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power4me avatar image
power4me asked

EV Charging Station on 3 Phase Multiplus II using AC-OUT2 for Intelligent Phase Switching

Although I am very happy with my Victron installation, I still hesitate to buy the EV Charging Station due to the lack of automatic phase switching.

I was wondering if the currently unoccupied AC-OUT2 of my three Multiplusses could be a solution to provide this feature. Since AC-OUT2 can be switched software controlled, it could provide one phase or three phase supply to the EVCS depending of the surplus energy availability.

Is it possible to control the OUT2 relay of each Multiplus independently in a three phase setup?

Using the setup described above, the currently available EVCS hardware could provide phase switching with no additional hardware, just some clever software within a Victron system.

As seen in other posts I’m not the only one longing for a solution for intelligent surplus charging with average PV installations.

Multiplus-II3 phaseev charging stationac-out-2
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dennibu avatar image
dennibu answered ·

I once read that switching on a phase during the charging process can have bad consequences.

I think the idea is good, but it would be too dangerous for me

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power4me answered ·

If the switching is done in collaboration with the EVCS it could be done with no harm to the vehice e.g. interrupting one phase charge then switching to 3 phase and starting again.

I mean there must be a proper way to do it since there are less expensive wallboxes on the market capable of phase switching.

I would prefer a Victron EVCS because of the seamless integration but phase switching is a must, having actually only a 6 kWp PV

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dennibu avatar image
dennibu answered ·

With 6Kwp, it is enough to load permanently with 1 phase. Phases 2 and 3 are not needed anyway. I would either permanently disconnect L2 and L3 or use a single-phase charging cable. With the phase changeover, it happens again and again that Renault's camelion loaders are destroyed.

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luphi answered ·

There is a way to make the EVCS capable of switching between 1p and 3p by replacing the internal 4p contactor by 2x2p contactors:

see https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/215013/single-phase-charging-on-three-phase-setup.html

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GRIGORIU avatar image GRIGORIU commented ·

Hi,

Th info on the following thread is not sufficient to make it working. I think a separate thread in the modification section could be created. Is there anyone that has done it and willing to make a clear step by step procedure with a BOM ? (https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/215013/single-phase-charging-on-three-phase-setup.html )

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power4me avatar image
power4me answered ·

The aim of this thread is to find a viable solution without additional external hardware or manipulating the EV Charging Station. Other threads already addressed these topics.

If no or not enough surplus solar energy is available or charging needs to be done in time I also want to switch easily by app between 1 and 3 phase operation.

The question remains: Is it possible to control the OUT2 relay of each Multiplus independently in a three phase setup?

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Philipp Trenz avatar image Philipp Trenz ♦ commented ·

Hi @power4me, as far as I know: Yes, the "Programmable Relay" assistants work independently per unit in a 3-phase system. Background: I created a load shedding functionality by disabling AC-OUT-2 in case of an Inverter overload warning. Thereby I learned, that I have to configure the assistant per inverter and they also turn off AC-OUT-2 individually.

In case the Programmable Relay assistant does not give you enough options for your use case, you can configure them to follow an AUX input and then use the GX relay(s) to control them (e.g. using Node-RED).


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