Venus OS v3.80: your GX now uses your solar surplus

On 22 September 2026, Victron Energy released Venus OS v3.80, the new firmware version for its GX devices. The headline feature is called GX Opportunity Loads, and it answers a question every solar owner asks sooner or later: what do I do with the power I have to spare at midday? From this version on, your Cerbo GX can automatically switch on the water heater, the pool pump or the EV charger exactly when there is surplus solar available, instead of giving that energy away to the grid.

GX Opportunity Loads: turning surplus into savings

Until now, whenever your panels produced more than you were using and the battery was already full, the surplus was exported to the grid for a typically modest payment. The new opportunity loads feature flips that logic around: the GX device continuously monitors PV production, battery state of charge, household consumption and available inverter capacity, and switches on the flexible loads you have configured as soon as it detects spare energy.

These are loads that are in no hurry: it makes no difference whether the hot water is heated at one o'clock or at four in the afternoon, as long as it is ready when you need it. That is precisely the kind of consumption worth shifting into daylight hours. Victron covers these use cases:

• Electric vehicle charging, modulating power according to the available surplus
• Domestic hot water and thermal storage, the classic electric water heater
• Pool pumps and filtration systems
• E-bike charging and other battery-powered equipment
• Any other controllable AC load with power metering

The energy coordinator distributes the surplus across those loads following the priorities you define, so that on a day with little to spare, whatever matters most to you is served first. In a properly sized domestic installation, this means raising your self-consumption percentage without adding a single panel or any extra battery capacity.

EEBUS: heat pumps and chargers with no extra meter

The second major addition is support for EEBUS, the European communication standard for home energy equipment. With it, the GX device reads data directly from compatible heat pumps and EV chargers, with no need to install a separate energy meter for each appliance.

If you have an air-source heat pump, the difference is significant: until now you had to fit a meter to find out how much the heat pump was consuming and show it on the energy diagram. Now the appliance announces itself on the network and reports its own consumption, which simplifies the installation, cuts hardware costs and removes potential points of failure.

Portrait mode: the Remote Console finally works on a phone

The Remote Console, the virtual screen you use to control the system from anywhere, now rotates into portrait mode. It may sound like a small detail, but it is the improvement you will notice most day to day: checking your production so far or the state of the battery from your phone no longer means turning the device sideways and zooming in. The interface reflows into a single column and the controls sit within thumb's reach.

Marine: range estimates on the GX Boat Page

If your installation is on board, v3.80 brings a dedicated set of improvements. The GX Boat Page, the panel designed for vessels, now includes range estimates: it combines current propulsion consumption with the energy available in the batteries to tell you how far you can still travel. Temperature data, regeneration information (the energy recovered by the propeller under sail or while coasting) and shore power status have been added too.

On top of that, the GX device now receives inbound NMEA2000 alarms from other equipment on the boat, and the Signal K integrations, the open marine data platform, have been updated. Taken together, the GX is consolidating its position as the central display on board, not just a monitor for the electrical system.

Everything else in Venus OS v3.80

• Improved GX Switch pane: broader Shelly support and a new indicators feature, so you can see the status of every switched item at a glance.
• Secure EVCS pairing: the connection between the Victron EV Charging Station and the GX device uses a new, more secure pairing method.
• Bluetooth improvements: direct readout of the VE.Bus BMS NG and Small BMS NG, and the option to use a Shelly as a range extender to widen Bluetooth coverage in larger installations.
• Node-RED: event logging, virtual indicators, hysteresis control and new virtual devices, for anyone building custom automations.

Compatibility and a few tips before you update

Venus OS is the operating system shared across the whole GX family, so the update reaches standalone units such as the Cerbo GX MK2 and the Ekrano GX, as well as inverters with GX built in, like the MultiPlus-II 48/5000 GX. The update menu will only offer you the version if your model supports it, so there is no risk of installing the wrong firmware.

Three practical tips before you press the button. First, update with sunshine and a charged battery, not in the middle of a grid outage. Second, if your installation is critical (an off-grid home, a boat on passage), let a few days pass and update when you can be standing next to the equipment. And third, if something goes wrong during the process, do not cut the power: the GX device keeps the previous version and you can roll back from Settings → Firmware → Previous version.

Do not have a GX device in your installation yet? It is the component that turns a collection of equipment into a system: it monitors, logs to VRM, raises alarms and, as of this version, manages your loads to make the most of your solar surplus. You can pair it with a GX Touch 70 display if you want everything visible in the plant room.

Technical information based on the official Victron Energy announcement of 22 September 2026. Available features may vary depending on your GX device model and the configuration of each installation. If you are unsure whether your system supports any of these additions, get in touch and we will check it with you.