Newboy looking for a little advice.

[newtoallthis]

Hi,
I am the OP on this thread and I have returned to report on my action..
I installed a Victron Multiplus II 5000 VA with 4 x Pylontec Uc3000 batteries giving 14kWHr of storage.
With considerable support from the supplier we comissioned it yesterday as a whole-house UPS type ESS.
So far, so good.
The plan is to charge the batteries overnight on E7 during the winter and rely on the existing PV during summer.
The existing PV is 3.68KW but next year I will install around 5-6KW more and charge the batteries through MPPT chargers.
Thanks for the advice.

[Joeboy]

Hi,
I am the OP on this thread and I have returned to report on my action..
I installed a Victron Multiplus II 5000 VA with 4 x Pylontec Uc3000 batteries giving 14kWHr of storage.
With considerable support from the supplier we comissioned it yesterday as a whole-house UPS type ESS.
So far, so good.
The plan is to charge the batteries overnight on E7 during the winter and rely on the existing PV during summer.
The existing PV is 3.68KW but next year I will install around 5-6KW more and charge the batteries through MPPT chargers.
Thanks for the advice.

Massive congratulations, well done indeed and welcome to exciting satisfying times.

[Oldgreybeard]

Great news, I'm really interested to hear how you get on with the Victron Multiplus, as I keep looking at the same model and thinking it would be a better fit for our needs that the inverter/charger we have.

[nowty]

Hi,
I am the OP on this thread and I have returned to report on my action..
I installed a Victron Multiplus II 5000 VA with 4 x Pylontec Uc3000 batteries giving 14kWHr of storage.
With considerable support from the supplier we comissioned it yesterday as a whole-house UPS type ESS.
So far, so good.
The plan is to charge the batteries overnight on E7 during the winter and rely on the existing PV during summer.
The existing PV is 3.68KW but next year I will install around 5-6KW more and charge the batteries through MPPT chargers.
Thanks for the advice.

Your new battery storage has just busted us through a combined 3MWh of energy storage.
https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... 699#p22699

I was trawling through the entire membership yesterday and I came across your thread and thought, he aint reported back yet.
Now you have and all is good again.
Don't forget to report back next year on your next phase.

[openspaceman]

Great news, I'm really interested to hear how you get on with the Victron Multiplus, as I keep looking at the same model and thinking it would be a better fit for our needs that the inverter/charger we have.

Yes Newtoallthis you have got it all going while I vacillate over how to do much the same, this Victron inverter is what I am looking at but not sure of the implications to my FIT payments if I swap inverter.

[Countrypaul]

I too have been looking at the Victron for our next step.

As I understand it, you could feed the output of your inverter after your TGM into the Victron and it would not affect you FITS - please check this though (I want confirmation for one thing )

This is showing that arrangement witout the TGM: https://www.victronenergy.com/live/ac_coupling:start

[nowty]

Looks FIT friendly to me.

[Oldgreybeard]

I've been preparing the way for an increase in our PV capacity. Our existing PV system has been in since 2014, so gets the FiT and I didn't want to mess with that, so have just added cabling to a new RCBO in the consumer unit that will protect the second PV system. That bypasses the generation meter for the FiT system, so there's no risk of losing the FiT. Makes sense in terms of electrical safety to do it this way, too. Same goes for the battery system, that already connects to it's own separate RCBO, although there is no FiT complication as the battery inverter is set to zero export anyway.

[openspaceman]

I too have been looking at the Victron for our next step.

As I understand it, you could feed the output of your inverter after your TGM into the Victron and it would not affect you FITS - please check this though (I want confirmation for one thing )

This is showing that arrangement witout the TGM: https://www.victronenergy.com/live/ac_coupling:start

Yes this looks okay, with the meter after the inverter and before the load and Victron.

It would then sit in the place of the Growatt and hopefully run the growatt battery.

Is the DNO likely to accept its ability to limit export to 3.68kW if I add the new panels's 1.8kW? or must I still just couple the panels to the battery via the mppt charger? i.e. does this victron accept input from a string of PV, as I see it will accept the generator?

Also the Victron info says the PV power must not exceed the 5kVA it can cope with. Now as my panels are at right angles to each other they will never sum to 1.8+4=5.8kW but technically this exceeds the 5kVA.

BTW two of us (combined age 130year) managed to haul up and fix the first of the panels in the afternoon and, subject to weather, will get the next two up tomorrow.

I have found a new electrician who underwent the MCS assessment last week and fingers crossed he will be able to make the connection after Xmas.

[sharpener]

I too have been looking at the Victron for our next step.

As I understand it, you could feed the output of your inverter after your TGM into the Victron and it would not affect you FITS - please check this though (I want confirmation for one thing )

This is showing that arrangement witout the TGM: https://www.victronenergy.com/live/ac_coupling:start

Yes this looks okay, with the meter after the inverter and before the load and Victron.

It would then sit in the place of the Growatt and hopefully run the growatt battery.

Is the DNO likely to accept its ability to limit export to 3.68kW if I add the new panels's 1.8kW? or must I still just couple the panels to the battery via the mppt charger? i.e. does this victron accept input from a string of PV, as I see it will accept the generator?

Also the Victron info says the PV power must not exceed the 5kVA it can cope with. Now as my panels are at right angles to each other they will never sum to 1.8+4=5.8kW but technically this exceeds the 5kVA

I have my original 3.68 kW Steca inverters and FIT meter like this on the AC-Out of the Victron, no probs with DNO or FIT provider.

The DNO (WPD) wanted an export limit of 3.68kW AND the inverter power restricted to 3.68 kW as well.

They will not be happy with anything further connected on the AC side so I am currently in the process of adding 3.2kW of extra panels via an external Victron charge controller straight into the battery.

There is a Victron EasySolar which is basically the MultiPlus and an MPPT all in the one (larger) package but IIRC it does not have UK type approval.

Note also that ATM the MultiPlus is temporarily non-compliant resulting from a backlog at ENA reviewing technical submissions from many mfrs follwing the withdrawal of an obscure concession announced 2 yrs ago, see https://community.victronenergy.com/que ... tomer.html and several other threads on that board.

If the panels can't all generate at the same time the Victron cannot tell the difference and you will be fine with the notional 5.8kW.

HTH and well done @newtoallthis!