solar

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I just installed my Victron system. I have the multi 3000 with a smart dongle, smart solar 100/50 mppt, 1000amp smart shunt, and 420ah of safari ut 1300 lithium’s. Up top I have 4 200w panels wired in series parallel dumping 45ish volts and 25ish amps into the mppt, but coming out to the batteries at the terminals on the mppt, it’s on 8ish amps. Not sure if my setting are off? I’ve googled until my fingers are raw.

First solar installation! Uses MPPT 75/15 solar controller and Victron 90Ah gel battery. After two summers, the batter is no longer holding charge. Is this normal life time for this battery?

Hi,

Am about to embark on deploying a Tiny House for off-grid. I've built the Tiny house based on an RV design. Major appliances, like On-demand hot water heater, 3-way fridge/freezer, 3-burner oven/stove, propane heater are all driven by LPG, Lights, Ceiling fan, and USB charging ports are all 12v based. Utilize a Natures Head composting toilet which requires small amount of 12v to drive a small exhaust fan.

The Tiny House was built with a Power Dynamics Power Distribution Center (PD4045LIKA), 30AMP input. So all 120V outlets and 12Vdc circuits are wired to through this unit. The PD4045 is a Converter/Charger and I have disconnected the circuitry for these, as the Victron MultiPlus Compact 12v/2000/80 I have installed will feed the AC and DC side of the PD4045 and also charge my lithium batteries.

As I'm not a Pro am looking for any advice/recommendations with regards to this setup.

Thanks,

Matt

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Hello guys,

I have installed a 150/35 MPPT Smart Solar charger in my van and it is driving me crazy with the noise it produces. Once I disconnect the solar panels, the noise is gone.

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Is this normal, something I have to live with or is there anything that can be done?

Thank you

Hello, I am looking for advice regarding updating my current solar panel setup on my leisure vehicle.

Currently I have a single 80w panel and a Victron 75/10 controller. With weight on the roof being the constraint, I think I have three options:

1. Add another 80w panel and wire them in series to take into account the factory wiring, using the current controller
2. Add another 80w panel and wire them in parallel but update the factory wiring, using the current controller
3. Remove the 80w and install a 100/20 controller, update the wiring and a 200w panel (being the max size/weight I could install)

What do you think would give me best yield, all year round in the UK?

Many thanks for looking.

Hey everyone,

I noticed with the recent ESS update the inclusion of a "new feed-in limiter". Woah-and-behold, there is a seeting in my CCGX for max watts feed-in!

Previously, I've just had a current limit set-up that when feed-in starts to exceed, the inverter drops ALL feed-in momentarily. What I wanted however was a more dynamic reduction of the MPPTs.

I was hoping this new setting would do just that, limit the incoming PV to reduce my feed-in such that it regulates at the set-point (if it is able to exceed it).

It seems however it does the same thing, just dropping all PV momentarily, then ramping back up. Cycling over and over.

Is this how this is intended to work? Certainly not ideal as I suspect the load fluctuations are putting unneeded stress on my setup.

For reference my system is as follows:

Quattro 10KVA (VE.Bus),

2x victron 150x45 MPPTs (VE.direct),

victron BMV (VE.direct i think),

CCGX.

Would be grateful for any advice! :)

Hallo,

Ich habe folgendes Problem und auch in den anderen Feeds leider keine passende Antwort gefunden.
auf dem Dach unseres Wohnmobils sind zwei baugleiche Solarpanele mit 110 Watt verbaut. Wir betreiben dazu den Victron Laderegler MPPT 100/15.

leider zeigt dieser immer nur eine Lading von 0 Watt im Zustand Float an. Und dies auch unter Berücksichtigung der 5 Watt Differenz.
- Batteriespannung: 13,42

- PV: bsp. 20,41

Auch zeigt die Batteriespannung bei einer Messung an der Batterie lediglich eine Spannung von 12,9. wie kommt es zu solchen Abweichungen und wieso lädt der Regler nicht?

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Hi Victron Community,

I want to convert my AC water heater to DC.

Can I connect my 12VDC 600 water heater element to the Load Out on my MPPT Solar Controller to run only when my batteries are full?

Here is my setup:

2 x 375w panels connected to a Victron MPPT SMART 150/60

2 x 175w panels connect to a Victron MPPT SMART 100/30

This is going into my LifePo4 bank 4 x 120ah.

Whats are your thought on programming the two MPPT Load Outputs to act like a dump loads from excess energy created my when batteries are full?

I can put two elements into my tank so have two separate heating elements with thermostats.

I'm trying connect my 260ah AGM battery and 320w solar panel to my mppt 100/20. It registers the battery but I have 0w and 0v from the solar. I've triple checked the wires are connected properly and the right way round. I've checked the fuse and I've checked the wiring using a multi meter and there is power coming from the panel but the controller still isn't recognising it.

I'm aware it needs +5v above battery voltage to charge but I'd have through midday on a sunny day it would produce that easily.

What am I doing wrong? Anyone got any thing else I can try?

Thanks in advance.

Dear all,

I try to figure out, if the behaviour I see is per design or not. In my van I have installed a Victron LifePo4, a BMS12/200 and a MPPT75/15 with 2x110W solar panels. Due to the current cold weather conditions (<5°C), the battery and the BMS shutdown the battery charging.

Whenever there is sun available, the voltage on my BMS load and the MPPT battery output increase to ~17V. I assume this is due to the battery shutdown for charging. As soon, as the battery is open (>5°C), the voltage decreases to a normal level.

Is that expected? I thought the MPPT will reduce somehow the voltage when there is no charging in progress.

Why I am asking the question? If put the MPPT battery charging minus on the BMS load pin, where all my other load is also connected to. Now I have ~17V on all my devices, as long as the battery is shutdown. Is my design correct or do I need to change something?

best regards,

Fabian

Hi all, I am taking a stab in the dark but was hoping someone in the community might be able to help.

I am looking into installing some solar panels with my system and would like to get a real idea of how much of a difference it has made for other users.

I am based in Pretoria and essentially would like to get some solar data from someone's installation so I can look at how effective it was/is.

I dont know if anyone is comfortable to send me anything, but it would be greatly appreciated and would help me ever so much. A CSV would be ideal but at this stage, I would take anything.

Regards Ewald

can i series 4 x 55W and one 90w into a 48V MTTP? or will the 90 W stop the 4 others

A friend who is not very tech savvy has a problem with his solar system. I gather his dealer went bust and the people the administrators passed him to say they can’t help because his system is non residential. Can anyone pass me the details of someone in the East Midlands (Bilsthorpe) area that we can get to come out and have a look at the system?

I would like to put this out to the community to see if I am missing anything in the way I currently have my system wired before I power everything up

12VDC side

Batteries

I have 10 battleborn lithium batteries divided into two banks interconnected with 4/0 cables.

Each banks positive goes through a 400 amp class t fuse then through a battery disconnect and over to a 1000 amp buss bar.

Each negative goes through a smart shunt and then to a 1000 amp buss bar.

Cables are within inches of being the same length slight variance due to placement of switches

Inverters 2 Multiplus 120v 3000

Each inverter positive and negative go directly to the the buss bars using two 2/0 for both pos and neg

Each inverter casing is grounded to the motorhome chassis local to the inverters

Cables are the same length

Charge controllers 100/50 x 4

Each pair of solar panels go through din rail pos & neg breakers to the PV input on the controllers over 10awg wire. The wire calculator I used was border line 10 or 12 so I went 10

Each output of the controllers battery side goes through a din rail pos & neg breakers then on to the buss bars over 6 awg wire

Charge controller chassis grounds are daisy chained and terminate on the motorhome chassis at the same point as the inverters

Cables are the same length.

Motorhome DC distribution

I am using the existing motorhome 3/0 inverter cables to supply voltage back to the original battery compartment where the original chassis ground is, dc distribution and alternator cables go to.

AC 120v 50amp

AC comes in from either shore power or the generator through the transfer switch over to a double pole 50 amp breaker then the ac is split into two circuits 1 going to each inverter.

AC1 out on each inverter is fed to another 50 amp double pole breaker and then continues to the main AC distribution panel for the motorhome each inverter feeding one leg of that distribution panel

AC cabling is within a couple feet of being the same length. Not sure how critical the symmetry is when running separate legs of the ac panel since the inverters will not share each other’s load.

Is there anything I am missing here?

Thanks Richard

Hi,

i have two Winner W280S (280Ah) as a Strip to get 24V for my inverter. Now i want to make a Profile for the correct Voltages for charging them both. Here are the voltages that Winner says they should be:

- Bulk 14,8V

- Absorption 15,4V

- Float 13,7V

so, i think i take them all as 2x. But whitch one is the right one in the profile? There i have:

- Absorption Voltage

- Float Voltage should be 27,4V

- Equalisation Voltage

Thanks a lot for your help!

gr33tings,

Robert

Hi, I have an existing grid-tied SMA inverter (SMA 5000TL) and 2 strings of 13 panels for total of 6.5kW. I want to add storage and am considering the QUATTRO with 4 x Pylontech US3000 batteries (@48V nom).

The main aim of the exercise is to be self-sufficient in case of extended/indefinate grid outage. I am no expert, but my reading suggests that the Victron QUATTRO would provide a mini-grid on the AC-OUT-1 and that the SMA solar inverter would run 'normally' on this channel regardless of whether the grid was connected or not.

Assuming that the above is correct, would the SMA inverter connected in this way be a stable and reliable configuration. I ask this because I have read some posts/articles that indicate that there are situations where the inverter may go over-voltage and shutdown the QUATTRO.

Is this a potential problem, and what would be the recommended way to deal with this?

Note, the loads would include 1000W and 1500W pumps (bore pump etc), inverter aircon, fridges and freezers, lighting and misc.

thank you,

Ron

Hi, I have a 1200 Watt solar system connected to a victron smart solar 150/100. I'm standing in full summer heat but I only get 700-800 watts. Now I saw blue bulk light is blinking once every 3 seconds which means charging is disabled? But it's charging, just not how it should. I restarted the mppt and measured my solar input, its 120 volts how it should be. My lithium batterys are only 70%full which my bmv 712 is telling my solar over victron smart network. Anyone got a idea?

Under “System Status in VRM” in the “Solar Yield” quadrant/box of the dashboard there is a temperature number listed there.

Where is that temp sourced from?

Directly from MPPT controllers? If so, which one if multiple?

Area temperature based on weather reporting and stated location of site in VRM?

Other?

Thanks.

I want to disconnect my 200 watt solar panel during the upcoming hurricane. I have a Victron mppt 75/15 controller. Is there anything I should do before disconnecting and reconnecting the solar panel? Thanks

When I run my generator with the smart chargers turned on and the solar in good sunlight I find I’m having to turn the solar off to the batteries in order to get the smart chargers to start putting out a decent charge current. Once they’ve settled I can switch the solar back on and it will sit in float while the smart chargers provide bulk.
Is there a way I can have all 3 (2x SC 1xMPPT) providing max power at the same time?

They are all connected to a VenusGX with VE.Direct/USB

Hello
A customer asked me the question if its possible to connect two SmartSolar MPPT`s to one string of 3 parallel PV-Panels.
The reason behind is, there are two diffrent type of Batteries (one bank is Lead-Acid Battery, the other is a LiFePO4 Battery).

He would like to charge both with the same Solar Array.

Is this possible?

Tanks for your Help.

Oliver

solar Regler mit Dongle, die grüne Diode blinkt nur. Vom Panel kommen 18,7 V! Batterie 12,6 V

keine Ladung

Defekt?

I set up a 12v system in a camper van over a year and a half ago with a 175w solar panel, SmartSolar MPPT 100/30 controller, BMV-712, and a 50ah Battleborn. Ran great with no problems. Two months ago I added another 50ah battery in parallel, ran great with no problems. It has been very hot recently and temps have been getting over 120 F in the van when parked. I started to notice that my vent fan was beeping, but didn't think much of it until my fridge had completely shut off but my lights still worked. I then noticed that the charge history showed my battery's voltage maxing out at over 20v for a week and that that no watts from solar charging were recorded for the previous 5 days.

My charge controller just keeps showing the flashing bulk light indicating "no charge". Even in full sunlight with my panel's vmax coming through, but no current or power according to the charge controller app. Strange thing is that the unregulated panel voltage seems to be making it past the charge controller. If disconnect the panels and charge controller, the battery voltage will eventually stabilize. I am assuming the BMS on my batteries has kicked in to stop charging, but my loads must have been getting the PV voltage direct. Hence the fan beeping and turned off fridge.

Other weird part it that in direct sunlight, my battery monitor will register watts coming in but the charge controller wont and maintains the flashing bulk light. In full sunlight, the BMV will record 21v. I have a breaker between PV panels - charge controller and charge controller - positive bus bar. Testing voltage on both sides of breakers and they seem to be functioning properly. Not sure if high temps could have done this, but my system has functioned without issue for a while prior to this.

Any help would be appreciated.

New to the group. To lay the groundwork for the question:

• We have a 50 amp fifth wheel.
• We bought the unit used from a private seller, very happy overall.
• The solar / Victron was installed by the seller or he had it done.
• We have 4x Battle Born 100ah LifePo4, 4x 190W solar panels, 2x MPPT, SmartBMV and the Victron 12/3000/120-50
• We (the wife, the dog and I) are fulltimers, three months now!

We have been, in the past three months, mostly on shore power, and always on (confirmed) 50 amps. We found that one of the monitor panels (not listed above) showed us at 30 amps continually. Reached out to seller, he indicated that if I had the inverter on, I'd be limited to 30 amps. Turned it to Off, and I'm back to 50 amps and I can run the air conditioners. Excellent for the Texas heat we'd been dealing with.

Two days ago, we relocated to a park, and were fortunate enough to park in the shade. Sure, solar will be very much reduced, but that's okay: we have 50 amps.

Tonight...the generator kicked on. Turns out we ran down the batteries to 50%. Direct DC usage in the rig, like lights, whatever else is straight DC, ran them down. With the Victron set to off, the shore power doesn't recharge the batteries. If I turn the Victron to just "Charger" (not Inverter), it will recharge the batteries, but I will still be limited to a 30 amp system.

This feels wrong to me. I'm a programmer, have been for 30 years. I'm decent at debugging, but I haven't examined all the the wiring and gotten a deeper understanding of the layout. It just feels wrong that it's this way.

When we have good sun, the batteries always get charged up the next day, even on cloudy days. We've been here, in the shade, for... two full days, I think.

I'm trying to determine if one or more of the following are true:

• Is this a standard solar implementation scenario? That there is only ONE possible charger/converter to replenish the batteries installed at one time?
• Is there a possible wiring / schematic / system design oversight or bug. (I don't have a schematic yet, I have reached out to get one, if available.)
• There would have been an original charger/converter installed on the rig, before the Victron, etc. was installed. Does anyone ever have that still wired into the system?
• Really, my only choices are "have sun" or "be limited to 30 amps even when 50 amp shore power is available"? This cannot be right.

I'm trying to determine that, if the Victron being on limits me to 30 amps, is there a different way to charge the batteries when on shore power? I know my question might be difficult to many without y'all knowing more about how it's wired up. But I'm hoping I kept my questions as free of the implementation as possible and focused on generalizations, and typical scenarios.

For the moment, there's a chill coming into the area tonight and I don't need two A/C's. I'm okay with the 30 amps for now, and I'll get my batteries replenished. Not a long term solution.

I truly appreciate any help anyone can put forth, or any education I can glean out of your answers. I did do extensive research into solar, DC, AC, converters/chargers, inverters, MPPT, etc. before we bought the rig. I feel sort of comfortable in my general knowledge. I was a little sad I didn't get to do the install myself so I'd REALLY know it, inside and out, but the deal was just too good to pass up and our seller was a pleasure to work with. But I lack the intimate knowledge that installing it myself would have gained.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

- Will B.
Somewhere in Kansas at the moment.

Hello, I had a question about Multiplus and Multigrid. I am building a small off-grid system with 4 solar panels off 300 watts each that will charge battery's using an MPPT charge controller. I also want a backup generator to charge the battery's if they get under a certain level, and I will be using an inverter to make 230VAC 50Hz from the battery bank. At least I am also using a wind turbine that will give me a peak of 600 watt.

So a short list of items.

- 6x Solar panel 300 watt

- Battery bank

- Multiplus or Multigrid?

- Inverter

- Backup generator

What will be the right choice? Multiplus or multigrid.

And is this a realistic setup? Or is there a more efficient way?

Has anybody found a work-around to Victron products requiring firmware updates, and preventing use of the product until they are conducted?

I have an MPPT 75/15 solar charge controller, with the bluetooth dongle. This is the only means of charging the battery on my boat, and it is my best source of monitoring the health of my battery.

I really need a way to make these updates optional, so that I can defer conducting the update when my signal is weak. Has anybody found a way to bypass a forced update so that you can use the products?

Has anybody asked Victron why they do not give the option to defer these updates? Do they not understand that being blocking use of their products puts their users in danger? I use this product to manage my boat's electrical resources. The update process is dangerous. It requires a much better signal than the process of simply checking to see if there is an update. From what I can tell, shutting off my phone's connectivity isn't good enough, b/c the app remembers that there was an update. I would need to proactively shut off my data access before I knew whether or not there was an update, every time I connected to the device.

I have a 150/60 MPPT with 600W solar connected to my house bank, there are also 2x Phoenix Smart Chargers (50A 3+1) each have an output to the house bank and the engine battery, one has an output to the 12-24v charger for the bowthruster.

All are connected with VE.Direct and where possible Smart Networking.

I'd taken my batteries off shore power and isolated the MPPT to run the batteries down a bit to check their voltages. When I switched everything back on I noticed that the MPPT was in bulk and the 2x chargers were in absorption, the voltages were the same however the MPPT was putting a lot more Amps in. I'd have expected the house bank output on the chargers to be the same as the MPPT.

Should I change the set up so that one charger does the house bank and the other does the engine and bow thruster?

I have a battery bank of 12V, 800Ah (gel) and a battery pack of 200Ah 48V.

I have a smart solar charger MPPT 250V, 100A and smart solar charger MPPT 150/70-MC4

My main PV system is 4 panels of 330WP, connected 2S2P (about 100V peak).

I would like to connect both solar cahrgers to the same PV and use the 1st solar charger for the 12V battery pack and the 2nd solar charger for the 48V pack.

Advantage of this sytem is that if one battery is full the full PV power will go to the other battery pack.

Question is:

1. Is this kingd of sett-up allowed?

2. What would be the disadvantages?

3. When both battery packs are charging, how would the available power be distributed over the 2 solar chargers? Will the behaviour be stable and optimal?

Thank you in advance,

Kind Regards

Johan De Vos

I'm trying to buy a new setup for a campervan which will have a lifepo4 leisure battery and a lead acid starter. I need to be able to charge the starter battery from solar and mains hook up but I've noticed that the 800 multiplus only has a 1a feed to the starter which isn't enough and I can't see any way to connect the solar controller up to both at the same time. I'm going to use an Orion smart to charge the lifepo4 battery, is one possible solution to buy a second Orion to charge the starter from the lifepo4 circuit once it is charged?

Thanks