question

rycreation avatar image
rycreation asked

EasySolar12/1600 and LIFEP04 with internal BMS keep tripping RCD

Hi, sorry if already covered but I have a camper van with an Easysolar 12/1600 connected to a lithium battery with internal BMS, the camper has:

hook up

orion 12 | 12 30 from starter battery

270w solar panel

victron bmv 712 Shunt

(UK based)

Any other details needed let me know

When the van is on hook up the battery charges until it gets to 99-100% charged then trips the house RCD. Any help to stop this would be greatly appreciated.

Lithium BatteryEasySolar All-in-Oneshorepower
2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

2 Answers
rycreation avatar image
rycreation answered ·
I finally got the issue sorted. So had been chatting with a few places about this issue, some said that without a Victron digital multi control this sort of thing could happen So I bought on in and installed it. I managed to see the system charge the battery to full but after a while the easy solar would get tripped by the battery BMS cell over voltage and cause the RCD in the house to trip. I actually went as far as to buy a 2nd easy solar just in case and proceeded to replace the old one with the new. Afterwards everything was ok, it was charging and doing everything correctly with no issues. Even when the battery had cell over voltage come up it wouldn’t trip the House RCD only turn of the easy solar but then I did have to adjust a few parameters. All in all it was an interesting learning curve and it was just a faulty unit but I would definitely recommend that to anyone that gets an easysolar, definitely also get the digital multi control.
2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

Mike Dorsett avatar image
Mike Dorsett answered ·

does your battery BMS talk to the Easy solar? Or does the BMS have some other method of turning off the charge at 95- 100%? this is needed with Lithium's, as one cell inevitably reaches full charge first, and causes the BMS to trip. This takes the battery off line which upsets the Easy Solar. Easiest solution is to reduce the maximum charge voltage of the Multiplus stage of the Easy solar so as the battery will only charge to ~90% on hook up.

2 comments
2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

rycreation avatar image rycreation commented ·
Thanks so much! Makes sense I will try it out and get back to you.
0 Likes 0 ·
rycreation avatar image rycreation commented ·
so I am back after doing a bunch of different tests.

I should also update that the system was tripping even at a lower battery percentage now.

I got the mk3 adaptor and connected it to the easysolar and got into the settings. I turned on the lithium battery bms setting and although I feel this should be on anyway it didn’t stop the tripping.
I also tried adjusting the parameters on the bms of the battery, which unfortunately didn’t work either. I tried tweaking a few software settings but also no result so returned them back to normal (other than the lithium bms setting on the easysolar).

I thought I should then try the setup with a lead acid battery just as a test but weirdly it still tripped the system.

So I swapped the dual pole breaker for the shore power input and suddenly we had progress. It wasn’t tripping! I switched back to the lithium battery and yet again it wasn’t tripping and I could even get the battery fully charged and it was still fine! I tried using up some power then charging to full again and it was still fine.
you would think that’s problem solved and so did I as I couldn’t get it to trip my system anymore but when the owner took it home he tried the hook up and it got to 99% and tripped his house.

I spoke to another electrician friend and he thinks that maybe the breakers have been sat around a while and some corrosion on the terminals could have led to this leakage that trips the rcd. But if I swapped it over why is it still tripping or could the other breakers for the outputs be doing this?


0 Likes 0 ·

Related Resources

EasySolar 1600 product page

EasySolar-II GX 3000 & 5000 product page

Additional resources still need to be added for this topic

Additional resources still need to be added for this topic

Battery Compatibility

Did You Know - How to create a battery profile for non-Victron batteries?