Solar energy The Quattro is extremely suitable for solar energy applications. It can be used for building autonomous systems as well as mains-coupled systems. Emergency power or autonomous operation on mains failure Houses or buildings provided with solar panels or a combined micro-scale heating and power plant (a power-generating central heating boiler) or other sustainable energy sources have a potential autonomous energy supply which can be used for powering essential equipment (central heating pumps, refrigerators, deep freeze units, Internet connections, etc.) during a power failure.
A problem in this regard, however, is that mains-coupled solar panels and/or micro-scale heating and power plants drop out as soon as the mains supply fails. With a Quattro and batteries, this problem can be solved in a simple manner: the Quattro can replace the mains supply during a power failure. When sustainable energy sources produce more power than necessary, the Quattro will use the surplus to charge the batteries; in the event of a shortfall, the Quattro will supply additional power from its battery energy resources. Programmable with DIP switches, VE.Net panel or personal computer The Quattro is supplied and ready for use.
Three features are available for changing certain settings if desired: - The most important settings (including parallel operation of up to three devices and 3-phase operation) can be changed in a very simple manner using Quattro DIP switches. - All settings can be changed with a PC and free-of-charge software, downloadable from our website, www.victronenergy.com . 2.2 Battery charger Adaptive 4-stage charging characteristics: bulk – absorption – float – storage The microprocessor-driven adaptive battery management system can be adjusted for various types of batteries. The adaptive function automatically adapts the charging process to battery use. The right amount of charge:
variable absorption time In the event of slight battery discharge, absorption is kept short to prevent overcharging and excessive gas formation. After deep discharging, the absorption time is automatically extended in order to fully charge the battery. Preventing damage due to excessive gassing: the BatterySafe mode If, in order to quickly charge a battery, a high charge current in combination with a high absorption voltage has been chosen, damage due to excessive gassing will be prevented by automatically limiting the rate of voltage increase once the gassing voltage has been reached. Less maintenance and ageing when the battery is not in use:
the storage mode The Storage mode kicks in whenever the battery has not been subjected to discharge during 24 hours. In the Storage mode float voltage is reduced to 2,2 V/cell (52,8 V for 48 V battery) to minimise gassing and corrosion of the positive plates. Once a week the voltage is raised back to the absorption level to “equalize” the battery. This feature prevents stratification of the electrolyte and sulphation, a major cause of early battery failure. Increasing service life of the battery: temperature compensation The temperature sensor (supplied with the product) serves to reduce charging voltage when the battery temperature rises.
This is particularly important for maintenance-free batteries, which could otherwise dry out by overcharging. Battery voltage sense: the correct charge voltage Voltage loss due to cable resistance can be compensated by using the voltage sense facility to measure voltage directly on the DC bus or on the battery terminals. More on batteries and charging Our book “Energy Unlimited” offers further information on batteries and battery charging and is available free of charge on our website (see www.victronenergy.com -> Support & Downloads -> General Technical Information). For more information on adaptive charging, please also refer to the General Technical Information on our website.
2.3 Self-consumption solar energy storage systems (ESS)* When the Quattro is used in a configuration that will feed back energy to the grid, it is required to enable grid-code compliance by selecting the grid code country setting with the VEConfigure tool to comply with the local rules. Once set, a password will be required to disable grid code compliance or change grid-code-related parameters. If the Quattro does not support the local grid code, an external certified interface device should be used to connect the Quattro to the grid.
The Quattro can also be used as a bidirectional inverter operating parallel to the grid, controlled by an external source, and integrated into an energy storage system (ESS). For more information on ESS, see: https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/Energy_Storage_System/en/index-en.html * Not evaluated for UL 1741 4