I tried to use laptop and VC with a Mk3 this morning and it said that it might remove assistants so I cancelled as to not have an issue. I will check again. Can you change the settings on the fly with the GX or only with the Mk3. I am just thinking of when you want to change the SOC value when loadshedding makes a comeback.
EDIT: I missed the bit about changing it with a wired connection. There is a way around it from this video, but I was hoping that it would not require the connections.
Yes, it cancels the ESS assistant but you cannot use both in anyways. I hope Victron develop this function further. It works great for me but with overcast days like today I might need to go and change some setting temporarily. I’ll see by the end of the day. Consumption was a bit high today and solar very little so I’m only at 73% SOC now but still charging at just over 1300Watts so let’s see
I actually like this and might use this function instead. Being quite cloudy yesterday I started off after sunset with battery SOC around 65%. I even had to boost the geyser a bit last night so I knew the batteries would not make it through the night. This morning, at 4 (yes, laying awake) I saw the grid being utilized but my settings was still not very lekker and it was switching on and off around every 60 secs. I had to go out to the inverter room quickly and changed the SOC%/voltage connect/disconnect settings to connect below 20% SOC and disconnect above 51.5V, with a minimum connection time of 15 minutes. I then set the max input Amperage to 16 Amps. So basically it only covers the usage with around 10Amps going into the batteries. Now this will work fine to carry me through the last hour or 2 before sunrise BUT… today it’s even more overcast than yesterday so the function design is a bit flawed and needs work. So I think I might just do what the guy in this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZsGHi8nKGc did so I can manage it better remotely. I will get the connection up over the weekend and then do all the settings and see how it goes. For today?.. I don’t think there’s be any PV production. Totally overcast with rain forecasted… I have thought about adding a small 1Kw wind turbine in the past but it’s deadcalm right now so I think it’s going to be a waste of money
I have made the connections and I am looking at the settings and might implement today. On your settings have you disabled charging from the Multi or is it prioritizing solar charging. If it prioritizes solar, how do you force it to use the grid to boost the batteries in case of looming loadshedding? With ESS it’s easy and you just raise the Min SOC to above the SOC and it wil start charging from grid.
No I kept charging from the Multi enabled but had to go change the min SOC before grid connection. There is some flaws but I think there’s potential. I must say the way used in the video seems to be more functional seeing thaty you can at least change setting via VRM/console.
I had to revert back to ESS last week seeing that we had a few overcast days and we were not at home over the weekend to change settings manually. ESS definitely uses more battery power on my system as being completely disconnected from the grid. Same base usage ass always but during the night it uses15%-18% more from the battery. Don’t know why but yes, even without us being at home consumption was higher by using ESS. I might try something completely else and make one of the other inverters the primary one. All 3 my Multi’s are different year models, with the newest one being around 5 years old and the oldest one closer to 10 years old. I actually think one of the older one’s are set up as primary at the moment.
Well what do you know. Adam had a solution for AC charge limiting all along. Using Aux2 and Relay output 2 on the Cerbo he controls the AC charge current. I will wire Aux 2 as well, do the config and choose a time to tell the family to go to dark mode so I can reprogram the Multis.
I wonder what is the longevity of the main AC relays in the Multi’s? Will their life be shortened if they are opened/closed two to three times a day…I guess it’s not any different to loadshedding.
Load shedding is significantly harder on the relays! You are essentially opening them under full load every time, because the system is grid-tied, the moment the grid fails there is always a large outgoing spike of current, and you’re breaking the connection right there and then.
Opening and closing the relays with little to no load will not wear them nearly as much as load shedding does.
Okay. I connected the Aux 1 relay to the Multi and programmed it accordingly. It works great but in the last week I had a lot of Plasma cutting and welding work to be done so everytime the 200ltr , 2.2Kw compressor switched on while cutting with the 40A plasma cutter, the relays closed, connecting to the grid, like it’s supposed to do. The thing is, unlike ESS, there’s no grid-assist so if the relay is closed, it’s in passthru mode and everything comes from the grid, which also is not ideal.
Without heavy loads it’s works perfectly and for a period of 12 days I used exactly 0.4Kwh from the grid, with a total consumption of 258Kwh and solar production of 324Kwh.
I still want to experiment with the relay setup in conjunction with ESS but time constraints have forced me to remove the relay assistants for now and re-install the ESS assistant, which works great with short term heavy loads like the plasma cutter, compressor starting current, electrical geyser and the 1.1Kw booster pump and off course all the other normal stuff. I peaked at 52 Amps on the grid side once which was just over 12,000Watts. Since using ESS again I had high peaks again but Grid-assist helped and limited the grid usage to less than 20Amps.
This would be a great setup if you can use the realy setup AND ESS, so running offgrid in low usage scenarios but using ESS when the relay closes, thus also limiting grid current which I suppose would lessen the loads of the opening and closing relays.
I haven’t tested this though seeing that I’m not sure I all the assistants will be able to work together. In theory it should.
I will update soon. I just need to free up some time first 