Victron SmartShunt

[Infinity31]

I'm looking to fit a shunt, I've not seen a connector block like this before and wondered if it was just a case of replacing it with the shunt?

The Black and White wires would connect together with the other two cables on the load/system side of the shunt.

 

[cmcardle75]

To my mind, what you have there is a shunt already installed. You could put your new shunt in series or remove the old one if the monitor that is currently using it is no longer needed.

 

[eddie]

That is a shunt!

 

[Guigsy]

I guess your control panel is able to tell you the current going into and out of the battery? That's because it's using the shunt you've already got fitted.

The advantage of the Victron Smart Shunt is that it uses that current (and voltage?) information to continuously add up the energy going out of the battery to estimate how much you've got left.

 

[Infinity31]

Thanks all, now you mention it It's obvious it's a shunt

I guess your control panel is able to tell you the current going into and out of the battery? That's because it's using the shunt you've already got fitted.

The advantage of the Victron Smart Shunt is that it uses that current (and voltage?) information to continuously add up the energy going out of the battery to estimate how much you've got left.

The control panel only shows the voltage and a crude bar graph for %age charge.
As you say the Smart Shunt should give more information and hopefully a more accurate indication of the the usage and SOC

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[Guigsy]

In my previous 5.4m Ducato panel van, I had a 100Ah battery and I didn't really know how much I was using it. All I had was an analogue voltmeter on the panel. I also had a large solar panel. But I was getting paranoid that I was draining the battery all the time.

I bought a Victron BMV (before the Smartshunt was available). I quickly discovered that it bit of a waste of money... turns out my usage was very low and the solar panel had always recharged the battery by 11am. In hindsight, my fridge was 3-way, I didn't have a TV and rarely ran the invertor to recharge my laptop. My usage was basically charging USB devices and LED lighting. I'd rarely drop the battery below 90%.

 

[autorouter]

You could add the SmartShunt in series with the existing shunt. Remove the wires on the left terminal of the existing shunt, and connect them to the load terminal of the SmartShunt. Then connect the SmartShunt battery terminal to the left terminal of the existing shunt.

If you do it that way, all the battery current still flows through both shunts in turn, so both will register the correct amps. You will need to redo the crimp terminal on the left hand wire, because the SmartShunt takes M10 eyelets, not M 8.

 

[Infinity31]

You could add the SmartShunt in series with the existing shunt. Remove the wires on the left terminal of the existing shunt, and connect them to the load terminal of the SmartShunt. Then connect the SmartShunt battery terminal to the left terminal of the existing shunt.

If you do it that way, all the battery current still flows through both shunts in turn, so both will register the correct amps. You will need to redo the crimp terminal on the left hand wire, because the SmartShunt takes M10 eyelets, not M 8.

Extremely well spotted, I'd noted the M10 - M 8 discrepancy. I think I'll probably wire in series and keep the original control panel operational.