External Multiplus shut down

[JJJJ]

Recently someone I know had a business fire. The first thing the fire department did was pull the meter feed from the building.

I know that panels need a shut down. However, most battery fed systems could have an inverter still feeding lines in the house because the batteries are still active.

I have imagined a master electric shut down for the inverter to the critical load panel. That handles the lines in the house.

The challenge is the inverter is still active. I will be using a Multiplus. Has anyone found a good solution to this?

A battery shut down switch could be complicated due to the length and size of the wire needed.

 

[rmaddy]

A MultiPlus can be wired with a remote 3-way switch. This switch can be used to turn the inverter on, off, or put it in charger-only mode.

Or you can connect the Victron Multi Control panel which has such a switch plus indicator LEDs and a knob for controlling the AC-in amperage limit.

Either of these two use small wires since they are not connected to the main DC battery cable to the inverter. The disadvantage (depending on your needs) is that while one of these remotes lets you turn off the inverter's AC-out, the inverter is still connected to the battery.

 

[JJJJ]

Having the ability to turn off the inverter would significantly increases safety. Now if there were a way I could interlock this with a solar panel shut off switch that would be great

 

[740GLE]

Fire department is probably only aware of solar PV type disconnects installed by the meter, I’d say sticking to something similar would be what they are looking for and best bet they’d figure out during an event.

How far away from your main panel is the multiplus? Or is this a full off grid system with no service drop?

 

[JJJJ]

I find the manual referring to Module H. However I could not find a wiring schematic for a homemade switch. I found this on the Victron web site. Would it work?

 

[rmaddy]

That should work. You need a On-Off-On toggle or rocker switch wired to the "H" connector. One "on" would turn the inverter fully on. The other "on" would put the inverter in "charge-only" mode. And of course the "off" would turn the inverter off. With the remote switch in place you would turn inverter switch "B" to the ON position and then use the remote switch.

The following is an example of the toggle switch.

https://www.amazon.com/Baomain-Toggle-position-mounting-terminal/dp/B01MYXGGX5

Just search on "on-off-on toggle switch" or "on-off-on rocker switch".

 

[JJJJ]

If I look at the description properly, the middle position is off. The far left position is inverter on. The far right position is charger on.

If that is correct, then wiring the first and middle spots would give me a simple on off for the inverter. Is this correct or am I missing something obvious?

Thanks for all the feedback, very much appreciated!

 

[rmaddy]

If you have no need to ever put the inverter in charger-only mode then an on-off switch (instead of an on-off-on switch) wired to just two ("on" and "+") of the three points of the "H" connector should work. At least that's my understanding.

 

[JJJJ]

Thank you. The reason for this is that I am trying to design an external inverter shut down. If the meter is pulled, the inverter would still be feeding power to lines in the house. It was my hopes that this would enable an external shut off to de-energize the battery fed lines by shutting down the inverter.

 

[rmaddy]

It was my hopes that this would enable an external shut off to de-energize the battery fed lines by shutting down the inverter.

This external switch will turn off the inverter/charger meaning that no AC power would be going out of the inverter and the charger would stop trying to charge the batteries.