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wgoldie avatar image
wgoldie asked

New Install showing PV Inverter on AC In

Just installed the following: Multiplus 2 48/5000, Seplos 280Ah battery, Venus OS running on Raspberry Pi with display. 230v is connected to AC In, ESS enabled with CT clamp connected to the 3.5mm plug in inverter to monitor grid.. These are installed in garage and connected to a secondary consumer unit. I am not using the other AC outputs. This is in addition to a separate Solaredge PV system that was installed last year.

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Fired the whole thing up this morning and all was working as expected. Battery charging when producing excess solar and then supplying house load when insufficient solar. Charged car from battery at 3kW to check for any cables or connections getting hot. All ok.

img-0687.jpg


During the afternoon I inadvertently touched the main breaker test button in the consumer unit and everything shut down. Switched everything back on and now for some reason the display is showing a PV Inverter connected with around 7kW and the Grid is now showing -7kW. Reset everything and have went through all the settings to see if anything had changed. In the device list it is showing PV inverter on Input 1. I can’t remember what it showed earlier but fairly certain it wasn’t an inverter. This also shows 7kW.


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Apart from this the system is still working as it should and when I check the MyEnergi app all values are pretty close to the ones shown on the Victron display, apart from this spurious 7kW.

screenshot-2023-09-11-at-190204.pngscreenshot-2023-09-11-at-181804.png

Any suggestions as to what to look for next or what could be the issue here causing. I'm not very familiar with Victron and this is my first foray into DIY battery storage, which apart from this has been pretty successful and good fun.


Thanks in advance.



Multiplus-II
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7 Answers
matt1309 avatar image
matt1309 answered ·

Hi @wgoldie


How is the PV being monitor is it an energy meter (ET112 or similar) or is it being monitored another way? What number are you expecting it to show?


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wgoldie avatar image
wgoldie answered ·

Hi, thanks for replying. The Solaredge PV set up is not being monitored by the Victron at the moment. I intend fit a Victron current sensor (not CT clamp) and fit that to the PV AC output in the future. The problem is that for some reason the Victron set up now thinks the AC In from the consumer unit is PV generation. I want to get it back to the display showing in 2nd photo above.

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daniel-feist avatar image daniel-feist commented ·
You don't need a meter, Victron can talk to Solaredge inverter via Modbus TCP if they are both on the same network.
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matt1309 avatar image
matt1309 answered ·

That's odd I wasn't aware the system was capable of monitor PV Inverter using the CT clamp. If you're using an energy meter like ET112 you're able to change it's "role" within the settings of the device (Settings-> Energy Meter -> select the meter then select it's role to Grid meter).


Not sure if they've introduced something similar for CT clamp but I've not seen that before.

Is there anything in settings of that PV inverter to change it's role?


This doesnt make sense at all thinking about it. I dont quite understand where the 7k is coming from. As you mentioned there's no connected PV at all. Have you got any device info/further details on the PV Invereter, to try and work out what it actually is.


If you've got no PV installed that the victron system is aware of/has access to then it doesn't make sense that anything is being exported without the battery being drained. Where have you connected the CT clamp? Is it before any PV has been wired in?


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wgoldie avatar image
wgoldie answered ·

Yes it is odd. The PV will be monitored by a Victron Current Sensor, not a CT clamp, but that is in the future.

There is no energy meter installed or showing in the settings. It's obviously something that happened during the unscheduled power down, although that would in effect be like a power cut so shouldn't screw things up. The CT clamp is installed on the incoming meter feed and starts to charge the battery when it shows an export so there is no direct link to the Solar PV Inverter. And during any grid import starts to use the battery, this is all working as I would expect.

Also did a timed charge during the night and that all worked.

Not going to mess about with it today as the sun is shining and the solar is charging the battery.

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matt1309 avatar image
matt1309 answered ·

If the CT is on the incoming grid meter then you'll need to integrate the PV in somehow if the PV is also connected after the grid meter?

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wgoldie avatar image
wgoldie answered ·

Managed to solve the above issue by downloading and then uploading the settings using the Remote VE Configure files. Didn't change anything in them and the spurious PV Inverter disappeared. Possibly the PV Inverter assistant within the settings got confused.

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daniel-feist avatar image daniel-feist commented ·
I think this may have been caused by the "AC Current Sensor" assistant.
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wgoldie avatar image
wgoldie answered ·

Suspect you are correct. I have since installed a current sensor to monitor the solar and re activated the current sensor assistant. It works well now, although initially it was showing 163w coming from solar during the night. After searching found that it takes 24 hours to calibrate and is now reading accurately.

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