi Rs I didn't find any circuit diagrams. I have tested RJ45 cables as well as CAN cable on several ports without success.

Please guys, can someone enlighten me and share details for the connection with me? there are no details and diagrams online that can answer my questions and I go slowly nuts.

thanks on advance

Elmar from Germany, Lower Saxony

I have a victron 712 smart monitor and a renogy rover elite 20A mppt charge controller with a 120w solar panel. I would like to know if I can use the 712 to monitor the solar. I don't know how to set this up.

Hello i have installed this system on my boat. See drawing.2022022401 - Bootschappen-1.pdf

Quattro 12/5000/220, solar MPPT’s, lithium batteries, VE.bus,Cerbo.

Purpose: To use as much solar energy as possible, and only use the shore connection or generator when no sun or too much energy needed.

Problem: When I connect the shore connection the quattro starts charging immediately to 100% SoC and keeps the batteries full, so no solar power harvested. Offcourse I disconnected the shore cable, and for a couple of days we used solar energy, but this night the alarm went of and the complete system had a shutdown at 40% SoC. When connected the shore cable, the quattro immediately charged the batteries to 100%. I have read about ESS, but it is stated in the manual that this should not be used on boats...

Solution where I am looking for:

1. In case of shutdown due to low voltage, the quattro only charges enough to keep the 12 volt system running and keeps the batteries available for harvesting solar energy.
2. Shore connection keeps available at all times, except when sailing, for if there’s no sun for longer periods.

Question:

1. How come that it shuts down at 40%, lithium is supposed to be used until 5% right?
   
   

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I am building a system for my RV while building a home so it will be moved to the off-grid him in about a year. So far I have 2 12V 100 AH Battleborn Batteries, 8 - 335 Watt Solar Panels from Rich Solar and a Victron MPPT Tr VE. Can 150V 100 amp Solar Charge Controller. My RV has a 50 AMP service with 2 AC units, however, I have a generator to run those when needed. The RV came with a basic inverter to run the fridge and the outless unless run when plugged into shore power or a generator. I am wanting to add an inverter to run these from the solar panels directly while also charging the 2 batteries that can be used when the sun goes down for small loads. Is this something the Multiplus II can handle and it can be programmed to only deliver the max charge rate of the batteries or do I need something else. I want to avoid spending a lot on additional batteries. I can provide more details if needed, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hi im a bit confused on how to get the best out of my solar.

We live full time on our Barge in the UK in the summer we do not have access to shore power and make use of the solar and top up with generator when required .

In the winter we plug into shore power , i am looking at the cost of energy now and want to make the best use of my solar which in the past didnt concern us too much.

Is there a setup specifically that will bias towards solar use and only take shore power when neccessary ?

Regards

Gordon

What would happen if I have more solar panels attached to at MPPT 150/85 than it is rated for? I currenlty have four 300 Watt panels (1200 total) in wired parallel. I often have partial shade and the Solar Charge controll has never reached the 1200 W limit so I am wondering if I were to add a coulple more panels to the system it would help during the mornings and evenings but it might be over 1200 Watts at peak times. Is that OK or can it damage the Charge Controller? A few people surggested that I just add an additional charge controller to my system but I don't have the room for it. Please advise as I would like to add 2 more panels so that I have more power during cloudy days etc.. Thanks much

Easy solar was working perfectly, the 150/70 working perfectly too.

Then no PV charge at all.

Solar voltage is 101.13V

Solar Current is 0.0A

Battery is 51.03V

Battery Current is 0.0A

State Bulk

State Off

I’ve contacted the company from whom I purchased all the kit.

Their guy took a look at my Victron Connect and he can’t find any reason why it isn’t charging!!!!

He’s wanting me to remove the Blue solar and sent it to be independently tested.

Any help would be great fully received.

Thank you in advance

Amperage question:

All things being equal (12V system, 100w PV, Direct Sun, etc.)

does the Solar Charge Controller 100/50 actually output more Amperage than the 100/30 under the same conditions

OR

Does it have the capability to do so, but will require more PV wattage to achieve 50A max output?