question

@philipl MPPTs will always charge the batteries first. If you need AC loads to take priority from solar, a grid-tie inverter would be the best solution.

You need to look at Victron's energy storage info.

https://www.victronenergy.com/search/?q=self+consumption

You will need to install an ESS assistant onto the Multiplus. You may need an energy meter depending on your system setup.

Then set the battery state in the ESS to "self consumption".

The ESS gives you get further options on the Venus controller. Here you can set times for batteries to charge.

Hi,

I have not been able to get this to work. The system is already set to self consumption but it stil uses power from the solar panels in the morning to first charge the batteries for an hour or two.

Can someone please give me some specific details on how to try and change this.

Thank you very much.

I think I have an idea of what it may be. Under settings, ESS, Mode is set to "optimized with battery life"

Minimum SOC and Active SOC was set to 20%, but then after a while the system sets active SOC to 25%. That may be why the system is charging the batteries first thing in the morning. I will now set it to "optimized without battery life" and see if it makes a difference.

The batteries are fully charged every day by around 12 or 1pm, so there shouldn't be any reason to raise the active SOC.

I changed to optimized without battery life and set SOC to 20%, but again this morning, the first 1.5kwh that was generated by the PV panels went to charge the battery, and at the same time 1.5kwh was pulled from the grid to power the AC loads. So this is still not working.

Does anyone have more details or suggestion on how to program the system so that Solar power is ALWAYS used FIRST to power AC loads, and only then if there is power left to charge the batteries?

Thanks

Have a similar problem, got around it by installing a contactor on the inverter ac supply - controlled via one of the relays - on the MPPT, inverter or CCGX/Venus

i have the same question like you! snow rider 3d

Is "Scheduled charging" active in the ESS settings (lowest menu item in ESS)? During the period of scheduled charging, the load is supplied from the mains.

If you are not using the ESS there is the Virtual Switch you can use to ignore the AC input. You can use the AC input again based on a condition you can set, this can be voltage but also SOC.

Rob

Hello Together!

I totally agree with the problem of Philipl. Also in my opinion this makes no sense, but nobody understand it correct!

The problem is not the SOC Level or this 5% Hysteresis.
It's okay if during the night the Batterie stops at 20% and in the morning it should be charged to 25%...
BUT the Problem is, if the AC Loads are higher then the Solar-energy!
For example:
Solar 2kW, AC Out 4kW.
So the Batterie is charged to 25%, Multiplus switch to inverter mode and the 4kW are comeing from the Batterie. The Grid has in this time nothing to do!
But because of only 2kW Solar Energy, the Batterie will reach again the 20%. Then Inverter Stops again and repeat it. The Full Solar Power will be used to charge the Batterie to 25% and all the 4kW are used now from the Grid...Why??? We reach 25%, after this discharge to 20%, again again again. This makes absolutely no sense! Why i should charge the Batterie, and don't use the energy direct for the house!
I understand the Problem, because at the end of the day this is correct. So System will assist the AC-Out always from the Batterie. For this we have the Batterie. But the start in the morning is an different Situation! We cannot put any energy from Solar to the Batteries, before the Solar is higher then the ACOut.

FIRST must be the AC Output, so the internal LOADS from the House are used from Solar Power. If i have 4kW in the House and 2kW from Solar, i can use 2kW from Solar and 2kW from Grid. 0 Ampere from Batterie. Why we need to charge Battery?
If the Solar Power will reach for example 5kW, then we can use 4kW for house, 1kW for charging!
This means the Start-up procedure during the morning is wrong in my eyes.

I understand it's difficult to descripte and change software but i have 2 ways:
-Maybe can we adjust somehow the 5% Hysteresis? So If we maybe just use 10%, then the SOC Limit need to reach a higher level and batteries have more KWH saved, then we can start to use the Batterie during Solar Power goes down. So we can adapt for each System, depending on their output level!
-Best Idea would be to block charging in a time window. The same like the "planned charging" i want an "planned blocked charging" . If i can just block the charging until 10 o'clock in the morning it will be fine. Or just block charging if Solar Power is not higher then 5kW....If its 4kW, then it should run into the AC Out and not in the Batteries!
This value need to be adjusted to the "Standby-Power" from each house. If the Standby is 1kW, then we never start charging before 1kW Solar Power!

For me is this problem really important. Please take attention!
Best regards
Kevin

I have Multiplus I (the old one) + pylontech + cerbo : with default settings, loads are always powered in priority, regardless the SOC (thus I set the min SOC to 10%). If PVPow > Load, batteries are charged with the difference, otherwise, the difference is drawn from the batteries. I (manually but this should change soon) connect to grid only on very cloudy-rainy days, and in such a case loads have always the priority. I also manage a 1200W water heater with Nodered (rpi 4) and Tasmota, so that the heater never uses energy from the batteries or from the grid.

So how we can solve this issue? Is there any Bug-Fix planned?

Do we have any solution?

Fascinating discussion. Very interesting. I may have problems and not even know it.