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Albert de Jongh avatar image
Albert de Jongh asked

Multiplus II goes into storage mode after inverting

I have a Multiplus II 48/3000/35-32 - it is used as a UPS for my house and has no solar etc. connected. The only way for it to charge the batteries is using the grid. I have storage mode enabled as the batteries does nothing for long times until there is a power failure.

The battery state of charge was at 100 % today, and the inverter was in storage mode.

We then had a 2.5 hour power failure, and the battery state of charge went down to 91 % .

The grid came online, and the Multiplus II just went back into storage mode. The problem with this is that the batteries are charging very slowly now, and they will never charge back up to 100 % - the only way for that to happen is to restart the inverter.

Also, we are having another power cut in 4 hours, and by then the batteries won't be fully charged...

What am I doing wrong?

Multiplus-IIbattery charging
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jonow avatar image jonow commented ·

Did you ever get an answer to this? I am having the same problem with a Multiplus 24/1600

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Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ jonow commented ·

Hi @jonow

Yes it was answered, just read below.

for a 48v system battery voltage has to drop below float voltage minus 5.2v

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Albert de Jongh avatar image Albert de Jongh Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

I do think the storage rule is implemented wrong though - if I look at the specs for the storage mode. Storage mode says: "The Storage mode kicks in whenever the battery has not been subjected to discharge during 24 hours."

So, if it was in storage mode, and then inverted for 2 hours, it should definitely not go back to storage mode again. That does not make sense to me.

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4 Answers
Albert de Jongh avatar image
Albert de Jongh answered ·

This problem is continuing. We've had a few power failures since the last one, and the battery state of charge went down to 83 % this morning - and still the inverter went back into storage mode after the 2.5 hour power failure. It appears as if it is "stuck" in storage mode - and this is not how I understood storage mode to work at all.

Any thoughts, or ideas on how to fix this?


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Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Hi @Albert de Jongh

I'm trying to find out how storage mode is supposed to work, and therefore why it is (or seems) stuck in your installation.

What is the VRM id of the site?

(What I'm trying to find out is the conditions for returning from storage mode)

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Albert de Jongh avatar image Albert de Jongh Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Hi @Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) - the id of the site is 37486.

I don't understand at all how storage mode is supposed to work if I look at the docs.

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Albert de Jongh avatar image Albert de Jongh Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Would it be a problem for your investigation @Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) if I switch off storage mode in the mean time?

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Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ Albert de Jongh commented ·

Please leave it like it is for now :)

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Albert de Jongh avatar image Albert de Jongh Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Sorry, I just changed it :-( I will change it back just now.

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Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ Albert de Jongh commented ·

thanks, let's see when it enters storage mode again.

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Albert de Jongh avatar image Albert de Jongh Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

@Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) I have enabled storage mode again - it should switch to storage soon.

Are you saying then, that my "issue" is that because the battery voltage never drops below "float voltage" minus 5.2v it won't go out of storage mode?

In my case float voltage is set to 54.6 volts, and it has not gone below 49.4 volts during inverting.

(I got the 5.2 volt drop figure from https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/175/how-do-quattro-and-multiplus-decide-to-switch-from.html)

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Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ Albert de Jongh commented ·

Hi @Albert de Jongh

Indeed, the voltage has to drop below 49,4 to exit storage mode.

You might increase the float voltage a bit to change this if you want.

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Albert de Jongh avatar image Albert de Jongh Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

@Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) it has dropped straight into storage from absorption right now. I don't understand this at all.

It went into absorption when I disabled storage mode, and then shortly thereafter I enabled it again - it went on in absorption for a while after that, and then dropped straight down into storage.

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Albert de Jongh avatar image Albert de Jongh Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

After our 2.5 hours power cut (they call it "load shedding" in South Africa) - we've gone straight back into storage mode.

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Albert de Jongh avatar image Albert de Jongh Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

@Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) my question above; is it not similar to this: https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/30687/stuck-in-storage-mode.html

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Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

Hi @Albert de Jongh

I've got confirmation that the unit's should get out of storage mode under the same 'rule' as it comes back from 'float' back to 'bulk'

Looking into your system, it seems it has always been in 'storage mode' for some reason..

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aizen avatar image
aizen answered ·

Hi guys had the same behavior with my Easysolar 48/3000/35 ....my float voltage is 54.8v.(agm batteries]..it was stuck in storage mode charging extremely slowly....I got the inverter out of this behavior by changing the charging efficiency from 0.85 to 0.90 and restarting the inverter. Should I increase the float voltage? Is there a safe limit?

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aizen avatar image
aizen answered ·

hi guys, did anyone get the solution to this problem. Today my battery bank discharged to 92% but the charging was too too slow and the multiplus showed storage...Easysolar 48/3000/35-2620469 firmware

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aizen avatar image aizen commented ·

I would like to mention that i noted this behaviour after i connected my multiplus to the gx device(raspberry pi 3b+ with venus os 2.51) and i temporary resolve it by switching the multiplus off then on....Be safe

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Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ aizen commented ·

Hi @Aizen

It has been written here a couple of times:

to get out of storage mode, the same rule applies a to get out of float voltage.

the battery voltage has to drop below that level.

the re-bulk voltage is float voltage minus 5.2V

after SOC dropping to 92%, bulk charging has no use, and might be bad for the batteries.


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Related Resources

MultiPlus-II Product page 

MultiPlus-II Manual

Multiplus-II GX Online Manual

MultiPlus-II 230V Datasheet 

VE.Bus Error codes

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