From grid-tie to microgrid / hybrid backup

Now I just need 16 of my closest friends to lift the thing…

If you want to dump that box, I would be seriously interested in picking it up … empty of course, keep the battery, just like that box.

Is this some weird thing I’m too protected to understand? :stuck_out_tongue:

@mariusm keep the box. @Rautenk will tell you why…

Ag no man Gerlach!

The only reason I needed a box was that I got a nuisance cell, one cell isn’t balancing correctly and FreedomWon wants the battery back to put it in their bay to get everything aligned again. But to get it from Cape Town to Jhb one needs to package it!

I seem to be one of the very few unlucky owners of said battery. The service to date (despite the distributor’s lack of understanding) was quite good! I still love this battery! (It only gives the wonky problems at <40% charge)

(And I no longer need the box, I can bubble wrap it and put it on a pallet)

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Glad you got it sorted Rautenk. Mariusm, if you got a big cat…

I think TTT got a big cat at his house :rofl::rofl::rofl:

This was what we did with a similar Freedom crate…




Mounted some things last night… theoretically the battery is going to be mounted on the wall, but at 173kg it looks fine where it is. Will reconsider when the cupboard is being built.

The built-in battery breaker is 160A x 3 pole (480A), but doesn’t break the negative, so this breaker will double as isolator:

It doesn’t have terminal covers (anymore), so needs to go in a box. Quite proud of the cutout! :smile:

EM’s now literally shipping me one breaker per day, so the old DB is still in place. Some of the old breakers are dual-mount, so might just complete the switchover this weekend even if everything isn’t here yet.

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Why have you decided to put the Multiplus so low?
I would be scared a baby crawling past would accidentally brush the small black switch and put the house in darkness :baby:

Baby would need to be quite determined, that switch is much less of an issue on the MPII than on the previous model. I’m more worried about the OFF push-button next to the battery Christmas light. That one looks very tempting, even to me.

But short answer is basically airflow – as far away from everything else as possible. Ideally the DB would be more to the left and the MP on the right. This is in a living space (currently cordoned off), so fan noise would be an issue if things got too hot.

Also, cupboard (with a lock).

Edit: Another thing: In a previous house I had a smaller network cabinet mounted high up “because you don’t need to access if often”, so a ladder is fine. Never again.

When I wanted to mount the inverter and stuff lower, the sparkie refused. Kids he said.

But we have no kids, and everything is safe? Nope, he said.

… then our granddaughter moved back … and she is getting ready to crawl, her 6x3 wheelchair already all over the damn house at speed.

Hmm, I see this in SANS:

Any point of a distribution board that has to be reached during normal operation, must not exceed a height of 2 200 mm above floor (or walking) level. However, the board may be mounted higher if it can be disconnected from the supply by a switch disconnector that is less than 2 200 mm above floor level. Unless a residential distribution board is housed in an enclosure and direct access cannot be obtained by an infant, no part of an indoor distribution board can be less than 1 200 mm above the floor level, and no part of an outdoor distribution board can be less than 0.200 mm above the ground level.

So the question will probably be whether inverter == DB, and whether cupboard == enclosure for my electrician.

I recently saw in the Wildtuin a teenager on an electric wheelchair “at speed” so that his mom had to run to keep up. That thing was fast and he drove around the corners at speed like a racing driver. That is the image I have when you mention granny :smiley:

I’m sure with a locked cupboard you’ll be fine.
Locked cupboard doesn’t equal direct access to a infant.

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He is right. You may not have kids, and even if South African house sales generally trigger a new round of repairs and COCs, you could rent the place out to someone who have kids, having completely forgotten that little issue :slight_smile:

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Yeah, like the stairs we built a few years back, the same thing no kids I said, builders just pulled u their shoulders … then the granddaughter moved back … so we now had to go and close all the railings down to the floor level.

The locked cupboard did not cut it either, have it all in a cupboard, but what if the cupboard is left open the Sparkie asked.

You cater for those little fingers when you are nowhere near, they need to explore or you are busy working on the stuff and the cupboard is left open.

Any case, just thought I’d share.

Adding to little ones and all that …

The other day I had to look after her. Checked the house, and off she goes.

Her mother comes and checks, looking around not seeing little Alizee, she asks me so where is your granddaughter?

Mmm … promptly I get up and we started looking.

Found her at the opposite side of the house in front of the mirror getting ready to reach into Ouma’s open closet … so yeah, the house has to be kept super clear of everything and anything 24/7 now.

The solar system … bugger, I have to change a LOT of bad habits going forward.

When these little ones go quiet, you better start looking and FAST!

Installed the inverter and battery yesterday and it’s working very nicely. The DB was a nightmare to work on: Spent a large part of Sunday hunting neutrals and generally cursing All Previous Electricians.

The ATS switchovers all work as planned, and controlling the AC Out 2 using the Generator Assistant couldn’t have been simpler. (FWIW the FreedomWon Victron Live page is trivial to follow.)

I must say I seriously misjudged the effort required to get the trunking right around the bottom of the inverter. Up top everything went to plan, so maybe it is mounted too low… just looped the cable for now. All connections are closed up and protected, but this will have to be fixed.

However, this thing is damn loud. When it’s idle it sounds like an obnoxious aquarium and when the fan runs, geez. Would a couple of rubber grommets have added so much to the BOM? The whole case resonates, even when it’s just starting up. When it gets going, that’s a completely different thing.

Busy investigating solutions – “build a cupboard around it” is not going to cut it. Otherwise I will have to move it to a protected outside location; that was the initial plan, but will require quite a bit of AC cabling. Luckily the DB work wouldn’t be wasted, that was the most effort in any case.

I’m sooo happy, and so disappointed at the same time. :confused:

My experience regarding the sound is the same although I’ve got a 5kVa Multi.
The humming goes up and down, but not necessarily along with the load. Mine’s at least far enough away to not really be annoying although I can hear it when it creeps up at night.
I don’t have self consumption yet though, so will see when the fans comes into the equation when dealing with larger loads, but I luckily have the option of putting a door in to the area where it’s mounted.

What’s interesting to me is that is almost completely silent when the AC in is disconnected. In Inverter mode, with a low load (not enough to start the fan) you can hear a pin drop.

When its synchronised to the grid the fish tank buzz is there, with or without the ESS assistant loaded.

But it’s a really impressive piece of equipment. Geyser runs from 14:00 (4kW) and it just picked it up without a hitch, even with all the other stuff going.

Put it on bypass (scheduled charging) now to control the noise, but it seems like it could just do that all day.