question

andre67 avatar image
andre67 asked

Why I cannot reach ZERO consumption in my ON-GRID ESS ?

I cannot reach ZERO consumption from grid ; Why do I consume 0,1 kWh from grid every 4/5 hours ?

I could switch off the main breaker at grid arrival, but there is certainly a more suitable solution...

I have ESS Mode Optimized (with BatteryLife), Grid setpoint = 20W, and I use 2 ET112 energymeters (one for grid and the other for PV-AC production).

How can I manage the victron ESS to achieve my goal = ZERO consumption ?consommation-100wh-chaque-5-heures.jpgconsommations-100wh-chaque-5-heures.jpg

ESSgrid
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Alexandra avatar image Alexandra ♦ commented ·

@ANDRE67

If you have a grid set point of 250W it will do that.

Sometimes it is set like that so there is no accidental feedback.

Are you allowed to feedback? Or is there a tolerance for slight or accidental feedback?

But looking at your set up and useage, you could easily switch off the grid and not care. There is also the option of AC ignore until a certain battery level....

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andre67 avatar image andre67 Alexandra ♦ commented ·

Yes I reject the excess energy to the grid

OK I will try to increase Grid setoint up to 250W... wait & see...

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andre67 avatar image andre67 Alexandra ♦ commented ·

I didn't find the option of AC ignore in the ESS ; I have only this 1681295304471.png

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1681295304471.png (79.8 KiB)
nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ andre67 commented ·
It is not part of ESS. It can be configured on the inverter with Victron connect: Conditional AC input control.
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andre67 avatar image andre67 Alexandra ♦ commented ·
Sorry but 250W as grid setpoint is a bad idea : consumption is much higher :-(
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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ andre67 commented ·
The comment was saying that was too high, so lower the setpoint to something with a better balance. It wasn’t a suggestion to set it to 250W.
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Alexandra avatar image Alexandra ♦ andre67 commented ·

@ANDRE67

What I said was if your grid set point was at 250W that is what you would see. Your picture in your original post shows the draw from grid at 250w. So I concluded 250W over 4 hours is 1 kwh of consumption.....

Under the inverter in device list you can switch the systen to inverter only from the GX. This will stop grid synchronisation (you will hear the relay disconnect). So it will disconnect your system from grid without touching a breaker and you can reconnect (even remotely) whenever you want to.

ESS tests the grid with a bit of push pull every now and then, so there is always an exchange of some kind. As other have said, unavoidable unless you disconnect.

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andre67 avatar image andre67 Alexandra ♦ commented ·

ok I understand ; confusion came because I wrote Grid setpoint = 20W. Thanks for second remark, but how can I "switch the systen to inverter only from the GX" ?

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pedaaa avatar image pedaaa andre67 commented ·
set a negative grid set point, like -50 ot -200W


use a faster gridmeter, like EM540 or use CT-clamps if possible (=faster than gridmeter)
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andre67 avatar image andre67 pedaaa commented ·

are really CT clamps faster than energymeters ? it will depend on their electronic controller... which ones do you suggest ? But CT clamps are less accurate ?

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pedaaa avatar image pedaaa andre67 commented ·

yes, CT is faster. Its directly connected with instant reaction.


Any Gridmeter instead has several delays in terms of modbus update rate and GX communication to the multis.


downside of CT's is that you have cable length restrictions and VRM does not sum up the energy of all 3 phases correclty like EM24 or EM540 meters would do

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marcve avatar image marcve commented ·
@andre67. I noticed, that when you set the feed to grid to "zero amp ", the software sets it back to 1 amp. So, I have the same issue.

As I mentioned in another topic. It looks like victron programmed the sofware in a way that even when the batteries are completely "dead", the victron can still execute all it needs to do, because it will still take power from the grid = is put power the grid.


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5 Answers
gazza avatar image
gazza answered ·

You won't.. I don't know what your Inverter is but there is always a "zero load" power consumption. The only way is to turn everything off when you know you are not using any power. Very tedious? Probably not good for the system. You just have to take that "very small" power drain as part of the deal?

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andre67 avatar image andre67 commented ·

I have 4 micro-inverters DS3-L from APSystems. But 100Wh consumtion occurs either during day or night

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marcve avatar image marcve commented ·
Looks like he using a solis pv inverter ( lookingat the picture ). But, I understand his question. Victron is a great system, but it takes some time to get it right.
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jeanmarie avatar image
jeanmarie answered ·

Unfortunately, the ESS mode use the grid as a buffer and is always exchanging with it some Watts to balance it's power

The result is, yes, a consumption / injection from/to the grid. I guess it depend of the size of the inverter. I have a 10kVA one and I can witness roughly 0,4kWh / day imported and 0,4kWh imported

The only way to hide this is to switch off the grid (and the ESS de facto)

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andre67 avatar image
andre67 answered ·

Hello Victron Service engineers, could you please give the Victron answer, because I can tell thank you to all contributors who gave me these different answers to "remove" these low consumptions :

1-switch off the grid every night

2-use Mode Optimized (Without BatteryLife) instead WITH BatteryLife

3-set Grid setpoint = 250W

4-Set Grid setpoint = 0W

5-Set Grid setpoint = -20W

What is the Victron answer ? Thanks in advance

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Craig Chamberlain avatar image Craig Chamberlain commented ·
Hi, please bear in mind that this is a Victron community forum, not an official support site. If you want official support them you are supposed to get that through whoever sold the equipment to you. Just wanted to point that out in case you weren’t aware.
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andre67 avatar image andre67 Craig Chamberlain commented ·
Hi, ok I understand. The company who sold me the ESS has no solution to my demand = ZERO consumption.

Perhaps a user of the community has solved this issue ?

Perhaps a Victron engineer is listening to the questions of their end users, and is willing to answer to their needs ?

Thanks in advance

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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ andre67 commented ·
There can never be zero consumption in ESS as the inverter is synced to the grid and some power will flow in and out due to loads.

Your only solution is to drop the AC In which you can do conditionally via victron connect directly to the inverter, using either voltage, SOC etc as the conditions to automatically disconnect/reconnect grid.

This is the way the system is designed to work.

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Matthias Lange - DE avatar image Matthias Lange - DE ♦ andre67 commented ·

What you want is just impossible.

Switching bigger loads ON/OFF will always cause some power to come from the grid/go to the grid for a few seconds.

The System need some time to react.

The only thing you can do is to disconnect your system from the grid.

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andre67 avatar image andre67 Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented ·
Somebody suggested to have -200W as grid setpoint. In this case why is not the battery providing the power ?
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Matthias Lange - DE avatar image Matthias Lange - DE ♦ andre67 commented ·

If you just want to prevent consumption from the grid you cat set the grid setpoint to a negative value but with that you will always feedback that amount of energy into the grid.

In worst case you will empty your whole battery into the grid.

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andre67 avatar image andre67 Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented ·
oh, this could be interested, because I am allowed to reject excess power back to the grid (I do not have a contract for 0 export). So with this negative grid setpoint, would I reach my goal = 0 grid consumption ? Of course limit is given by the battery when minimum SOC is reached, then grid will supply ? Could you please confirm ?
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markess avatar image
markess answered ·

In my residential ESS system I set the grid set-point to -10W. It pulls around 0.1kWh from the grid each day (24hr).

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marcve avatar image
marcve answered ·

Maybe this will point you in the right direction: https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/200301/solution-victron-dynamic-energy-pricing.html

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