I thought this information might also be useful for the charging procedure in the MPPT as it could counterbalance the consumption with higher PV power instead of initiating another charging cycle.
asked
Is there a way to monitor the power consumption of devices directly connected to the battery in VictronConnect?
The MPPT always 'aims' to maintain the voltage set-point for the charge phase that it's in, REGARDLESS if there is a load drawing current or not.
So when a load turns on/is active, it will initially drag the battery voltage down slightly, but then the MPPT will respond with more charge current to cover it, PROVIDING that there is enough PV (solar power) available to work with.
If the battery voltage drops down so far that it triggers a new charge cycle then you simply don't have enough PV power available to cover the loads & charging, so linking the MPPT somehow to a separate current monitor for the loads wouldn't really help.
However, if 'tail current' is used to end the absorption phase, then it is important to know how much current is actually going into the battery, as opposed to just the charger output current (that could be going directly to a load rather than into the battery). In this case it makes sense for a BMV to share the battery current data with the MPPT, but this feature is not available as yet.
Is there any chance to add this feature to the Victron Smart Battery Protect before April 2020? If not, I am going to buy a more affordable battery protector for my additional loads.
I am just a user so can't comment on timing and Victron themselves generally won't provide timing commitments for new products or features due to the complex nature of development.
But what exactly are you asking for - current monitoring by the Smart Battery Protect device? If so the answer would be NO, this device cannot measure current as it does not have a current shunt. It's designed to purely be a load disconnect device.
To measure current you need a BMV. A Smart BMV can communicate with a SmartSolar MPPT via a VE.Smart Network (Bluetooth). But at the moment current data for the purpose of ending the absorption phase based on tail current is not yet shared - it's in the works.
I currently use a separate MPPT (100/20) with load output and have my DC loads connected to that port. This way Venus GX knows the power drawn by DC loads.
