I’m converting lead acid to lithium and have two 400 amp power packs that will connect to two Victron distributors and a smart shunt with my existing solar and wind and a 12 V 3000 Victron inverter. The biggest challenge was figuring out where the batteries were going to go but now that that’s done it’s just a matter of mounting everything and wiring it up. I don’t know anything about programming the inverter though, so I better get on that one.
That sounds interesting! I'm assuming you're talking about the Victron Lynx Distrubutor, I've never used one but it looks like a convenient alternative to having to manually do the bus bars and fusing yourself if you don't have a reason to.
How are you going to use the distributors? One feeding the house DC and one feeding the inverter? Or one for charging and one for discharging? Or something completely different?
The inverter programming should be pretty straightforward if you don't have anything unusual or crazy going on.
What inverter is it? Is it an inverter charger or just the inverter?
In either case the manual will give you the basic settings that you'll need to set up which may require some interaction with support from the battery manufacturer. The manual will also give you some reasonable settings that should work with 99% of the LiFePO4 batteries out there but I'm a nerd and really like to get into the weeds.
The only real trick with the inverter is that you need to make sure that you can connect with bluetooth, if not you'll need other bits, like a GX device, or one of the VE.Direct adapters. In my case, I had to get the VE.Direct adapter to plug into the laptop because we don't have a GX device connected to the system. Once I could connect, the VictronConnect app was all I needed to set up the inverter/charger properly. Most of the recommended settings were identical to what the factory gave me regarding the battery parameters.
Two Voltgo 400Ah batteries are going into the left Lynx Distributor. I'll have a second Lynx Distributor on the right side of a Lynx Shunt. Two 100/50 MPPPTs from two 415W solar panels and my Superwind 350 will connect on the right, along with a Multiplus II 12/3000/120 inverter/charger. The breaker panel will wire to the right Lynx Distributor. The alternator will run through a switch to the start battery. An Orion TR Smart 12/12 50 DC/DC converter will connect to the start battery and back up to the right Lynx Distributor to put power back into the house bank when the starter battery is full. I have a Cerbo GX connected to a Touch 70 panel at the nav station.
The solar, wind and Cerbo GX and display are already installed. I have all of the switches and breakers. Tomorrow, I'm picking up cable and wires and the fuses for the inside of the Lynx Distributor. I'll probably still be calculating what fuses I buy until I get to the checkout counter. I'm still thinking about the wire size and wire run length for everything too.
Gotcha. We have basically the same inverter charger, it's a Multiplus II 12/3000 x2 120. Honestly, we would have been fine without the second AC out but wanted the room for expansion.
As long as the Cerbo GX will allow you to change the basic inverter/charger settings, programming it should be a snap.
We have a similar arrangement with the DC/DC chargers isolating the alternator from the house bank except ours are 30 amp.
Out of curiosity, if I'm understanding the layout right, you have the batteries isolated behind a lynx distributor which then connects to a lynx shunt, which then connects the the other distributor. Is that correct? If thats the case, I'm curious why the second distributor.
I ask because it sounds like the system the is designed around a very high current capacity (almost everything is rated at 1000A peak current), but at 100% efficiency the max current draw from the inverter is going to be 250A.
That sounds like you're planning on some major expansions down the road and/or a lot of direct DC current consumption.
Initially, when I bought those, I was planning for an induction cooktop and convection oven/air fryer. I have since gone back and just replaced my Force 10 with the exact same model. I was also planning on a different battery setup with banks in multiple locations and thought the second Lynx Distributor would allow for more accessible connection points to the bus.
Thanks! It was a little challenging getting things into position and finding a comfortable position to do the required wrenching on the hardware with the broken foot, but at least everything was easily accessible and it did not require any real boat yoga.
Nice! I’m going to be doing this wiring job next week.
So what's your starting point and ending point with your electric work?
I’m converting lead acid to lithium and have two 400 amp power packs that will connect to two Victron distributors and a smart shunt with my existing solar and wind and a 12 V 3000 Victron inverter. The biggest challenge was figuring out where the batteries were going to go but now that that’s done it’s just a matter of mounting everything and wiring it up. I don’t know anything about programming the inverter though, so I better get on that one.
That sounds interesting! I'm assuming you're talking about the Victron Lynx Distrubutor, I've never used one but it looks like a convenient alternative to having to manually do the bus bars and fusing yourself if you don't have a reason to.
How are you going to use the distributors? One feeding the house DC and one feeding the inverter? Or one for charging and one for discharging? Or something completely different?
The inverter programming should be pretty straightforward if you don't have anything unusual or crazy going on.
What inverter is it? Is it an inverter charger or just the inverter?
In either case the manual will give you the basic settings that you'll need to set up which may require some interaction with support from the battery manufacturer. The manual will also give you some reasonable settings that should work with 99% of the LiFePO4 batteries out there but I'm a nerd and really like to get into the weeds.
The only real trick with the inverter is that you need to make sure that you can connect with bluetooth, if not you'll need other bits, like a GX device, or one of the VE.Direct adapters. In my case, I had to get the VE.Direct adapter to plug into the laptop because we don't have a GX device connected to the system. Once I could connect, the VictronConnect app was all I needed to set up the inverter/charger properly. Most of the recommended settings were identical to what the factory gave me regarding the battery parameters.
Two Voltgo 400Ah batteries are going into the left Lynx Distributor. I'll have a second Lynx Distributor on the right side of a Lynx Shunt. Two 100/50 MPPPTs from two 415W solar panels and my Superwind 350 will connect on the right, along with a Multiplus II 12/3000/120 inverter/charger. The breaker panel will wire to the right Lynx Distributor. The alternator will run through a switch to the start battery. An Orion TR Smart 12/12 50 DC/DC converter will connect to the start battery and back up to the right Lynx Distributor to put power back into the house bank when the starter battery is full. I have a Cerbo GX connected to a Touch 70 panel at the nav station.
The solar, wind and Cerbo GX and display are already installed. I have all of the switches and breakers. Tomorrow, I'm picking up cable and wires and the fuses for the inside of the Lynx Distributor. I'll probably still be calculating what fuses I buy until I get to the checkout counter. I'm still thinking about the wire size and wire run length for everything too.
Gotcha. We have basically the same inverter charger, it's a Multiplus II 12/3000 x2 120. Honestly, we would have been fine without the second AC out but wanted the room for expansion.
As long as the Cerbo GX will allow you to change the basic inverter/charger settings, programming it should be a snap.
We have a similar arrangement with the DC/DC chargers isolating the alternator from the house bank except ours are 30 amp.
Out of curiosity, if I'm understanding the layout right, you have the batteries isolated behind a lynx distributor which then connects to a lynx shunt, which then connects the the other distributor. Is that correct? If thats the case, I'm curious why the second distributor.
I ask because it sounds like the system the is designed around a very high current capacity (almost everything is rated at 1000A peak current), but at 100% efficiency the max current draw from the inverter is going to be 250A.
That sounds like you're planning on some major expansions down the road and/or a lot of direct DC current consumption.
Also, Happy New Year!
Initially, when I bought those, I was planning for an induction cooktop and convection oven/air fryer. I have since gone back and just replaced my Force 10 with the exact same model. I was also planning on a different battery setup with banks in multiple locations and thought the second Lynx Distributor would allow for more accessible connection points to the bus.
Thanks! It was a little challenging getting things into position and finding a comfortable position to do the required wrenching on the hardware with the broken foot, but at least everything was easily accessible and it did not require any real boat yoga.