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Hi there.
When I am charging batteries from the altenator, it shows the power going from the DC system to the batteries. This is shown as a negative number.
What this does on VRM is remove the watt hours from the consumption as opposed to being included as a generation. This means that the daily consumption isn't accurate when I run the engine.
Is it possible that when the DC power is negative, the system tracks the altentator power generation?
Currently the Orion DC chargers don't track this info, and I see the same effects as you. If you have an isolated negative wire in your alternator connection you could use a SmartShunt or other VE battery monitor, and set the mode to DC Meter (I think theres an alternator type option once selected).
You could play around in the VictronConnect demo section to see!
@Lawrence Craig great question! The solution however isn’t software based. To get accurate consumption (or generation) stats you need to redesign the power system. This means separating the load from sources of power (I.e., alternator,solar, and charger) and installing an addition shunt in and configuring it as a DC System Energy Meter. This is recognised by VRM and will give you accurate consumption regardless of what other energy sources are doing. You can then install an additional dc meter on the negative alternator feed to tell you what is being generated. The key to this is physically separating the power generators from the power consumers.
