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scaniadvr avatar image
scaniadvr asked

How to use solar to save on energy costs

Hi I have set up a system on my boat I have 1600W solar Victron MPPT, 600Ah 24v battery,Quattro inverter and Venus GX and bmv 712. And 10kw generator The question I have is when Im on shore power the batteries are fully charged is there a way of prioritising the solar over the grid feed in as many marinas charge 40 cents a Kw hour other then setting up an ess assistant I don’t want to feed in just save money, I’ve read all the ESS documents just trying to get my head around it. At the moment I just unplug the shore power during the day.

ESSsolar
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3 Answers
boekel avatar image
boekel answered ·

Hi @Scaniadvr

There are multiple ways of achieving what you want, you'll have to see what works best for you.

-using the Virtual switch to ignore AC-in
or a little more advanced:
-using assistants to ignore AC-in:
https://www.victronenergy.com/live/assistants:ignore_ac_input_using_the_generator_assistant

You can also use a switch to select 'full charge' or 'partial charge' from shore power, again using assistants, if you want to make it fancy:
https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/8933/example-of-using-assistants-partial-off-grid-boat.html


More information on using assistants:
https://www.victronenergy.com/live/assistants:start

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scaniadvr avatar image
scaniadvr answered ·

@Boekel Thanks for the reply I set the virtual switch ignore ac until soc is below 95 percent and not not ignore until 30 min after absorption is finished and it’s doing what I want now and should save me a heap of money

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tabney0315 answered ·

I get the idea of setting the virtual switch to ignore AC until SOC 95%, but with my system I am regularly pulling 2k+ watts to power Air Conditioner. I am on a 30amp systems with a Multiplus 3kva, 400AH battery, and 600watts of solar.

If I turned had this virtual switch on my batteries would drop below 95% within a few minutes which would bring the AC back in (power the full load plus the batter recharge) and the solar would be used to charge the batteries?? If i understand this right, it sound like it would just keep cycling like this?

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