Ronski's Solar & battery DIY build with whole house backup

Ron-ski · 4 Feb 2023 at 16:14

The battery is alive!

Just 0.004v cell deviation, not bad considering I took delivery in August and they haven't been balanced or even been charged.

Ron-ski · 4 Feb 2023 at 17:37

I'll go through all the settings later, luckily my phone can still connect to the BMS when I'm sat in the office, which will make things easier, as I can easily look up anything I'm not sure about.

Ron-ski · 5 Feb 2023 at 09:56

Troop said:
Your balance needs to be turned on

Balancing was turned on in the settings, but no point balancing at 3.289v, I have balancing set to start at 3.45v which will be what the cells are charged to, so they will balance during absorption.

Here's what I have this morning, hopefully it all looks correct.

Ron-ski · 5 Feb 2023 at 13:46

Troop said:
Top right on the your pic, it is showing balance turned off in the menu, go to control, make sure the balance toggle is turned on.
When turned on it will always show as on, but only balance to your chosen setting/config (just means the balance function is enabled)

That is the way it works, it is turned on, but if I change the balance settings so that it will balance then it shows either "Discharging", "Charging" or "Off" depending on what its doing (I can see which cell it is balancing in the list), if the balancing criteria is not met then it will show "Balance: off"

This is the control settings

@Mafia_GF Yes I will be using ESS, be interesting to hear what issues you had and what you did to resolve, either post here or ping me an email.

Precharge fitted, added a neat little volt meter, voltage dropped as I switched the inverter but had turned on the isolator.

Ron-ski · 5 Feb 2023 at 15:22

@Mafia_GF Cerbo is set up, ET112 is connected, just setting up the ESS assistant. Only concern at moment is that it will see the PV production from the SolarEdge system, but it can't see the full picture, as the inverter isn't connected in the mains yet. This is why the VRM (link below) always shows full usage of the solar production at the moment.

@Troop Must just be different firmware, I don't think I specifically bought the heat version, but then the options wasn't straightforward. Not sure if I'll use the heat option or go about it another way. From what I read the BMS doesn't turn the heating on until it reaches the lower cut off temperature, at which point it turns off charging until its heated up tot the recovery temperature. Something I need to look into.

Ron-ski · 5 Feb 2023 at 17:18

I have the BMS set to not charge below 3c, hopefully the weather will start warming up soon, and then it will give me time to sort out the heating. I do need to go through all settings, double check them.

I currently have two Victron sensors connected to the Cerbo, they currently read 11 (in the garage) and 12c (outside), the BMS reads 9.7 and 9.8, the weather station says its 5.7c, and my infrared gun says the outside Victron sensor is 3.2c :confused:

So I need to find a calibrated temperature gauge, and work what the correct value is, I think the Victron sensors are reading too high and the infrared gun too low.

Just realised I've got a temperature probe on my new UT213C meter, I'll have to leave the probe in the garage and see what that reads later.

I checked the voltages earlier, they all look pretty much spot on, just the MPPT read a little higher than the shunt.

BMS 52.42v
MMPT's 52.51v
Lynx Shunt 52.25v

Meters at battery terminals:

UT213C 52.4v
UT70A 52.2v

Ron-ski · 5 Feb 2023 at 18:10

Mafia_GF said:
There are so many questionable settings when using the BMS, I think the way forward to to use what has been setup on the JK, then transpose these into the ESS.

This is my thinking to, the BMS controls when the battery is shut off etc, so the settings in the rest of the system has to be based on those.

I'm wondering how the cut off settings in the ESS work, presumably it will turn off the DC side, but still pass through the grid if these conditions are met.

I'm putting a spreadsheet of all the settings together, then I can easily look up and see what needs matching up.

PS. Be interesting to hear what Victron come back with.

Ron-ski · 5 Feb 2023 at 18:59

Thanks for the info, I'll have a read later, and digest.

Ron-ski · 6 Feb 2023 at 13:25

News Flash

Electrician is booked for 21 & 22 of this month, so that gives me two weekends to get things ready, don't think there is much actually left to do.

Ron-ski · 6 Feb 2023 at 21:07

Mafia_GF said:
What you can do, download VE.Config then go to the VRM Portal.. then to Devices and then you can Download the config off the Quatro/Multi and amend it off-line with VE.Config and then Upload this.. I did this and changed the 0.005C & 0.25C by 1V.. not much..

I can connect to the inverter and download the config file, which I can then open in Victron Connect. But not sure how to do this with VE Configure 3, where the ESS assistant is setup - I can do this whilst connected to the inverter directly, but can it be done offline?

What's the 0.005C & 0.25C your refer to?

Ron-ski · 7 Feb 2023 at 13:12

@Mafia_GF yes makes sense, just need to find that download option. I'll take another look tonight, thanks.

Ron-ski · 7 Feb 2023 at 18:56

@Mafia_GF Got it, needed to enable VRM two-way communication, without that turned on you don't get the Remote VEConfigure option.

VRM: Remote VEConfigure [Victron Energy]

www.victronenergy.com

Ron-ski · 7 Feb 2023 at 20:12

@Mafia_GF There's certainly a lot to set up, and its a little confusing as to what controls what when using ESS Assistant.

What did you set repeated absorbtion interval and repeated absorbtion time to? I left it at the default of 7 days and 1 hour, although I'm not really clear what its going to do.

Ron-ski · 8 Feb 2023 at 19:21

@Mafia_GF I understand what the absorption time is for, its just the repeated absorption interval and repeated time I don't get. It should happen whenever the battery is fully charged, not on a schedule, this appears to be something left over from lead acid batteries.

Has anyone found how to disable "Repeated absorption" with Blue Smart IP22 12 | 30 chargers with Lithium batteries? - VictronEnergy

community.victronenergy.com

I think I'll just set it to 45 days.

Don't you need another 12 cells to make a pack of 16?

Once I'm up and running and saved up a bit of cash I will be adding another battery, my inverter really needs two batteries to meet peak power demand.

Ron-ski · 9 Feb 2023 at 10:16

Bug One said:
Have you actually left him anything to do? Gonna be his easiest visit of the week.

There's a fair bit to do, the redirected mains has to be plumbed in both ends. Due to this I need a new consumer unit in the house, as it's not up to current standards, which means everything needs testing. Also a new consumer unit in the garage, some switch gear to by pass the inverter should the need arise- if the inverter doesn't work it won't pass power through to the house, so we need an emergency bypass. He'll also test the panels, and run cables in to my isolators. Hopefully it's just two days work, there is two of them.

@Elkcarcx I've sent you a PM.

Ron-ski · 12 Feb 2023 at 19:01

I've now first fixed all my new sockets & fused spurs, new conduit installed, holes drilled where required, so that's already for the electricians to run in the new cables.

I've cut, drilled all the spacers, and trial fitted a panel, good job I did as the ones with the spacers will need longer bolts.

Ron-ski · 17 Feb 2023 at 17:41

Little update on my smart meter debacle, I emailed Octopus a few days ago, asking who to complain to, as we are now at 19 weeks since I raised the issue. They have now raised a complaint, and looks like they have instructed their engineers to replace the meters and tails as I also requested a meter tail upgrade (which prior Googling suggests is free) to 25mm2.

So hopefully new working meters will be installed soon, along with new tails, so if I need a DNO fuse upgrade in the future it is ready.

Ron-ski · 19 Feb 2023 at 17:28

I had a day off yesterday, and went up to London for the day with the wife and kids.

Back to work today though, new outside socket put on the wall, with internal conduit fitted, that was the last thing to prep for the garage wiring.

Some brackets made and bolted to the frames for securing the MC4 connectors between the panels. I fitted four panels, MC4's are just capped off so the panels can be tested on Tuesday.

Still getting a fair bit of shading from a neighbours tree around the middle of the day, the picture below was taken at 15:40.

I think pretty much everything is done ready for electricians on Tuesday, couple of little bits I need to pickup tomorrow and fit though, hopefully haven't forgotten anything.

Ron-ski · 19 Feb 2023 at 18:05

I think I'll pass on that, may be if I was younger I would install full systems in conjunction with an electrician. But I suffer with knee problems, and at the moment they are hurting quite a bit, kneeling down, or climbing up and down ladders aggravates them.

Ron-ski · 21 Feb 2023 at 07:27

Well, the big day has finally arrived, electricians due in about half an hour

Looks like I missed that 22 December deadline by two months.