NigelL

Okay - that sounds more like a valid thermal limit rather than a symptom of a faulty unit. See the following links for reports that I mentioned in my previous post. https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/29805/multiplus-ii-5kva-showing-temperature-alarm-on-led.html and https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/29194/multiplus-ii-48500070-continuous-overload-shutdown.html?childToView=29248#comment-29248 [Edit] I also found a reference to a Victron Toolkit App that can calculate the temperature derating - i.e. how the max power output drops as the temperature increases. I have not tried this app. See https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2014/10/02/victron-toolkit-a-new-app-for-android-and-iphone-users/

Hi PaBz0r I am not sure if this applies in your case, but there have been some reports on the Victron forums about a batch of the new Multiplus-II 5k units giving over-temperature alarms and then failing after a few weeks. These over-temp alarms have happened without any large loads or obvious reason.

Have you configured a maximum power output for the Inverter? If the inverter is limited to, say 2000W, then any additional load will be sourced from the Grid. [Edit: Jaco beat me to it 🙂 ]

Hi Plonkster, I am curious about this - my "subjective" experience is that gas has always been much more efficient for cooking on a gas-top stove. This is comparing between a gas-stove and an electric-powered "ceramic-hob". The electricity-powered ceramic hob was reasonably efficient as long as the pot/pan was perfectly flat and a similar size to the hob diameter. However, I find a gas-hob heats up a pot/pan much faster and has virtually "instant" control of the temperature. This usually results in a faster overall cooking time on gas - and hence improved overall energy efficiency. One other observation is that the modern obsession with stainless-steel for cooking pots/pans is completely absurd! Stainless Steel has a thermal conductivity about 1/15th that of Aluminium (and 1/20th of Copper) - so most of the stove heat goes into heating the air in your kitchen when using stainless steel pots! I have little experience with induction stoves, but this could be an interesting comparison.

Victron have just released their first version of "Wiring Unlimited" - see https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2019/09/03/wiring-unlimited/ Although produced by Victron, this book covers a wide range of topics that apply to any installation, irrespective of the brand of equipment. Topics covered are as follows: Ohm’s Law Power Conductivity and resistance Current, cable resistance and voltage drop Negative effects of cable voltage drop Ripple Battery bank wiring Battery bank Large battery banks Parallel battery bank wiring Battery bank balancing Battery bank midpoint DC wiring Select the right cable Busbars Cable connections Fuses and circuit breakers DC isolation switches Shunt Parallel and/or 3 phase system DC wiring Large system busbars Voltage sensing and compensation Solar panels Communication wiring Data signals Interference Communication cables and connector types Interfaces AC wiring Power generation Distribution networks System current VA and Watt AC wiring Fuses and circuit breakers AC bypass switch Special considerations for AC wiring of parallel and/or 3 phase inverter/chargers Ground, earth and electrical safety Electrical safety Earth wiring RCD Neutral to earth link in inverters and in inverter/chargers Mobile installations Isolation and grounding of Victron Equipment System grounding Galvanic corrosion Preventing galvanic corrosion The galvanic isolator The isolation transformer Enjoy!

Another option for controlling lights is to use "Z-Wave" based modules - they're small enough to easily fit inside the light-switch wall box. See https://qubino.com/products/flush-2-relays/#takecontrol . Pros: You can link lights into groups and do all sorts of funky automations based on other inputs - such as turning on/off according to schedule, sun angle above the horizon, state of your alarm etc. Cons: These units need a Neutral wire, a Z-Wave Gateway (dongle) and some form of Home Automation software (e.g. Home Assistant running on a RPi). They are still quite expensive locally, however I imported a couple from Europe at roughly 40% of the cost from the local suppliers.

Interesting observation! These timer switches generally use a very cheap "transformerless" type of power supply. This PSU usually has an X-class capacitor connected from Live, via a resistor, to Neutral. It then rectifies the lower voltage developed across the resistor to usable DC supply. The power available from this PSU is therefore totally dependent on the capacitor value. The capacitance, and hence PSU output power, can degrade over time since it runs quite hot due to the constant power dissipation (even when not operating the relay). This will eventually result in the relay being unable to operate but the lower voltage control circuit/LCD will still appear to work fine. I must check if I still have any of my old timer switches and see if this is the actual fault...

In my experience it was always the relay contactor that stopped working. The display and programming features still show up as normal, but the relay no longer operates. The small relays used in Timer switches (and "Sonoff" type devices) are not able to withstand long-term daily operation of high-power loads - even when the loads are within their current rating. Edit: It is not just MajorTech - it is also TopTronic.

Keep in mind that a Timer switch will not give you the ability to easily set/control and display the Geyser temperature. Edite: I previously used a Timer Switch (MajorTech MTD8 or similar) on the Geyser, but these usually only lasted a year or two before needing to be replaced.

Hi Greglsh Welcome to the forum! I have two "Geyserwise Max" units, the oldest unit having been installed over 5 years ago. I am very happy with these units and have had absolutely no problems with them. One unit is installed on a Solar Geyser and another on a regular Geyser - both result in a significant electricity saving. The level of savings depends a lot on your typical pattern of using hot water, and how you program the unit. The Geyserwise is most effective when programmed to heat up the water an hour or two before you typically need it and to not re-heat it during/just after using the hot water. The only "negative" comment on the system is the user-interface is a bit fiddly to program.

Just be aware that the Sonoff WiFi switches, although rated at 10A/16A (depending on model), are not really suitable for routine switching of heavy loads such as Geysers, Pool pumps, Heaters etc. There are many reports of these units burning out internally, sometimes causing the enclosure to melt. E.g. https://support.itead.cc/support/discussions/topics/11000012976

My system appears to play nicely with two "Battery Monitors" - i.e. the BMV712 and the BlueNova BMS. You can configure the "Battery Monitor" setting on the CCGX to take its SOC readings from either device. The additional data (temperature, cell imbalance, under-voltage/over-voltage warnings etc.) from the BMS is still available even if the SOC value is obtained from the BMV712. EDIT: The BlueNova battery voltage readings appear to be very accurate, it's just the current measurement that is inaccurate at low values. I think this is due to them using a dc current-clamp circuit instead of a current-shunt.

My overnight loads typically cycle between 150W and 300W so this results in wildly inaccurate SOC from the Battery BMS. This is so inaccurate as to be effectively useless for any form of control of my system(e.g. ESS). A while back I got a low-voltage alarm (below 50.5V) and the BMS was still showing 88% SOC. Adding the BMV-712 solved everything.

My post here https://powerforum.co.za/topic/2111-blue-nova/?do=findComment&comment=58949 may be useful.

Another possibility is that the batteries have exactly the same SOC value but show different SOC values due to SOC measurement inaccuracies. I have BlueNova 52V 12kWh battery 😀 and find that its internal SOC measurement is hopelessly inaccurate if one has low-level loads (e.g. 200 - 300W). As a result I have installed a BMV712 to monitor the battery SOC - which works perfectly. See the comparison between the BMV and Battery BMS over the last few days. According to the supplier this is a known issue and also applies to BYD batteries (see https://www.victronenergy.com/live/battery_compatibility:byd_b-box).

This should work with the DHCP disabled on the Access Point (otherwise the two DHCP servers will fight each other). The WiFi devices connected to the Access Point will then be effectively bridged together with the Access Point's LAN port(s) - so this removes the complication of configuring the WAN port. It is worth pointing out that you will lose all "routing" features on the WiFi Access-Point (Firewall etc.) in this type of setup - so will need to rely on the Satellite Modem for this. Note that in this case it is important to configure the Pi to have either an Ethernet connection (preferred) or a WiFi connection, not both.

I see you swapped round the 192 and 168 😉

Do you have a link to the Wireless Router manual? I don't want to recommend something that may break your network !

Ideally you want a single DHCP server on your network - so that all LAN and WiFi devices get IP addresses on the same sub-net. They will then all be able to "see" each other and have access to the internet.

Hi DeepBass9 Your earlier screenshot of the Access Point shows that it has the DHCP server enabled - so will issue IP addresses to all WiFi devices and devices connected to its downstream LAN ports. These IP addresses will be in the 192.168.2.x range. Your Satellite Internet Modem (your gateway to the internet) is likely to also have its own DHCP server enabled - so it issues IP addresses to all the devices on the LAN in the 192.168.0.x range. The Access Point probably therefore has a 192.168.0.x WAN IP address. The routing between sub-nets is therefore done inside the Access Point. Assuming this is the case, this means that your WiFi devices will have access to the Internet but be completely isolated from any devices on the upstream LAN (PC, Pi etc.). I think (but am not certain) that the way to fix this will be to modify the Access Point so that it operates in a simple "bridge" mode. EDIT: What model Access Point are you using?

😂 I can appreciate the frustration when nothing is working and all the documentation one can find is out of date - so does not help solving the problem. I have Home Assistant running successfully on a Pi3B with a Z-Wave network so may be able to assist with some pointers. Regards, Nigel

Hi DeepBass9 The way to enable SSH on a Pi is to use the "raspi-config" - see https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/raspi-config.md Aaah, but would it have given you the same sense of achievement or as much "fun"? 😛

I have a wall-mount enclosure for the CCGX. This has been used for a couple of months, but is still in good condition. The reason I am selling is that I have added a BMV712 to my system, so have purchased the larger combo-enclosure. Any reasonable offer will be considered.

Another option is to use 110x50 trunking that has an internal divider to separate the AC and DC sides. See https://www.efapel.pt/en/products/cable-trunkings/10-series-distribution-cable-trunkings I bought this trunking and corner sections etc. at AC-DC

The following app note on lightning protection may be a useful starting point. Novaris PV Protection Info - Australia.pdf