fredhen

Hi Hagu13.

I have been running Pylon us2000b(x4) + us3000b (x2) for around 20 months now and my battery bank currently reports a 98% state of health (SOH).
If this rate of degradation remains linear then after 10 years, theoretically the battery bank should retain 80 to 90% SOH.

For the 3 months of winter I drain my battery bank down to 30% state of charge (SOC).
I stop at 30% as I cannot fully charge the battery bank from PV the next day if I go any lower.
If I had more panel power I would be comfortable taking the battery bank down to 20% daily for the 3 months of winter.
During summer the battery bank typically only drops to around 60% SOC by the time the sun rises and then is back at 100% by around 12h00 on a sunny day.
Summer plot

Winter plot (24% SOC on this day and just missed getting back to 100%)

I run the entire house (2x geysers, pool pump, fish pond pump, cooking (no gas), air conditioning units for heating & cooling the home (30000BTU total)) off of the PV and battery storage.
 

Hi guys, 
Everything solved. I contacted victron's sales manager (if i'm correct), Gerrit Tromp, and he sorted everything out in a matter of days. I sent the Multiplus back to my supplier and no more than a week later it was repaired (actually repaired this time), under warranty and is now working perfectly. 
In the time i was without an inverter and had to use my generator more often i decided to automate it completely. I ordered a Linixe generator controll module from Aliexpress and less than 14 days later, at a total cost of R927, it was delivered to my door. I also acquired a proper 63A automatic transfer switch and installed everything when the Multiplus came back last week.
Now, when grid power fails, the Multiplus takes over the loads (system is used as UPS with no solar and small 200Ah battery bank). 
What's lekker now, without any user intervention, the Multiplus starts the generator as soon as one of the conditions are met (battery SOC, AC loads) and the transfer switch switches over to auxilary power (generator in this case)
As soon as grid power returns, the transfer switch goes back to normal mode and the Multi stops the generator after the set delay time is met. 
Setting are different for "silent hours" so if grid supply should fail through the night, the generator will only start if it's really needed. 
This is a really great function and i wanted to utilize it for a long time. Glad it's done now. 
Thanks Victron. I now realize again why i've converted to blue, even while you (or rather a supplier) made me red around the cheeks for a while. 
And like always the forum did what it alway does with members replying almost immediately. Thanks guys. You rock! 

It all depends on what you want to achieve. 
Light switches - No need to flash with Tasmota.  Can integrate directly with HA.  For those places where you can't get a neutral to light switch you can have a look at the Eachen switches as well, they use the same Ewelink platform Normal On/ Off control of devices - No need to flash. Integrates directly with HA Complicated load control - For example controlling Geysers.  Suggest to flash with Tasmota. The advantage of the Tasmota is the ability to set up "Rules" on the device itself which are stored in the ROM.  This provides additional backup should your HA fail for some odd reason or the unit looses it's WiFi connection.  For example, I have the following rules running on the TH16's controlling my geysers
Switch off when the temperature exceeds 65C.  Home assistant is set up to heat the Geysers to 60C, if HA fails to switch off the unit at 60 then I know the unit will switch off itself at 65 Keep the unit switched off when the temperature drops below 5C.  This is just incase the unit looses connection to the temperature sensor Switch off when the MQTT connection to HA fails.  This prevents the Geyser from heating if the Wifi connection drops or my HA fails. Some examples of items which I have currently automated/ controlling through HA
27 light switches.  Majority of them runs on Sonoff switches, the down stairs switches runs on Eachen as it is a hassle to get a neutral through the concrete slab. 2x Geysers.  Using Sonoff TH16 with DS18B20 temperature sensors, tasmota firmware and 40a relays 1x Pool Pump. Using Sonoff TH16.  Automated to run only when excess Solar generation is available. 1x Fountain pump.  Using Sonoff Basic, automated to run on a timer SunSynk Inverter.  Inverter values are communicated to HA via MQTT Wifi Mesh System.  Asus based Wifi Mesh, provides notifications when certain devices join/ drop off the network. 2x Home Theatre receivers.  The one receiver is automated to automatically turn on the projector, turn off the downlights and turn on the LED light strips when switched on.  Reverse when the receiver is turned off  1x Aircon.  Using Sensibo as gateway. Automated to operated at different modes based on the target temperature.  Will only turn on based on room temperature, time schedule and if we are at home Robotic Vacuum Cleaner.  Garden Sprinkler System.  Integrated with my Bhyve system.  Watering schedules based on weather forecast. Garage Doors. Using Sonoff SV flashed with Tasmota.  Can check if the doors are open or closed.  Can also open/ close via the app All of the above are nicely integrated with the mobile App.  I'm not using the HA cloud service, using port forwarding with integrated firewall in my router setup.
Some other nice features which you can build into the automations:
Limit/ reduce loads based on Load shedding status Check who is at home (based on wifi connections) Shopping List.  Useful to add notes of items to buy, I'm thinking of mounting an old tablet in the kitchen to easily add items as the need arise.

I am doing a deep dive into the whole solar thing from panels to inverter to batteries to control of it all.
Looking at posts here on this forum about Victron led me to researching the 1:1 rule. This implies a big kWh battery and I think lithium is the only way to go these days (on my second set of AGM's in the past 10 years - but that setup was never solar - only using grid to charge batteries and using inverter as a UPS for when the grid goes down)
So I need a big battery as per the 1:1 rule for my plans as I want to run a water pump. Looks like I can build a battery cheaper then I can buy one. I have watched many youtube videos on systems using Battrium BMS, so it seems feasible to build out a battery and use Battrium as the BMS.
But not so sure second life is the way to go. So lots more research to do , questions to ask. It is enjoyable though. Making power from the sun is fascinating to me and saying goodbye to the grid will be a great thing.

A shot from this morning at 8:30am or so.

You can see that battery logging (the blue line)  started from 11am yesterday when I plugged in the new cable, and see the discharge overnight for the battery to get down to about 60% capacity.

You can also clearly see that generation is throttled when the battery is full (the orange lines in the graph).

While 40% discharge would be worrying on Lead Acid, for Lithium, thats pretty ok.  I may add more generation though, as having 20KWhr of battery feels like it would be better in the long run, so I don't need to worry too much about a week or two of marginal winter generation.
Worst case scenario for me in winter is turn stuff off, or grab a generator if I really must, but I'd like to avoid that if I rent out the place, and not have to worry about tenants killing expensive batteries.
 

Received my 2nd ve.direct -> usb cable today (thanks Jaco / Glodina for the fast shipping), and can finally have both sets of stats (mppt, battery on ve.direct, and inverter on ve.bus)
 
Now, I finally have logging for production, consumption, and battery.
As you can see in the graph, solar production tapers off once battery is full, as the MPPT throttles output to match usage.
I don't have a grid connection (we're completely offgrid), so no to/from grid.

 


 

Victron 150/70 MPPT installed - mostly, so I can haz logging...  
Although there is the one point - that the FM80 is a bit noisy when the fan kicks in 2-3 times a day; the Victron MPPT is fanless, so should be quieter overall.
Also redoing a bunch of networking, so many network cables hanging about.  Fun. fun.

 

That is not the way Victron operates. I will PM you the details of someone you can contact at Victron, He will sort you out. Victron themselves will not tolerate something like this.

The is an ANT-BMS. It works well. We are working on adding this to my driver. But it does not have that interface yet, although the BMS is capable of serial communications (RS485 with the screen and bluetooth to your phone). This is a good option for a BMS.
Let me try and explain it another way:
All Victron equipment can work independently, but then you then need to set each one up independently as well. They can even work with other manufacturer's equipment. However if you do not know what you are doing this could potentially give you some headaches. In the Victron world if you want to interconnect the pieces and let them talk to each other, then you need some kind of GX device. There are many options with the easiest those that are built into the inverters. See the comparison list here. If you do connect everything, you get more that the sum of the part. This is where their ESS(Energy Storage System) comes from.  You can also create your own GX device using a Raspberry Pi if you feel more adventurous, but as the Pi does not have all the same inputs as the other GX devices you need to use more expensive cables to make this work. So in the end if you don't already own a Pi (with power supply and case) then you will only save R1500 of the R5000 that a VenusGX or CerboGX cost and mostl likely even less than the built in GX cost. So my suggestion to make this much less complicated  is to use a build in GX (least complicated) instead of a Raspberry Pi(most complicated).

It is capable of running your whole house with the proper planning and due diligence by the occupants of the household. I had a 5kVa running for 3 years where we did not even know when the grid power was off most of the time. I did however split my DB into 2 and ran the whole house except for air-con, oven and back-up electric geyser.  The 5kVa can handle  these other loads as well, but the problem arises when you run the appliances concurrently. If you run the oven and the missus switches on the kettle, then the inverter would change over to grid feed.
The funny thing is that I now am running a 3kVa Multiplus and I am getting better effeciency than I did with my 5kVa due to the power assist function. I still have my DB split in 2, but whereas the air-con etc was connected to the grid on the 5kVa it is now the second output on my 3Kva....so during the day when my solar panels are putting out 3600W all the extra power is going to my second output. The multi can quite comfortably give an AC Load of +5000W  during the day, blending all the supplies.
It all comes down to proper planning and due diligence.

Try the Inverter section and mention Multiplus II ESS in your heading. It will stand out to all the Axpert posts trying to get their inverters to work. hehe 😂

Good day everyone,
My first post and intro here on this forum.
I am not a complete newbie and understand a fair amount more than your average Joe, but I have recently invested in a small Victron solar system for my house and have a lot to learn in that regard. So far the system (basic and humble as it is) impresses the socks off of me.
It consists of:
- 48V 3Kva Multiplus II
- Venus GX
- BMV 712
- 150 | 35 MPPT
- 4 x 12V 200Ah AGM batteries
- 5 x 22V 135W panels in serie
So looking forward to sharing my experiences with it and to learn a lot from the big boys here!
Will now go and search for a thread where hopefully what I need to know was already discussed. 
 
Cheers everyone!

There are basically 3 types of inverter, although in those broad  'types' there could be many different brands and models with slightly different functionality.
You get the PV grid-tied inverters which basically connect solar panels to the grid. i.e. They feed any available solar power into the AC grid and they don't have a battery connection, which means they rely on the presence of the grid to operate so if the grid goes down (load shedding etc.) they stop working.
Then you get hybrid inverters which work in a similar way to PV grid-tied inverters, in that the inverter operates in parallel with the grid, but these have a battery input, which means that they can continue to operate when the grid is not available. To do this, they have to be able to disconnect from the grid and still power your essential loads, so they typically have 2 AC ports, a grid port and a load port. There are many brands of hybrid inverters with subtle differences.
Then off-grid inverters are basically any inverter that doesn't run in parallel with the grid. There are LOTS of these as well, even some that have very similar functionality to hybrid inverters with only some small differences, such as they cannot supply large loads with a mix of PV and grid power, or use excess PV power to offset the power use of non-essential loads that are not connected to the inverter's load port.
I have heard that the Axpert King is actually not bad, although I haven't used them myself but I'm sure plenty of people on this forum have and will be able to advise you there.
You need 3 of them if you have 3 phase loads that you want to supply, or if you need to supply loads of up to 15kW. Without knowing more about your requirements it is difficult to give advice here.

Obviously Victron’s MP and Quattro inverters are also “hybrid”. Yes, when appliances that are directly connected to the grid requires power, they would create a demand for it, which something like an energy meter reports to the inverter. The hybrid then knows how much power it can essentially send upstream to try and “zero” the energy meter.
This is obviously great for fully utilising all the PV you have, but not going through the expensive of purchasing 15kVA worth of inverters to run your entire house through, unless you actually need to be off-grid, then a hybrid won’t help.
It does require you to think just a little more about sizing and managing your battery bank, because the inverter would try to zero the energy meter with batteries as well as PV. It would still stop discharging the batteries at a minimum SoC level (unless there is loadshedding, when it’ll take it deeper to keep the critical loads alive). So turning on your oven when there isn’t enough PV would attempt to take the power from the grid, which it will at first, but then the inverter would pick it up from the battery bank.
Obviously the inverter still has a hard limit on inverting capacity, so if you have 10kW of PV available and 10kW of demand, and the batteries are full, it’ll still only take 5kW and invert it to AC (getting say 4.5kW AC). The rest would still go to waste. This situation is typically not possible anyways, because the built-in MPPTs of most inverters aren’t big enough. With a Victron though, you can add what you want on the DC side and therefore create “excess” PV if you need it for a cloudy day, for example, because the entire system is modular.
Essentially, a true “hybrid” is able to bled power sources and push back to the grid (either only to the rest of your house or beyond, depending on settings). It doesn’t need all its power from one source at a time (like PV only, battery only or grid only) and can utilise excess PV much better. You can run your geysers and washing room from PV during the day, for example, even though they are not on your backup circuit.

Was wondering when someone would post about the update Its awesome problem with the GX is its pretty slow and a little annoying that you have to rotate the screen to landscape and can only allow access from one device at a time.
The new VRM portal gives you all of that info in a much cleaner look along with some additional fields which is great, also love how it now displays your production and consumption as well as the utility usage for the stipulated period.
Wonder if they'll give the GX the same face lift 

Thank you to you guys for sharing these PV generation figures it gives a nice indication of two different 3.8KW arrays. Pietpower’s 15KWh generation is pretty close to Jykenmynie’s 17kWh generation for the same array size. The only other way to get more generation might be to install a solar tracker to get a better curve during the day, that’s if it was really required and if you have the loads to go with it.
My own array size is only 1890W and the best generation was 8.2KWh for a 24hr cycle like mentioned in my first post, this is measured with a digital KWh meter on the inverter ac output and I have another KWh meter on the Inverter ac input so that I can monitor if Eskom was also used to feed or charge the inverter. 
I think I will add 2 more panels at a later stage but than I will also have to tell my wife we also need another battery, so I think it’s safer to rather just keep quiet for now. 🤫
 
 

You cant bring into account degradation of the battery but over the same period exclude Eskom tariff increases. (On average 11%p.a over the last 10 years)

Opted for the US3000, it was installed on Wednesday and I'm very happy! Thanks again for everyone's input and advice, these forums are great!
I'm going to add a second in a few months and then probably move into a cabinet to add the third, potentially a fourth, pending how many panels I can add to my roof first.

I am new here, been building up my system for some time now.
Started with the following a bit more than a year ago purely for loadshedding backup. System started as follows:
1. Axpert 5KVA (Mecer)
2. 4 x Vision 200ah AGM's
After a year I started having problems with the batteries and decided to upgrade to Pylontech and also at the same time bit the bullet and ordered the panels to start producing own power. Connecting the Pylontech's to the Axpert I realized that communication between batteries and inverter was not going to work, so also ordered the Raspberry PI with ICC software
System currently as follows:
1. Axpert 5KVA (Mecer)
2. 2 x Pylontech US3000
3. 6 x Canadian Solar 365W Poly KuMax
4. Raspberry PI with ICC software
Will be adding two more Pylontech US3000's (for total battery backup of 14 Kwh) as well as 6 more 365W panels in the next month or two
I will probably be asking a lot of questions as I have been lurking these forums as a guest for a long time looking for answers to all of life's power questions
Attached a few photos of my setup

Get an installer to do a site inspection. I received a quote for full installation (everything that is required - excluding a geyser of course, I have one) and a 4.7kW ITS heatpump for about R25k. Keep in mind that, while this is close to the price of one battery, it will actually save you more money (and off-grid battery time) than a 3.5kWh battery will. That battery will be empty after an hour of running your 3kW element. Then you won't yet have enough hot water (obviously depending on how much water you use, but you mentioned 2 hours of running). The heatpump would use about:
6kWh / 4.7kW ~= 80 minutes @ 1.17kW ~= 1.5kW.
So you just saved 4.5kWh (that is 1.6 US3000B batteries if you discharge them 80%). My above calculation have quite a bit of margin for error in before it is equivalent to one battery only. Also, when the sun isn't shinning, a heatpump would still save you money while your batteries won't be able to be charged properly with the available PV.

Right, let's get technical... 😛
The Multiplus-II-GX (And Easysolar-II-GX) have a built-in board. This is essentially a small ARM computer. All the GX devices are. But the one in the MP-II-GX is based on a quad core 1.2Ghz Nanopi which is the fastest platform of all 4. The Cerbo is the next fastest, followed by the Venux-GX and then the CCGX.
So unless the built-in GX option costs significantly more than the external one, I'd encourage you to go for it.
There is one exception though: If you want to use the fancy analog/digital connections on the Venus-GX/Cerbo-GX, then obviously you have to go for the discrete solution. Also, a Venus-GX has two built-in relays. For the average guy running a residential setup, it makes little difference. Go with what makes the most sense to you.

I'm just going to ping @plonkster for this one, but if I remember correctly the 'consensus' was that if the price for the Multi & separate GX compared to the Multi GX is about the same it's worth going for the GX-model.
I think he also mentioned the GX in the Multi being the best GX device and even better than the Cebro GX.
This I'm not 100% sure on that. But I guess that it's much of a muchness except that if the GX in the Multi fails that it's not as easy as just swapping out the GX. Similar to a EasySolar where a MPPT fails compared to a standalone MPPT failing. To be honest though, yes, there's a chance of that happening, but if you're going blue I think it's a small chance of it happening.
From my side I would just go with the Multi with the GX included if the price is similar.

OK, this was another bug fixed in Venus 2.60. I patched it in place. Try it now.

Finally got around to installing more panels in my offgrid setup in Noordhoek.
 
Originally I had 6 panels -> FM80 ->  Dead Acid ->Victron 24v 3000va
At some point earlier in the year, I finally got around to installing the 10KW LFP I had lying around since 2019.
...and Now, I finally got around to installing another 6 panels to make it 12 panels on the roof as of yesterday.





Setup is fully offgrid.   I've been offgrid here since I built the place on the plot, never ever had Eskom or CoCT
6 panels worked fine for me on my own, even in winter, but now the GF is living in the house, electricity use has gone up, and we needed more generation, mostly for the crappy winter days, as 6 panels was pretty marginal.   I was fine with turning off stuff and waiting for a day or two to do clothes washing.  The woman wasn't.
Doubling generation capacity enables me to not worry about that.

We're already quite low on power usage - we hover around 4KW / day usage, with NAS+POE Camera's + Electric Fence + Fridge + Lighting ++ 
Current setup here is a 48v 3000va Victron Multiplus + 12 x 300w panels + FM80 + 10KW LFP
The FM80 doesn't talk to the Victron so no stats on solar (will be replacing it next week).

Was enough originally to last about 4 days of crap weather, now we shouldn't be too perturbed about things.
You can see where we installed the panels in the middle of the day yesterday, then the sharp increase in generation.


 
Overall quite happy with the slapdash way I've handled the install.   Panels have been reused as I need them from my other installs.
The backend side will be installed properly in a week or two  once I have the Victron MPPT that my accountant is selling me.  
No photos till then of that, as its a... mess.
 
Its been a mess for 5+ years though, so...
 
 
Panels are installed in 3S 2P x 2
36v x 3 = 108v @ 8a per string of 3 panels in series.  Which is then paralled for 108v @ 16a for the 3strings in parallel x 2.
And I have 2 sets of that running back the MPPT in the house.  

Used a Y adaptor to conjoin the strings on the roof, as I didn't feel like running more cabling.
Once I get the Victron MPPT will be wiring in a DC disconnect on the backend.    It's been wired directly for a few years, as I like to live dangerously (aka it worked, and I left it to do other stuff).

 
 
 
 

Its alive..... and I managed to keep all of the smoke inside... Its good if the smoke does not come out right ?

So... 
Thanks to the advice received early on, my 3 DB boards. 



This is what my final inverter panel board turned out like 

DC Distribution box

Final Install before I start closing up and labeling

Some prelim stats, note that the Pylontech cable I am using is being a bitch, but Riaan is assisting here, most likely on monday. 

Thanks for the read guys, and thank you plonkster, krokedil and everyone that assisted in advice, you folks rock...
To do.
Covers, labels, close all
Balance/distribute load a bit better between solar and non solar
upgrade wiring feeding cottage solar (we dont talk about this)
And then - "luxury load dropout" using APN and sonof's... 
But right now, I am so poor that when I go walking near the lake, the ducks throw bread at me.... So more has to wait... 

Thanks for the read