Victron

paddyman

Hi guys, iI am getting solar installed and I am interested in going Victron for added functionality of powering the house from the battery when ppossible.

Is anyone able to PM the name of installers who would operate in Wexford and know Victron equipment?.

Many thanks

Paddy

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122847165#Comment_122847165

Not sure if you are aware, but pretty much any hybrid inverter can power the house from the battery. Hope that helps.

paddyman

Thanks Unkel. Yes i am aware, i have used Victron in the past on another project and really liked them. I want to do this once and do it right, i know its quality stuff.

By the way, you particularly and ELM have me going down the rabbit hole of researching DIY'ing batteries for my solar setup instead of buying retail units….

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122855222#Comment_122855222

This might help

https://www.victronenergy.com/where-to-buy

Any electrician can do the installation, it's the sales and commission part that you'd likely need help with

Most Victron dealerships in Ireland seem targeted towards campervans, but it's worth chatting to them since they could point you in the right direction

FJJD

@the_amazing_raisin I had the same question about the EN50549-1, did you get an answer? I have an easy-solar II 5000 and would be great to get an NC6 on it.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123274632#Comment_123274632

Your biggest problem is finding an electrician willing to submit the NC6

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123274863#Comment_123274863

That and the fact Victron gear probably never pays for itself 😂

I remember looking at something that could do 16kw and was silly money

FJJD

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123274863#Comment_123274863

I have someone who said he will, but I'm pretty sure he hasn't looked at the data sheet because it's over 50 amps, I don't think the ESB will accept

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123275524#Comment_123275524

A lot of the paperwork and testing has changed in the last year or two. There is a lot more to it now. Are you sure your sparks is up to speed on the latest requirements?

FJJD

Hard to know, but I know myself that it's over 50amps, so likely that rules out.

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123275652#Comment_123275652

That is nc7 territory for sure

eiritated

I'm about to go ahead with Quattro-II 5kVA with the intention of splitting off essential loads. My electrician (RECI/SEAI) has NC6 approval.

Solar PV on the DC side with Victron MPPT and Dyness batteries (I am not comfortable with DIY battery; at least not for now!)

There will be a firefighter switch (normally closed) in our meter cabinet as a fail-safe to the remote switch of the Inverter to shut the AC output. I also understand there will be a separate earthing arrangement but honestly I don't understand it.

With everything swirling around about generators, gateways, firefighter/ESB safety, home insurance…. do you all think we are missing a risk here?

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123388299#Comment_123388299

I'm not sure what you mean by the electrician having NC6 approval, you mean they are okay with putting the NC6 form in for a Victron Quattro?

I wouldn't be 100% convinced that wiring the firefighter switch into the inverter off switch will be okay. Typically I think it will need to completely isolate the inverter and solar panels from the rest of the house

A better approach might be to bring the inverter output to a changeover switch near the meter cabinet which allows you to power the house from the Always on output of the Quattro (AC Out 1 as I recall?)

So if there's a power cut you'll need to go out and manually turn the power back on. This is a safer approach I think

The reason for a seperate earth is because the changeover switch must completely isolate your house from the grid including earth. So you'll need an earth of your own to deal with any electrical faults

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123388382#Comment_123388382

You can do that with a contactor if your inverter supports this. Not sure if Victron do. But it is exactly what I have implemented with my Sunsynk (=Deye). It provides (if ticked) a "signal island mode" signal when the grid goes down. My contactor then bonds earth and neutral of the EPS (and unbonds when the grid comes back)

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123388480#Comment_123388480

Ah that's interesting, could potentially simplify a setup where you want power if the grid goes down

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123388382#Comment_123388382

Interesting about isolating the earth on the grid side, thought you only switch L and N at the changeover switch and earth is always common.

So if you don't have a separate earth rod for offgrid then what, you're not compliant with ESB regs? Really doubt anyone has that setup.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123388638#Comment_123388638

Yeah, power never really goes down where I am, but if it did, at least I would setup a proper CU with an RCBO connected to the inverter's EPS

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123388690#Comment_123388690

I'm not sure tbh, when I was looking at getting a changeover switch fitted they just said Live and Neutral need to be isolated but other posters have recently mentioned needing earth isolation as well

I get the feeling it's installers being paranoid more than anything. A bit like EV chargers in the UK requiring a separate earth rod a few years ago, it seemed more like a "just in case" rather than based on fact

I guess there's a non zero chance that during a power cut you might trip an RCBO to ground at the same instance some grid side fault was also going to ground and you could overwhelm the earth wire? Seems pretty unlikely though

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123388884#Comment_123388884

I suppose yeah it can be as redundancy but the inverter has some sort of earth fault detection, but not sure what it does in case it does detect it.

Do have rcbos on the eps port and grid ports so perhaps is enough?

eiritated

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123388382#Comment_123388382

Yes, sorry for being unclear. I have a successful NC6 approval (MEC shows as applied) for the 5kVA Quattro-II 48/5000.

I can find out more details from the electrician on the earthing. I believe he may indeed be isolating all 3. There is certainly an earth rod going in.

For the isolation all of these renewables are in a separate shed about 45m from the house, i.e. inverter, batteries, PV, as I didn't want anything in the house primarily for safety (I admit this might be too much but it makes us feel safe). I also didn't want any noise from the inverter, nor had we the space TBH. (This distance may account for the separate earth rod?)

I am so grateful for all of your suggestions and commentary. I don't pretend to understand all of this myself.

eiritated

I should have said too we have between 10-15 power interrupts a year. We live rurally. Many times they aren't obviously related to weather. We wanted PV and batteries anyway so the investment to add resiliency to our power is worth it to us especially as we don't have mobile signal either indoors! (Or useful mobile data outdoors!)

eiritated

If it’s of interest to anyone we’ve this installed only 3-4 weeks now. Its main use case for us is grid instability. We’ve had 2 power cuts since it went in but both were imperceptible in the house. Whether they’ll all be like that, time will tell.

It’s a lovely system as a user. Well documented, great community, great for anyone technical too as lots of interfaces exposed for things like Home Assistant. The Victron portal (VRM) is responsive, looks great and is free.

Happy to answer any questions I can - this was all fitted by highly experienced electrician so I don’t fully know all the details from that perspective though!

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123723230#Comment_123723230

What have you installed and size…is it a multiplus II or Quattro..Im presuming its the 5 kVA ones if you have it installed already.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123723230#Comment_123723230

Glad you got it implemented, seems a perfect fit for your situation. And yes the Victrons are king when it comes to grid outages. They have the shortest switch over time in the business

I managed to get a Quattro 10000VA earlier this year. Perfect kit to run any full size home off. Unfortunately the size of it and the size of my battery (which need to be located close to each other) meant I would have to do a massive re-wire job to use it. So I had to let it go

I have to admit I have been warming to Victron products over the last few years, expensive as they are. I currently have 3 solar charge controllers and a battery charger in my house and a solar charge controller and powerful inverter in my campervan. And thinking of expanding it all the time. Not a fan of their comms via cable ways though. I have been mostly avoiding that…

ECO_Mental

@eiritated apologies should have read a couple of posts up to see you've installed a 5KVA Quattro and it's working great. Im in the process of an NC7 application and planning to install the 15kVA Quattro but im getting caught up with this ESBN Low Carbon Register where it needs to get accepted on to this first. Its taking months...I've my supplier\consultant doing this as he's an authorised dealer so it's in his interest. I think we are nearly there but im.just itching to get mine installed. It'll be another few months at least because I've not even started the actual NC7 process...it's submitted but need to pass this first.

Good thing is for everyone else once it's registered then the NC7 application should be quicker as the lads in ESB won't have to do any technical review of the inverter.

paddyman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123723928#Comment_123723928

Hi Eco - i am far from an expert on this, but another very knowledgeable Boardsie in his NC7 application thread advised that if you are going for an NC7 you are better of going 3 x 5kva rather than 1 x 15kva. This was due to harmonics testing that ESB will review on the inverter for NC7. You will more likely to get a higher export limit allowed with 3x5kva versus 1x15kva.

Just something to consider.

Paddy

paddyman

If it helps anyone, the Enniskillen based solar installer that has been recommended a few times in Boards.ie have no issues installing Victron equipment. They engage another company to supply / configure / program the Victron equipment, but they handle the install.

Just had a system installed and everything went smoothly enough. There was one delay caused because a specific cable was needed to program the inverter setup which was lost and needed to be reordered. This wasted a week…

I am really happy with the setup but we installed it in the attic above a bedroom and the Multiplus is a bit loud under load and can be heard overnight, especially while charging the battery @2am. Will have to look into some sound proofing.

Edit: One small thing is Victron apparently don't officially support forced battery export. There are ways to do it with Node Red scripting, but i have yet to try this. However there are threads documenting this in the Victron community.

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123726869#Comment_123726869

Victron has a feature call Dynamic ESS that supports energy trading allowing to force export..it's fairly detailed.