Again, don’t confuse on-grid vs islanded. When connected to the grid, it will only ever work at 80% of the nameplate rating, and as long as you have sufficient cooling it can do that all day, every day, no problems.
When islanded, if you run it at 100% (of the nameplate rating), at 25°C or higher, it will overheat eventually, and shut down with a temperature alarm. If ambient temperature is low, you can get away with it longer. Below freezing, you can go indefinitely.
The cooling is designed for 80% continuous. The reasoning is that you design an off-grid system (which is 80%+ of the market) to cover peak loads, and the average loads are much lower. You don’t run at 100% for hours on end in such systems. Also, naturally there is some marketing involved, with some manufacturers taking even bigger liberties. Short answer: The nameplate rating is more of a peak rating. It is marketing.
With insufficient cooling, or at high ambient temperatures, the Multi will derate even further (to 60%). But it won’t overload, it will simply feed in less to the grid. And if this happens, you need to fix your cooling
that was more a comment that you might recall we’ve spoken about the overload alarms before, agree if you got notifications for every system you touch you might have left the rails long ago…
G
Hi @georgelza and @plonkster and @JacoDeJongh … I think I bought my MPII 3kVA more or less the same time than you George. I am sitting in exactly the same situation. If I would want to parallel, I will need to put in busbars. That in its own will add at least R2000 to the expense. Hence I am considering either getting my geyser off of the inverter or getting a MPII 5kVA. Hoping that it will be a swop out swop in situation. Selling the MP2 3kVA will undoubtedly lessen the blow of the outlay for the new MPII 5kVA. Again a good reason to buy Victron… you will be able to resell it.
Must say I was nogals surprised to see the new (to my knowledge) 8kVA and 10kVA on the market.
I’m at that point now if the tenants move it … what is the best move?
More inverters, me, I get a 3kva for the small loads, the 5kva for the big loads like geysers, both running carefully off the same bank AND I have a backup in case of drama.
Or get EV tubes again?
Or Heatpump, sommer 2nd hand, insurance can maybe help if it fails one day.
I must admit… I was scared to go the Solis route since it was a new concept to me and I like the simplicity of the current setup. I did install a Solis for my parents though… What a beast… My parents do not get load shed (so far) and hence it was just to more or less reduce electricity usage… worked like a charm.
Solis for the geysers would be an excellent motto.