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Thoughts on Generator Auto-Start/Stop Voltage?

TonyRumore

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Dec 13, 2021
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I have an off-grid cabin running a 24 volt split-phase Victron system and I'm getting ready to wire up my Honda EU7000IS generator to auto start/stop when the Lifepo4 batteries are about dead. I'm not sure at what voltage I should start the generator and what voltage to stop it. I don't want to run it any longer than need be, since if the sun comes out, my PV will do a full charge in about 5 hours. Thoughts?

Tony
 
Do you have a Victron shunt on the system?
Do you have a GX device- Cerbo?

State of charge works much better than battery voltage. Because a large load can drive the battery voltage down. Then you start a microwave and the generator starts…

A Cerbo has an assistant (mini program) for Generator start/stop. Start at say 25% - stop at 50%. Also can add if watts are over ____w start and stop once they are below____w.

If going on battery voltage I would start at 13.0v (26v) and stop at 13.6v (27.2v). But I don’t think that works very well. - it will probably run the generator longer than you want.
 
I have a Cerbo GX and a Victron Smart Shunt. For whatever reason, the percent-of-charge has never worked correctly, hence my desire to use voltage instead. When the batteries are down to about 24 volts or so (dead) the Cerbo is showing them at 55%. I probably have a setting jacked up, but I can't figure it out.
 
Take a photo of your Smartshunt settings - I am sure one or two settings are off. Let’s see if we can get the state of charge working well…

If reasonably correct the state of charge will be much better than voltage.
 
Sounds good. I'll be at the cabin this weekend and will get some pics of the shunt settings.
I'm newbie to all this, so I can certainly use the help.
 
Also, double check that the only thing on your negative terminal is the cable to the Smartshunt. No loads or charging sources are connected to the battery - they are all connected to the load side of the Smartshunt.
 
agreed get your shunt figured out first and reading correctly. i use magnum inverters and their shunt's settings are hard to get right compared to the bogart system i used before. the bogart was always spot on it agreed with the BMS's and everything. the Magnum not so much for the first year till i figured out my mistake.
 
I use voltage, not SOC, because SOC drifts over time and you probably aren't going to charge up to 100% on the generator. I'd also suggest you put a delay on the Low Voltage turn on setting so it doesn't turn on when the system is under heavy load for a few minutes.
 
I second what @jberger said! % will especially drift in the winter months with less sunshine. (Unless you are somewhere more sunny than me.... I'm in Ohio.... lol) Voltage based settings with a delay are always safer than % based settings! As batteries age, you have less capacity as well, so if you go % based and you have less capacity, you will end up starting at a lower and lower actual % until you end up with power outages!

I have 4 Victron Multiplus-2 120v stacked for 120/240, and I use my Cerbo GX's auto start for my gen. Generally speaking, with LifePo4 batteries, we always set our customers' start setpoints to 50.7V with a ~15 second delay. That delay allows for voltage sag under short surge loads, and you will normally be starting at ~15%. It will vary a little, but I generally like seeing a start of somewhere between 10-20%. I have played around a bit with stop setpoint at home, as I also don't want to run excessively. I discovered that in the winter months, I actually prefer stopping at maybe 70-80% rather than 40-50%, because my gen was starting too often. (Especially when the electric dryer was being used.... sometimes we would have 2 gen starts in one day...)

You could set the stop to somewhere between 54-55 volts. Mine is currently set to 54V during quiet time (less runtime when we are sleeping), and 55V during the day.

Here is a screenshot of what the settings should be looking like at 48V with LifePo4. Note especially the yellow highlighted settings! Also note that the green highlighted settings will depend on you batteries. Charged voltage should be 0.2 or 0.3V lower than your absorb voltage. AH will of course be your total battery amp-hours.
1706807529354.png
 
Use VE config and your Multiplus relays.

Use the generator assistant.

Start on low voltage (I use 25.6) and stop on bulk finished or absorption finished.
 
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