Victron Multiplus II - using battery rather than shore power

[Threeracers]

Another question for the Victron gurus here, when I am on shore power why does it use battery?

I connected my new system yesterday, charged up the batteries and when I went to bed it was on 100%. I left the fridge running on 12v and the screen showing a draw of approximately 155w DC power, the screen shows this coming from the batteries.

This morning the batteries are at 87%, depleted by supplying the DC overnight and shore power is showing just 28w.

I think I assumed that whilst on shore power that the batteries would just be kept topped off and the supply for use would be coming from the shore? At what point does the charger kick back in and is it possible to override that?

The reason I ask is that I am traveling in a few days time and will see EHU infrequently so I would prefer to set off with full batteries.

TIA

Mark

 

[Threeracers]

 

[gus-lopez]

Is the charger turned on?

 

[Threeracers]

Yes, green light for mains on and amber light for float mode.

I believe the settings on the switch are for on are either both charger and inverter or charger only?

 

[St3v3]

It says storage on your display, so the charger is definitely turned on.

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[Threeracers]

Although screen says “Storage” mode, is that clue to what I may have done wrong?

 

[Threeracers]

It says storage on your display, so the charger is definitely turned on.

Snap!

 

[St3v3]

I think the voltage has to drop more than it has to kick it back into charging again.

You could disable storage mode, but if it spends a long time on ehu, it wants to be on really.

 

[Ditcha]

You need to change the charger settings with VE config3 charge curve needs to be Fixed not Adaptive these are my settings for lithium.

 

[headlight]

Is the fridge 3 way ?
If it is you'll find it works better on gas than 12v.

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[buzz1]

I use my multiplus 2 when on ehu switched to charger position , and fridge on gas as someone else has stated.
Ditcha seem clued up more than

 

[Raul]

That DC load it’s definitely not the multiplus, it’s your fridge. Storage? That’s a bad setting, you should have the pass trough. If you are in storage mode it will ignore AC input, until reaches the threshold set on battery for the charger to kick in.
You never said you had battery monitor, in the other tread; do you have one? If you do set that one as visible on vrm and console.
I said to you to set it as stand alone hub1. Then set your charger for your batteries.

 

[Threeracers]

Well, rather frustratingly as I didn’t do anything so I don’t know why, but it seems to have settled down. I turned everything off to do a little cable management tidy up for a couple of hours and when I turned it back on it went straight into bulk mode. I have been using the inverter and AC and it all seems to be functioning. So goodness only knows what sent it into storage mode but at least I know that turning it off works. Isn’t that the go-to help desk advice?

But new problem, ten minutes into use the lights on the front showing inverter status went out. The charger side is fine, just the inverter? I suspect mine was made on a Friday afternoon……..

Thanks for the input everyone, you are helping with what is a steep learning curve!

Regards

Mark

 

[St3v3]

The inverter light has gone out because EHU is supplying the AC out direct, as it should.

 

[Threeracers]

Thank you, I guessed that was the case late last night! At first I thought it would idle but obviously it turns itself off.

Mark

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[Hoovie]

What can happen sometimes with the Multiplus is the when the EHU/Shore lead is plugged back in, the Multiplus, instead of kicking off a charge cycle by going into BULK mode, will settle in FLOAT (or maybe in STORAGE instead, depending on your config), despite the batteries needing charge.

I've not got to the bottom of why this happens and have not spotted the pattern of when you could expect this to happen, but it is certainly not a one-off or uncommon situation.
When I see this on my own system, I turn the Multiplus off, then back on. The act of turning it on makes it start off the normal routine. (I do this via VRM, but you do do this manually with the switch, via VE.Connect if you have the Smart Dongle, or Remote Control Panel if you have a GX device attached)

 

[Raul]

It’s the voltage set for rebulk that triggers storage mode. It should go to float if default value is changed to suit you battery type.

 

[Hoovie]

It’s the voltage set for rebulk that triggers storage mode. It should go to float if default value is changed to suit you battery type.

it is not the Float vs Storage thing I am referring to in my post.

 

[Raul]

it is not the Float vs Storage thing I am referring to in my post.

There are only two Storage terminologies used by victron. One is associated with ESS and grid, and the other it’s a charging mode selected in a charging profile. There are profiles without storage mode, or a custom profile that never goes to storage. Only bulk-absorb-float. The re bulk is triggered by rebulk voltage setting. This can sometimes trigger a different profile if not changed from default.
If I’m wrong, please elaborate what you meant. I’m willing to learn.

 

[Hoovie]

There are only two Storage terminologies used by victron. One is associated with ESS and grid, and the other it’s a charging mode selected in a charging profile. There are profiles without storage mode, or a custom profile that never goes to storage. Only bulk-absorb-float. The re bulk is triggered by rebulk voltage setting. This can sometimes trigger a different profile if not changed from default.
If I’m wrong, please elaborate what you meant. I’m willing to learn.

Raul, my post was NOTHING to do with Storage Mode! I am not interested in discussions about Storage Mode to be honest.

My post was about the following (which I will copy from that post) .... "What can happen sometimes with the Multiplus is when the EHU/Shore lead is plugged back in, the Multiplus, instead of kicking off a charge cycle by going into BULK mode, will settle in FLOAT (or maybe in STORAGE instead, depending on your config), despite the batteries needing charge".
It was a comment that sometimes, for reasons unknown to me, when you plug into EHU, the Multiplus does not start off a charge cycle i.e. Bulk-Absorption-Float, but bypasses that.
And if you switch off the MP and then on again, it WILL start the Charge Cycle.
Now I believe that this is nothing to do with settings but more of some programming glitch, due to the fact that power-cycling the Multiplus corrects this behaviour without doing any configuration changea or reprogramming, just switching it off and back on.

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[Raul]

We talkin* about the same thing, ( storage as in fourth stage of charging); change the re bulk value, and you will see that it will not skip bulk-absorb float. Yes, turning on-off the multi, will force it to start again in bulk, if settings allows it. And will skip it if your re bulk voltage is too high. Try it.
Also, on firmware 502 I think it’s disappeared from all charging presets.

 

[Hoovie]

We talkin* about the same thing, ( storage as in fourth stage of charging); change the re bulk value, and you will see that it will not skip bulk-absorb float. Yes, turning on-off the multi, will force it to start again in bulk, if settings allows it. And will skip it if your re bulk voltage is too high. Try it.
Also, on firmware 502 I think it’s disappeared from all charging presets.

I still see it as a bug when if you plug in EHU, your battery charger does not start the charge process/sequence. Simple as that. And my point was that and nothing else.

 

[Bessy765]

With our Victron 12/2000/80 inverter charger, you can select how many amps from the shore power such as low amperage aires in France. If you say set it at 4 amps incoming, and the inverter will top up any extra demand. We have found such as on a 12 ferry crossing we put the inverter on and the fridge on mains as this is temp controlled and will only draw current when needed where as 12 volt is continuous and can be up to 17 amps.

 

[Lenny HB]

We have found such as on a 12 ferry crossing we put the inverter on and the fridge on mains as this is temp controlled and will only draw current when needed where as 12 volt is continuous and can be up to 17 amps.

I don't see what difference that would make apart from the 12v element being a bit smaller than the 240v one.

 

[Bessy765]

The 12 volt element is unregulated the 240 is. Now done it on four long crossing Portsmouth to St Malo around 12 hours. 2 at 12, & 2 at 240, each time the batteries were at a 100% percent when boarding. Even allowing for losses through the inverter conversion. We have 2 x 100 Transporter Lithium at 100% charge to start. 82% (240) 71% (12)

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