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iand avatar image
iand asked

Solar and wind priority

According to the documentation, the way the new solar/wind priority feature works doesn't make sense for boats/RVs which are plugged in for long periods... :-(

It works fine for the first week so that all the solar energy can be used to charge the batteries, but after that it reverts to 100% SoC just like a system without it enabled -- which means that if the solar generates more energy than is consumed it has nowhere to go, and shore power is used instead.

What would make far more sense is to have a setup like generator autostart/stop where you can set SoC for the shoreline to start and stop charging (e.g. 30%/70%), to guarantee that the batteries never go flat but there's always space for solar to be used for charging.

If desired there could be a regular "charge to 100% SoC" burst (e.g. every week or month) for users who are concerned about equalisation.

This should all be trivial to do, and would make the option much more usable.

solar
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cardy01 avatar image
cardy01 answered ·

You can do what you describe using the Ignore AC virtual switch .... works nicely

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iand avatar image iand commented ·
Doesn't that mean the shoreline is never used? What's needed is either separate limits for "shoreline autostart" so that it kicks in before the generator would, or to have the generator autostart limits apply to shoreline when plugged in. I can't see any way to do this...


(without running Node Red which is not an option if I want support from the boatbuilder)


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cardy01 avatar image cardy01 iand commented ·

You can set various limits to use Shore Power based on battery voltage or SOC .... so no it doesn't always ignore AC In ....

https://www.victronenergy.com/live/ve.bus:solar-and-wind-priority

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iand avatar image iand cardy01 commented ·

Except that after 7 days it goes back to 100% SoC... :-(


Looks like Ignore AC is what I actually want... :-)

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Philipp Trenz avatar image Philipp Trenz ♦ iand commented ·

@IanD See this blog post on how to configure it: https://panbo.com/maximizing-solar-production-with-victron-gx/

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cardy01 avatar image cardy01 iand commented ·
Yes I know ... it's why I stopped using it ... in the link I posted AC ignore is discussed as the option when you want AC loads supported by the battery.


In my case the shore power tops up the battery about every 3-4 days as there isn't so much solar at the mo .....

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iand avatar image iand cardy01 commented ·

That's exactly what I need -- this is what my system is doing right now, almost all the loads are DC. Quattro is set to inverter-only to disconnect shoreline, I have to manually switch over th charger every few days.vrm-snapshot.png

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oyfant avatar image oyfant iand commented ·
Same problem...
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iand avatar image
iand answered ·

So if Victron already had a solution which worked and did the job, why introduce a new one which doesn't?

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cardy01 avatar image cardy01 commented ·
I guess it was targeted at people with low AC loads and big(ger) DC loads
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iand avatar image
iand answered ·

Need to wait for option to enabled by boatbuilder, but plan would be to have something like the following (35kWh LFP battery bank, 7kW charging from generator, 3.7kW charging from shoreline):

Generator autostart 50% SoC

Generator autostop 60% SoC

Shoreline AC start 70% SoC

Shoreline AC stop 80% SoC

This allows 20% SoC headroom for the solar once shoreline has stopped -- this is about 7kWh, which is expected solar yield for a day in summer (2kW of panels).

Any comments/problems?

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cardy01 avatar image cardy01 commented ·
Looks sensible to me ......
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iand avatar image
iand answered ·

I talked to my boatbuilder about this, he says AC ignore is what they used to use but the problem is that there's then no easy way of turning it off from the Touch 50 or VRM, you need to use VEConfigure (or Node Red, which is not supported).


This then means the batteries never get to 100% SoC since the AC ignore works for both generator and shoreline, so they never get top-balanced and the SoC calibration can gradually drift away from the correct value... :-(


So I'll try out the solar/wind priority and see how it goes. Once it's gone from sustain to 100% SoC (float) mode after 7 days, can it be pushed back into sustain mode by switching to inverter-only mode and then back to sustain -- does this reset the 7-day timer?

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cardy01 avatar image
cardy01 answered ·

VE Configure works remotely via VRM ... takes maybe 2 mins to change if you keep an "on" config file and an "off" one ...

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iand avatar image iand commented ·

Thanks, I know that's possible but it's a bit inconvenient, especially if the boat is being used by family not me, I don't want them messing around with VE Configure.


I don't understand why Victron can't fix the solar/wind option to get round this and allow the user to choose the length and intervals between charging to 100% SoC (e.g. for 1 day every 14 days), it really would be trivial to do...

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cardy01 avatar image
cardy01 answered ·

You don't need to be physically on the boat .... you can monitor SOC remotely and change settings via VRM (ussuming you have a GX device) .... mine is an hour away and I can do it from my desk.

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iand avatar image iand commented ·
I know, that's what I do right now to switch between inverter-only (to let SoC drop and make use of all the solar) and charger-only (to get SoC back up when it drops too far) -- my boat is more than 3 hours away... ;-)


It would be far better if this was dealt with automatically -- with a properly functional solar/wind priority mode -- than having to remember to manually switch modes, and certainly better than having to use VE Configure which is dangerously powerful for non-expert users...


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