Inverter RS Smart Solar

Table 1. 

	To ensure a trouble free operation of the inverter, it must be used in locations that meet the following requirements:   a)      Avoid any contact with water. Do not expose the inverter to rain or moisture.   b)      Do not place the unit in direct sunlight. Ambient air temperature should be between  -20°C and 40°C (humidity < 95% non-condensing).   c)       Do not obstruct the airflow around the inverter. Leave at least 30 centimeters clearance above and below the inverter, and preferably installed upright and vertical When the unit is running too hot, it will shut down. When it has reached a safe temperature level the unit will automatically restart again.
	This product contains potentially dangerous voltages. It should only be installed under the supervision of a suitable qualified installer with the appropriate training, and subject to local requirements. Please contact Victron Energy for further information or necessary training.
	Excessively high ambient temperature will result in the following: ·        Reduced service life. ·        Reduced charging current. ·        Reduced peak capacity, or shutdown of the inverter. Never position the appliance directly above lead-acid batteries. The unit is suitable for wall mounting. For mounting purposes, a hook and two holes are provided at the back of the casing. The device must be fitted vertically for optimal cooling.
	For safety purposes, this product should be installed in a heat-resistant environment. You should prevent the presence of e.g. chemicals, synthetic components, curtains or other textiles, etc., in the immediate vicinity.

Try and keep the distance between the product and the battery to a minimum in order to minimise cable voltage losses

The RS will test for sufficient resistive isolation between PV+ and GND, and PV- and GND.

In the event of a resistance below the threshold (indicating an earth fault), the unit will stop charging and display the error.

If an audible alarm and/or email notification of this fault is required, then you must also connect a GX device (such as the Cerbo GX). Email notifications require an internet connection to the GX device and a VRM account to be configured.

The positive and negative conductors of the PV array must be isolated from ground.

Ground the frame of the PV array to local requirements. The ground lug on the chassis should be connected to the common earth.

The conductor from the ground lug on the chassis of the unit to earth should have at least the cross-section of the conductors used for the PV array.

When a PV resistance isolation fault is indicated, do not touch any metal parts and immediately contact a suitably qualified technician to inspect the system for faults.

The battery terminals are galvanically isolated from the PV array. This ensures that PV array voltages cannot leak to the battery side of the system in a fault condition.

In order to utilize the full capacity of the product, batteries with sufficient capacity and battery cables with sufficient cross section should be used. The use of undersized batteries or battery cables will lead to:

See table for MINIMUM battery and cable requirements.

Use a torque wrench with insulated box spanner in order to avoid shorting the battery. Maximum torque: 14 Nm Avoid shorting the battery cables.

The Inverter RS Solar single tracker model contains multiple PV input connectors. However these are internally connected to one single Maximum Power Point Tracker. It is strongly recommended that the connected strings are made with the same number and type of panels.

In case the PV array is located in colder climates the PV array can output more than its rated Voc. Use the MPPT sizing calculator on the solar charger product page to calculate this variable. As a rule of thumb, keep an additional 10% safety margin.

The maximum operational input current for each tracker is 18 A.

MPPT PV inputs are protected against reverse polarity, to a maximum short circuit current of 20 A for each tracker.

Connecting PV arrays with a higher short circuit current is possible, up to an absolute maximum of 30A, as long as connected with correct polarity. This outside of specification potential allows for system designers to connect larger arrays, and can be useful to understand in case a certain panel configuration results in a short circuit current just slightly above the maximum of the reverse polarity protection circuit.

When the MPPT switches to float stage it reduces battery charge current by increasing the PV Power Point voltage.

The maximum open circuit voltage of the PV array must be less than 8 times the minimum battery voltage when at float.

For example, where a battery has a float voltage of 54.0 volts, the maximum open circuit voltage of the connected array cannot exceed 432 volts.

Where the array voltage exceeds this parameter the system will give a "Over-charge Protection" error and shut down.

To correct this, either increase the battery float voltage, or reduce PV voltage by removing PV panels from the string to bring the voltage back within specification.

First: Confirm correct battery polarity, connect the battery.

Second: if required, connect the remote on-off, and programmable relay, and communications cables

Third: Confirm correct PV polarity, and then connect the solar array (if incorrectly connected with reverse polarity, the PV voltage will drop, the controller will heat up but will not charge the the battery).

Never connect the output of the inverter to another AC supply, such as a household AC wall outlet or AC wave forming petrol generator. Wave synchronising PV solar inverters can be connected to the AC output, see section on Frequency Shift Function for more information.

The Inverter RS is a safety class I product (supplied with a ground terminal for safety purposes). Its AC output terminals and/or grounding point on the outside of the product must be provided with an uninterruptible grounding point for safety purposes.   The Inverter RS is provided with a ground relay that automatically connects the Neutral output to the chassis. This ensures the correct operation of the internal earth leakage switch and an earth leakage circuit breaker that is connected to the output.   ─        In a fixed installation, an uninterruptable grounding can be secured by means of the grounding wire of the AC input. Otherwise the casing must be grounded. ─        In a mobile installation (for example, with a shore current plug), interrupting the shore connection will simultaneously disconnect the grounding connection. In that case, the casing must be connected to the chassis (of the vehicle) or to the hull or grounding plate (of the boat). Torque: 1.2 Nm

This can be used to connect a PC/laptop to configure the inverter with a VE.Direct to USB accessory. Can also be used to connect a Victron GlobalLink 520 to allow for remote data monitoring.

Note the VE.Direct port on the Inverter RS cannot be used to connect to a GX device, and the VE.Can connection must be used instead.

Used to connect to a GX Device, and/or daily-chain communications to other VE.Can compatible products such as the VE.Can MPPT range.

Used to connect to the device via VictronConnect for configuration.

If you are new to Victron, please start with small system designs, so that you become familiar with the necessary training, equipment and software required.

It is also recommended to hire an installer that has experience with these more complex Victron systems, for both the design and the commissioning.

Victron is able to provide specific training for these systems to distributors via their regional sales manager.

Mixing different models of Inverter RS (ie. the model with Solar and without Solar) is possible. However mixing Inverter RS with Multi RS is not currently supported.

DC and AC wiring

Each unit needs to be fused individually on the AC and DC side. Make sure to use the same type of fuse on each unit.

The complete system must be wired to a single battery bank. We do not currently support multiple different battery banks for one connected 3 phase and/or parallel system.

Communication wiring

All units must be daisy chained with a VE.Can cable (RJ45 cat5, cat5e, or cat6). The sequence for this is not important.

Terminators must be used at either ends of the VE.Can network.

The temperature sensor can be wired to any unit in the system. For a large battery bank it is possible to wire multiple temperature sensors. The system will use the one with the highest temperature to determine the temperature compensation.

Programming

All settings need to be set manually by changing the settings in each device, one by one. For now synchronising settings to all devices is not supported by VictronConnect.

There is a partial exception to this - changing the AC output voltage will temporarily be pushed to other synchronised devices (to prevent undesired power flow imbalance via the AC output). However this is not a permanent settings change and still needs to be manually set on all devices if you wish to change the AC output voltage.

Charger settings (voltage and current limits) are overridden if DVCC is configured and if a BMS-Can BMS is active in the system.

System Monitoring

It is strongly recommended that a GX Family Product is used in conjunction with these larger systems. They provide highly valuable information on the history and performance of the system.

System notifications are clearly presented and many additional functions are enabled. Data from VRM will greatly speed support if it is required.

It is possible to install up to 12 units in a parallel system via a VE.Can network.

Connecting units in parallel provides several key benefits:

For parallel systems it is not necessary that DC wiring be symmetrical between units.

AC wiring needs to be symmetrical from the inverters to the common AC output connection. Variations in this can result in a voltage drop and different units will not share equal output power to the load.

Inverters must be configured to be synchronised before operation.

The Inverter RS supports single phase, and three phase configurations. It does not currently support split phase.

The factory default is for stand alone, single unit operation.

If you wish to program for three phase operation, it requires at least 3 units.

The maximum supported system size is 12 units in total, divisible however you like across the 3 phases.

It is permitted to have the same, or different number of units on each phase. For example, 2 inverters on L1, 3 inverters on L2 and 7 inverters on L3 is allowed.

They must be connected to each other via VE.Can connections, with a VE.Can terminator (supplied) at the start and the end of the bus.

Once the units are connected to the battery and via VE.Can they will need to be configured.

Delta configurations not supported

For units in 3 phase configuration: Our products have been designed for a star (Y) type three phase configuration. In a star configuration all neutrals are connected, a so called: “distributed neutral”.

We do not support a delta (Δ) configuration. A delta configuration does not have a distributed neutral and will lead to certain inverter features not operating as expected.