Russell

Hi guys. So I started with my solar installation and opted to go bigger from 10 kWatt to 15 kWatt. I now have 36 Canadian Solar 405 watt panels and a 15kWatt Victron Inverter. I have 3 Victron 250/100 MPPT solar chargers all interfaced to a Victron Octo GX controller. The equipment is mounted inside my garage but I would like to view what's happening via a monitor inside the house. Is it possible to connect a Victron Color Control GX or any other monitor to the Octo GX controller? I would like to fix a monitor inside my kitchen which is about 15 meters away from the garage. With the monitor in the kitchen everyone would be able to see the current battery power consumption and load without having to use a phone. Any ideas?

Hi Mark. The software is free and therefore limited to more fancier drawings you can produce with more expensive software packages like Auto cad. https://qelectrotech.org/download_windows_QET.html

Found this free software download on the net and decided to do a new drawing to be submitted with my application for Off-Grid. Hopefully it is in order? Given the new information for the controller I am using the Venus controller from Victron for now. Seen that suppliers are now offering a complete distribution box including the surge arrestors with DC circuit breakers. Anybody seen or used them before?

Your picture shows BlueNova batteries. If you use those, you will turn on the DVCC configuration option. When the battery is in control, there isn't really a "charge cycle" in the normal sense where you have bulk, absorption and float, the solar charger simply does what the battery asks (which is normally to charge to a specific charged voltage). The solar charger also has its "BMS" setting turned on, so that should it lose communications with the battery it will stop charging. Sounds straight forward and simple! The one reason I chose the Quattro was if the CoCT should 'relax'their legislation, I could connect the municipal supply to the other AC input instead of a generator in case I have to charge the batteries. Thank you for the info @Plonkster

How easy is it to configure the Victron Quattro and Venus controller to operate with the Solar controller? Do i need to setup the charging cycle for the batteries or does the solar charger take control accordingly?

First let me thank admin for a great website as well as all the guys giving so much input and advice for new comers like myself. I have read many posts with regards to CoCT legislations and decided it would be best to go Off-Grid. This way I am not limited to 3Kw array and would not need the services of an Engineer. My garage and granny flat roof space is limited to accept about 16 solar panels. I therefore decided to go with the 405W panels which is 2.1 X 1 meter in size. They are also 48V so my conductor size would be smaller. The remaining 8 solar panels would be mounted on the house roof which is east facing. I would then have a total of 24 X 405-Watt panels giving me a total of 9.72kWatt. This made me go for the Victron Quattro 48/10 000 inverter. In the near future I might install a generator for when I need to charge the batteries. Reading the various websites, I opted for the Victron 250/100 MPPT controller which boast an efficiency of 99%. The online excel file opted I use 4 PV panels in series and 3 parallel string. I'm still not sure if I should use the CCGX or the Venus Victron controller. Any thoughts here please? I was planning on having the Color controller where it is always visible in the kitchen. While the inverter, batteries and solar controllers are all connected inside the garage. Lastly there is a 24kW lithium battery bank with 460A capacity. My first task would be to split my existing DB and also have a Non-Essential group of consumers. I decided to still have the municipal power connected if in the future I would sell the property. I’m hoping CoCT would relax their laws then it might be possible to use the other AC input in the Quattro unit and go Hybrid. Any help and advice to this plan would be appreciated.

Fantastic drawing. Are we allowed to use this drawing for our own setup? Is it available in cad format please?

Is there any reason why we cannot use Victron's new Quattro range of inverters? On the list of approved inverters for the City of Cape Town the new Quattro inverter range is again not listed.