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islander1717 avatar image
islander1717 asked

Quattro 48/10000/140 excessive idle power consumption


My Victron 48/10000 consumes more than 115-130W while in an idle mode (drains nearly 2.4A), is something wrong with the settings or is it faulty unit?

This is a newly installed off-grid system, that is not connected to house AC circuits yet, so zero AC load. The Victron data sheet says the consumption should be 60W, so it seems that my unit consumes twice as much, literally wasting ~2.8kWh daily just for its own operation.

Please tell me it's not normal? I just find it a bit far too excessive, and very frustrating, considering that I won't use more than 7-8kWh per day for all other appliances combined.. What is the point then of searching for and buying energy efficient fridges/freezers and other appliances if Victron itself consumes more than them all combined?

Anyone else has similar issue? Has it been resolved by your dealer/installer or Victron themselves?

MultiPlus Quattro Inverter Charger
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7 Answers
islander1717 avatar image
islander1717 answered ·

Here is a pic that I took right after sunset (PV system produces zero)


img-20200621-164832.jpg (2.1 MiB)
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jwfrary avatar image
jwfrary answered ·

Have you tried using the AES (Automatic Economy Switch) function? That will save a reasonable amount.

Equally have you zeroed the shunt if you are using one?

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islander1717 avatar image islander1717 commented ·

Thanks Jwfrary,

No, I haven't tried AES yet. Will try today, just to see if there is any significant difference. However I believe that long term (when I'll have house AC circuits connected) this mode won't be practical for me at all anyway. Also I have suspicion (also will check it later today), that if I connect any AC load, the Victron inverter will add same 120W to the existing consumption. In other words, I suspect it consumes 120W always, regardless idle or AC load.. Again, will test it today.

Answering your second question, no, I don't have shunt as such. I have BYD LiFePo4 battery, so the reading comes directly from the batterry via Ethernet to the Victron Colour Control Monitor I believe. Maybe these numbers are not precise, but I don't see how measurement error of 50% is possible at all anyway. Besides my 15.4kWh BYD battery bank gets discharged by approx 10% overnight (With zero AC loads), which equals roughly into same 120Wh per hour.


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

Hi @Islander1717

How do you measure the consumption? do you have a battery monitor installed?

if it is really 2.4A that is indeed excessive, but it might be that this is just an inaccurate reading.

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islander1717 avatar image islander1717 commented ·

Thank you Daniël for the response.

As per my response to Jwfrary below, I read this numbers from Victron Colour Control Monitor, that is essentially connected via data cable to 15.4kW BYD BatteryBox LiFePo4, so I suspect it's a direct reading from battery's management system.. Please also see the photo I attached in my previous post

The accuracy maybe not 100%, but should be pretty close, because in the last 15 hours (from 5pm yesterday to 8am today, with no AC load and no PV input, it's a shortest day of the year here in Australia today), my 15.4kWh battery got drained by 11%, which equals 1700Wh, or 113W per hour.

Sorry I'm kind of newbie in all this, The system was installed by local company (happy with everything, really great customer service), so I'll be in touch with them later today, but before doing that I was wondering if maybe I am missing something, or some settings are incorrect or maybe it's normal (shouldn't be!)



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Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ islander1717 commented ·

Hi @Islander1717

The Battery is not capable of measuring small currents accurately, so you'll need a good clamp meter (or a shunt) to accurately measure the real consumption.

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islander1717 avatar image islander1717 Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Thank you Daniël,

My local off-grid solar installer/electrician should come soon to finish the installation and I will mention my observations to him and ask him to do precise measurements at battery terminals.

Will report the outcome here! But so far I remain sceptical...


P.S. in the meantime, I've been researching and found another case like mine

https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/6893/no-load-idle-consumption-victron-quattro-481000014.html

https://www.photovoltaikforum.com/thread/110307-eigenverbrauch-victron-in-nulllast/?pageNo=2

https://powerforum.co.za/topic/2563-victron-solutions/?do=findComment&comment=41691


Unfortunately, in those cases the issue hasn't been resolved and the conclusion/outcome was that some Quattros consume almost twice as much as claimed in a their data sheet... Which makes me even more sceptical, but I'll wait to see what my installer/technician says.



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ogrt avatar image
ogrt answered ·

I have exactly the same issue, it can take 10% off my LVL 15.4 overnight. With quattro off Cerbo GX says power consumption is about 10W, that goes up to near 130W with the inverter on and the main circuit breaker disconnected so no power draw. It all stacks up with battery power and is not a reading error. The AES mode takes voltage down and reduces is to nearer 70W, sstil too high according to the spec. With Search mode it's much better but the hum of the unit kicking in and out every few seconds is not not ideal and I wonder if it limits the life of the unit. I'm on firmware 475. I'm not impressed and perhaps have been mis-sold. I should have gone for parallel 5k units and kept one turned off when not needed! I wondered if to but a low power inverter for overnight use, and wire the house to have a low power circuit to run fridges and routers. :(

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zac avatar image
zac answered ·

I have the same issue but mines drawing 100w dead on. I'm going to try installing new firmware and see if there is a configuration setting that needs changing. Very disappointed, I banked on a consumption of 60-70w, i've had to go back to my old inverter (35w idle) because 100w is crazy for idle.

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jd715 avatar image
jd715 answered ·

I am having the same issue unfortunately, Brand new system with no load is drawing on average 110w-120w DC Power overnight. This is draining approx 12-13% of my battery bank overnight with no ac load. is this a warranty issue?. False advertising? Replacement needed?

This excessive dc power drain would be my lighting usage overnight!

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iand avatar image
iand answered ·

There have been multiple reports of exactly this problem over the last couple of years. Every time Victron come back and ask the same questions, casting doubt on the accuracy of the measurements. Every time it turns out that they are accurate.

Victron admitted some time ago (but never "officially") that no-load power varied a lot from unit to unit, wasn't fixable in hardware or software, and that you should "take this up with your supplier to resolve the problem" -- which presumably means trying to persuade them to swap it out for another one in the hope that this is better, good luck with that ;-)

There was also a post saying that Victron had known for years that the data sheet was too optimistic for no-load power, but had never updated it. I note that the data sheet carefully omits to say if the numbers are typical/nominal or worst-case, so people assume they're what they'll actually get in real life -- but I guess that if the lawyers got involved Victron would say that they're nominal values and the data sheet doesn't say they're guaranteed, so tough...

(which would presumably be the response your supplier got if they tried to return it to Victron as faulty)

This really isn't good enough for a supposedly high-quality equipment supplier, if you're spending thousands of pounds/dollars you should get what the specification says, but looking back through this forum Victron come back with the same inadequate responses every time :-(

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