Maximizing PV (Solar) Usage When Connected to Shore Power

[bertschb]

What's weird is I no longer see AC Input. This is with just the inverter on (no charging).

[howson]

bertschb

Nothing jumps out as drastically out of whack.

In the VRM Portal under DEVICE LIST is a Remote VEConfigure option.



Assuming your setup is connected to the internet, after clicking Remote VEConfigure you'll get a screen as shown below. Click DOWNLOAD.


It takes about a minute or two (you'll see a lot of message screens showing it's working) and then a message like this will pop up (I'm using Firefox on Windows 7).. Click SAVE and note where you save the file.



Send me that file in a PM. I'll be able to look at every setting.

Note: The forum won't allow you to upload a file with an .rvsc extension, so as a workaround change the extension to .pdf. I'll change it back to .rvsc when I get it. I assume you know how to change a file name's extension...

Howard

P.S. If you want to view the .rvsc file yourself you'll need the VEConfigure3 loaded on your Windows computer. This software is available at https://www.victronenergy.com/suppor...loads/software

[howson]

What's weird is I no longer see AC Input. This is with just the inverter on (no charging).

Did the pedestal breaker pop?

[bertschb]

I'm working on creating the file Howard but I'm getting errors. I've tried it with and without being connected with the MK3/USB device. I get different errors either way. My frustration is reaching max levels right now. The Victron tools are so slow and I've connected and disconnected the MK3 device 100 times now. Booted into and out of Windows 20 times (10 minutes each time). Argggg

[bertschb]

Did the pedestal breaker pop?

No because the Charger wouldn't be working if it had.

[bertschb]

After yesterday's self inflicted mess, I was able to get ESS set up this morning. I have one AC unit running. The only thing that doesn't look right to me is my inverter is displaying a low battery light. The green "inverter on" light and red "low battery" light are alternating on and off. Battery voltage reads 12.89v. Is that low voltage? I need to look into this as I chose the default settings in the screens while adding the ESS Assistant and didn't really know what they meant. Nothing new there. I may just need to let the inverter know that 12.89v isn't low. Does anybody have any thoughts on this?

Note - It's 9:00AM which is why PV is only adding 519w.




Low battery light.




After 20 minutes or so I shut the AC off and the VRM Portal looks like this. No more low battery warning (battery voltage is higher at 13.18v). There isn't much of an AC load but PV is bulk charging and shore power is minimal (I have it set to 50w).

[bertschb]

Kind of late to be asking this question but here goes...

What happens if ESS is enabled and I want to use both AC units along with electric water heater, hair dryer, microwave, etc? Is the inverter gong to try to supply the load from the batteries since I have shore power set to 50w? If so, it will be overloaded big time. If this is true, I think ESS would only be useful to me if I'm using it in mild weather and even then I'd need to watch my loads so as not to exceed the 3,000w rating of the inverter.

Is this correct???

[howson]

Kind of late to be asking this question but here goes...

What happens if ESS is enabled and I want to use both AC units along with electric water heater, hair dryer, microwave, etc? Is the inverter gong to try to supply the load from the batteries since I have shore power set to 50w? If so, it will be overloaded big time. If this is true, I think ESS would only be useful to me if I'm using it in mild weather and even then I'd need to watch my loads so as not to exceed the 3,000w rating of the inverter.

Is this correct???

Shore power will kick in when the demand exceeds PV + Inverter Power (25A of 120vAC).. The inverter will only supply up to 25A if the battery SOC is above the Minimum SOC setting. Set the Minimum SOC to 95% and the inverter will only provide power for short periods before Shore takes over.

Test a few scenarios and watch the results on VRM. Remember that the Minimum SOC setting is what the Multiplus uses to determine how long to invert using the batteries.

[howson]

After yesterday's self inflicted mess, I was able to get ESS set up this morning. I have one AC unit running. The only thing that doesn't look right to me is my inverter is displaying a low battery light. ... Does anybody have any thoughts on this?

Same issue as scdock recently encountered.

Check the Inverter tab's DC input settings. Most likely you'll find they are too high. The Battle Born BMS will turn off the batteries (safely) if they are <10V, that's why I have my inverter shut off at 10.

I probably should have the low restart at 10.5, but I haven't run the batteries that low in a long time since I added solar and the DC-DC Charger.

[bertschb]

Shore power will kick in when the demand exceeds PV + Inverter Power (25A of 120vAC)..

This is helpful.

Next question - Under the ESS/Grid Feed In, my system defaulted to having "AC-Coupled PV - feed in excess" enabled as shown below. Is this what yours is set at?

[bertschb]

Check the Inverter tab's DC input settings. Most likely you'll find they are too high. The Battle Born BMS will turn off the batteries (safely) if they are <10V, that's why I have my inverter shut off at 10.

This is where mine are set (by default- I didn't change them). I still don't understand why my inverter was displaying a low voltage warning with voltage at 12.89v. It started displaying this warning as soon as ESS was enabled with batteries at 100% SOC.

[howson]

Next question - Under the ESS/Grid Feed In, my system defaulted to having "AC-Coupled PV - feed in excess" enabled as shown below. Is this what yours is set at?

Yes--AC-coupled PV - feed in excess is turned on.

[howson]

bertschb

My ESS settings

[howson]

This is where mine are set (by default- I didn't change them). I still don't understand why my inverter was displaying a low voltage warning with voltage at 12.89v. It started displaying this warning as soon as ESS was enabled with batteries at 100% SOC.

if you'll send me that configuration file, Brian, I'll look through all the settings (see post 62). Headed to dinner with family then a bike ride so will be off the forum for a few hours...

[howson]

bertschb asked me a few questions both here in this thread and in an offline conversation. I had to go out and experiment to know for sure.

First--and this is a repeat so forgive me in advance--the firmware I've got installed is as shown below and the devices connected together are also shown. I can't vouch for whether the results will be the same for different system configurations.



For both tests the Input Current Limit (aka Victron's "PowerControl") was set to 10A.



Note that by definition ESS is enabled if in an ESS mode, and with the ESS Assistant loaded the Multiplus will be in one of the four ESS modes.

Question 1: With the ESS mode set to Keep Batteries Charged, what happens when trailer demand exceeds shore power availability (in this case 10A)? Will PowerAssist (inverter power) kick in?

CONFIGURATION
ESS = Keep Batteries Charged (so batteries assumed at 100%)
Input Current Limit = 10A
Minimum State of Charge = n/a
AC Loads >= 1500W

Answer: PowerAssist kicks in, even though the display does not indicate that's the inverter mode. Below is a screen shot in this configuration and power load. You can't see it in a static picture, but the "ants" are marching to AC Loads, not to the battery. I do not know why the Multiplus indicates BULK. That's not what's happening.



Question 2: With the ESS mode set to Optimized (Without BatteryLife), what happens when trailer demand exceeds shore power availability (in this case 10A)?

Configuration

ESS = Optimized (Without BatteryLife)
Input Current Limit = 10A
Minimum State of Charge (SoC) = 95%
AC Loads >= 1500W

Answer: This one is a bit more complicated.

First off, PowerControl and PowerAssist do not work in this ESS mode.

No PowerAssist makes sense--ESS is designed to maximize PV and battery power until the minimum SoC is reached, then it switches to Shore power. Using power from the battery when it's known the battery SoC is already at the minimum setting the user selected wouldn't make sense, right? If the batteries continued to supplement then the SoC would drop below the user's setting.

Unfortunately PowerControl also does not work--the Multiplus ignores the Input Current Limit. What this means in the real world is you could blow a breaker if connected to anything less than a 50A setup as the PowerControl feature (with the proper Input Current Limit) will not limit the power draw. The Multiplus will pull up to it's maximum of 50A.

The screenshot below is with the air conditioner and dehumidifier running. Note ESS #1 warning (Low SoC) so the Multiplus has stopped inverting, drawing all the power from the Shore connection, but the power drawn is way over the 10A Input Current Limit setting.



This confirms that PowerControl does not work in the ESS mode Optimized (Without BatteryLife).

Amazing I'm still learning more about this equipment (still)!

Howard

P.S. PV Charger power is so low due to heavy clouds and weather (again!) in NW Florida.