question

dieselspanner avatar image
dieselspanner asked

Adding solar power to MultiPlus 12/3000/120

Hi All

I have an off grid home powered by a small HGI remote welfare unit, controlled by a MultiPlus 12/300/120. It was built as a stand alone unit, I purchased it ,complete, 12 months or so ago, from eBay. Unfortunately HGI have now ceased trading.

It serves a bank of deep cycle 12v batteries, cutting in when the voltage drops to around 11 volts and cutting out when it deems the bank is fully charged.

It has run around 750 hours so far, at around 3/4 hours a day, using approx 0.55 litres an hour (I'm very pleased with it's performance!)

I would like to add input, to the batteries, from 4 x 260w panels running through a small charge controller.

I have set everything up and it happily charges the batteries, connected directly, with the generator switched off (Thus the MultiPlus has no 'Mains / Shore power' supply.) The inverter (To 220v ac) works as normal.

If I allow the MultiPlus to start the generator automatically, as normal, will there be any confliction as the level of solar input to the batteries, changes with the sun being shaded on and off through the day, or is it necessary to supply the solar power through the MultiPlus?

Many thanks, in anticipation,

Stef





smart solar set-up help
2 |3000

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

1 Answer
hjohnson avatar image
hjohnson answered ·

As long as you don’t exceed the maximum charging rate of your batteries, you’ll be fine. If you went with a victron charge controller, you’ll probably want to look at a GX device (either a Cerbo GX, or.a raspberry pi running Victtron’s Venus OS, to coordinate everything. That will ensure that the current going into your batteries from both sources doesn’t exceed their limit.

2 |3000

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

Related Resources

Additional resources still need to be added for this topic