Small project in Mexico

[troye]

I am trying to determine which Victron to use for a battery backup (to later become a small solar system) for my house in Mexico. There are no Victron consultants available to me, other than forums, and others seem generally unsure. I have 240 split phase as two 120 legs in my breaker box. The left leg has breakers for both the fridge and freezer. These 2 appliances are what i want to start out backing up, due to hurricanes causing outages for 2-3 weeks in their aftermaths. On the right leg i have a 40 amp breaker for my incoming generator that is in a structure 6 meters from my house. It generates 240v for all the 110 appliances with breakers on the left leg, and 3 air conditioners with breakers on the right leg in the breaker box. Is there a single Victron that will allow me to back up the left leg (and acting as a UPS for this leg at other times) at night after hurricanes and in the day will allow the generator to run the house while charging the batteries? And with this single Victron, can i later add another in parallel to incorporate the right leg's air conditioners with more batteries, and then even later many solar panels?

 

[timselectric]

FYI
Left side and right side breakers are not left leg and right leg.
The two legs are Alternating top to bottom.

 

[timselectric]

You will have to add a sub panel for the 120v loads you want to feed from the 120v inverter.
It can't be connected to one leg of the 240v loads.

 

[Rocketman]

Going Victron for a house - here is what I would do:
End goal:
48v batteries- look at the rack mounted lithium’s 100ah.
Two Multiplus II 48/5000 inverter/chargers. (This will give you the 240v power).
SCC MPPT’s appropriate for your solar plans -

So if that’s the end goal.
For now…
One Multiplus II 48/5000
One 48v battery rack mounted + the rack.

Other assorted stuff for now:
Two Victron PowerIn’s w/fuses (see YouTube), one for battery bus bar and one for load bus bar.
Shunt - Smartshunt or BMV712 or Lynx
Class T fuse if not using Lynx
Cerbo & Touch + needed cables.

Start with the end in mind. That way as funds become available, you add another battery, add solar, add the second Multiplus, add more solar, add more battery, etc. The framework is already setup (in fact have a taped section for each item you will need). Also, when you add the air conditioners to the Victron- look at getting Micro Air EZ starts on the compressors. The inverter will thank you.

Hopefully this was what you were looking for.

Good Luck!

 

[troye]

Going Victron for a house - here is what I would do:
End goal:
48v batteries- look at the rack mounted lithium’s 100ah.
Two Multiplus II 48/5000 inverter/chargers. (This will give you the 240v power).
SCC MPPT’s appropriate for your solar plans -

So if that’s the end goal.
For now…
One Multiplus II 48/5000
One 48v battery rack mounted + the rack.

Other assorted stuff for now:
Two Victron PowerIn’s w/fuses (see YouTube), one for battery bus bar and one for load bus bar.
Shunt - Smartshunt or BMV712 or Lynx
Class T fuse if not using Lynx
Cerbo & Touch + needed cables.

Start with the end in mind. That way as funds become available, you add another battery, add solar, add the second Multiplus, add more solar, add more battery, etc. The framework is already setup (in fact have a taped section for each item you will need). Also, when you add the air conditioners to the Victron- look at getting Micro Air EZ starts on the compressors. The inverter will thank you.

Hopefully this was what you were looking for.

Good Luck!

Very helpful, thanks for taking the time! I am probably going with a Ruixu 48v server rack battery for this initial phase of the build, but you read my mind regarding the end hoal. Do you see the Multiplus being able to switch from grid power to the generator (i will be manually doing this) with how it is wired to the breaker box? Or would the Quattro be needed? Anyway, thank again

 

[OffGridForGood]

I am trying to determine which Victron to use for a battery backup (to later become a small solar system) for my house in Mexico.

Sounds like a question for @sunshine_eggo to me!

 

[sunshine_eggo]

This might be a job for a 2x120 designed for 50A RVs.

It accepts L1-N-L2 input.
Passes L1-N-L2 to loads and charges from L1.
Can provide powerassist on L1
When L2 input is not present, it shorts L1 and L2 and provides 120V to both legs, but 0V between, so ALL 120V are backed up, but no 240V gets power.

It would be:

Generator ->Multplus->panel

I know that these can be paralleled to add power, but I do NOT know if they will scale like the standard multiplus with two - one on each leg providing split phase power.

 

[Rocketman]

The issue I would see going the Multiplus 2x120v is that it only produces 120v on both legs in inverter mode. So if in inverter mode he could not run the air conditioning (240v). Yes you can stack something like 6 of them, but it won’t help with his goals.

The Quattro would also be an excellent choice (probably better choice) because then he can connect the generator straight to the Quattro along with grid power. And he won’t need an extra transfer switch - like he would with Multiplus II’s.

 

[troye]

The issue I would see going the Multiplus 2x120v is that it only produces 120v on both legs in inverter mode. So if in inverter mode he could not run the air conditioning (240v). Yes you can stack something like 6 of them, but it won’t help with his goals.

The Quattro would also be an excellent choice (probably better choice) because then he can connect the generator straight to the Quattro along with grid power. And he won’t need an extra transfer switch - like he would with Multiplus II’s.

Hi, so using one Quattro 5000va i could run a few appliances for now as hurricane backup, and have the generator charge batteries during day? And then later add a quattro in parallel and extra batteries to run air conditioning ? How much do you think would be reasonable to be charged to have this first phase of 1Quattro with generator wired into my breaker box? This is my next big mystery.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Hi, so using one Quattro 5000va i could run a few appliances for now as hurricane backup, and have the generator charge batteries during day? And then later add a quattro in parallel and extra batteries to run air conditioning ? How much do you think would be reasonable to be charged to have this first phase of 1Quattro with generator wired into my breaker box? This is my next big mystery.

You will have to add a sub panel for the 120v loads you want to feed from the 120v inverter.
It can't be connected to one leg of the 240v loads.

Per above, you would divert all of the circuits you want to power from your main panel to a second panel.

The Quattro would then power those legs and/or pass through incoming AC to them and act as UPS backup, and a suitable breaker/wiring in the main panel to power the Quattro AC input 1. Since you presumably already have a transfer switch to select grid or generator to power the main panel, I would argue a Quattro is not needed, and the aforementioned MP-II 48/5kVA would suffice.

 

[Rocketman]

One other option (for easier wiring). Get both Quattros now. Then the Quattros output goes to your breaker box, and you move the generator &grid to the Quattros inputs. Then everything is being ran through the Quattros- but until you add more batteries- during a power outage you would have to be very careful to not overload the battery.

I have no clue how much it would cost for an electrician.

Also, you need to verify a 48/5000 Quattro will provide enough power for your house - while I think it would - I don’t know your loads.

In a project like this there are many slightly different paths - good luck picking the best path for you! (Hey that’s a good analogy for life too).