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Thread: Maximum solar output and generation goals. Warning, long rant. Read at own risk.

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    Anyone put any thought in to running there arrays during a power outage?


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    Quote Originally Posted by irwazza View Post
    Anyone put any thought in to running there arrays during a power outage?
    A lot of people seem to be under the misguided impression that because they have solar they will have power in blackouts.
    Standard GTI's don't work that way. They are designed to work ONLY when there is power from the grid.
    Having stand alone power can be done with the new type inverters. They can produce power either directly from the array or from batteries or with a combination of both.

    I have an old style Inverter that has a massive torriod transformer instead of just IGBT's for power conversion and that runs ( relatively) low voltage so it can be hooked up to a battery bank and always have stable output but I believe it still needs the grid to work which is a bit counter productive.
    The new ones will still anti Island and output through a dedicated circuit. Useful to be sure but far from cheap. They still make a lot more sense than putting in Home batteries for blackout backup. They can take the solar input and run stand alone but that's a stupid waste of money for a problem that can be solved at a 10th or less of the cost and have far better longevity with a generator.


    Despite common moral high ground and safety zealot misinformation, it -IS- possible to run a normal Grid Tie Inverter off Grid using either a generator or an inverter to create the frequency signal the GTI requires to come on line without any modifications. There is a specific procedure, paramaters and restrictions to doing it without letting out the magic smoke but it is also straight forward in how you hook things up rather than having to perform any electronic trickery. It is supplemental to the Inverter/ Generator rather than completely stand alone and requires understanding of electric principals and load balancing.

    I was going to remove one of my smaller arrays but have decided to just upgrade it somewhat and wire it for a normal battery / Inverter setup.
    I have a couple of good 2 Kw 24V Inverters so if the power does go out, I can pull a couple of batteries out of the cars or mower and tractor and hook them up to give me plenty of power to run the Fridges and Lights. As long as the sun is shining ( without too much cloud,) the batterys will just be "ballast" for the inverters and won't discharge the battery's at all. Couple of battery's the size I have is only going to give about 1 Kwh of capacity so they wouldn't last long with anything bar the lights which are all LED and the fridges.

    The positioning of the array is convenient so I can just knock off the main switch and have a cable for backfeeding a phase from each inverter and then use the generator at night if I have to. I'll have to feed 2 phases from a single phase supply with that but not a problem as the only 3 phase appliance I have is the AC, everything else is just single phase and load balanced.... sort of!

    I recently put a meter on the 30+ Yo drinks fridge out the back and was amazed at how little power it uses. Sure it's winter and is lucky to get opened more than a couple of times a day ATM but still even running , the power it pulls is only about 300W max and often seems to run below that. I surmise the higher draw is occasional when the defrost heater kicks in. A single panel, small battery and 500W inverter would probably keep up with that, maybe 2 panels for summer to allow for more constant running. I haven't metered the new fridge with all the bells and whistles yet thats already had Major repairs at under 3 years old. The thing has a circuit board on it the size of something out of a TV and I'll bet that uses a heap of power in standby alone.

    I believe there are going to be power shortages in a LOT of places over the coming summers with all the stupidity of trying to replace reliable FF power with unreliable wind and solar that fails every time it's needed most. There will be the usual excuses and blame of course but at the end of the day it's going to leave people without power far more frequently and far longer.

    If people don't have a generator, I'd suggest NOW is a good time to get one before the inevitable rush. The situation is only going to get worse and the Gubbermint knows it but the power co's are hell bent on their virtue signalling and we will all no doubt end up paying billions to the power cos for last minute remedy's for what everyone bar the green washed could see coming all along. I expected a lot of power shortages last summer but I think they were offset by all the bushfires.
    The situation with power hasn't got any better so I think a lot of places will experience outages this summer, just like other places like Commiefornia that have gone down the same road with predictable 3rd world results. When some of the coal power stations close down in a few years time as the power cos are saying they will, I think there is going to be a LOT of trouble with supply and we will see shortages in winter just as much as summer, maybe more.

    I got my big Thumping Diesel genny ready and waiting that does enough power to keep my good neighbours either side powered up as well as myself.
    Ironically enough, the backfeed from my solar will also be more than enough fom all of us when the power is on to meet all our needs and will prop up the system a tiny amount anyway. I'm helping one Neighbour boost up his present system so he too will be able to meet his own needs with surplus so between the 2 of us, we will be able to power quite a few houses in the street and reduce the local load. Not that it will mean squat in the over all demand.

    The Power cos are trying to dissuade solar use which is Ironic because the whole original rooftop solar schemes were brought in because it was recognised that the grid was in a bad way, wouldn't be able to keep up and the money that it required to bring it up to speed was enormous as well as the time frame needed to bring it up to scratch. The solar was designed to lighten the load on the grid and give the power co's time to get on top of things. Solar caught on and now the power co's fearing they are loosing revenue are trying to curtail it even though in reality little has changed with the Grid.

    It will be interesting to see if they do another turn around and discover it's cheaper to let people have rooftop or being now Privatised, They will simply say Stiff shit, we will supply what we can and it's the gubbermints responsibility to make up the shortfall. That will basically come down to throwing Billions at private companies to put in more inevitably unreliable infrastructure which they will charge the customers for and still Post the Billions in profits they do while talking BS about bringing power prices down.

    The lesson is well illustrated in the US, Germany and other places and some countries like Japan and China have woken up and are putting in Clean coal like never before to protect their power security.
    Meanwhile here in Oz we are still hell bent on trying to virtue signal to the world and ignoring the obvious flaws and lessons.

    The faster all this Leftie Green virtue signaling BS is stamped out in many areas the sooner we can get on with building a decent and secure country again.

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    Quote Originally Posted by george65 View Post
    A lot of people seem to be under the misguided impression that because they have solar they will have power in blackouts.
    Standard GTI's don't work that way. They are designed to work ONLY when there is power from the grid.
    yes , but isnt it designed that way so power line workers dont get zapped during routine maintenence of the system? I would think they would ensure that the lines are dead first but what if someone has hooked up a stand alone inverter to the grid which keeps power flowing?
    in my area everything is underground so i dont know if they earth out the feeds first.

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    Correct, it is designed that way to protect old mate working on the line.
    I am aware of this and I would be happy to install a manual switch that needs to be off to allow my solar to work or automatic switch to protect him.


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    i have a 9Kw solar setup split in 2 with separate inverters but i also have
    a separate UPS battery backup just for the lights the batteries are 200Ah

    So if the power goes out i throw a switch in the meter box
    it disconnects the lights from the mains and and lights are fed by
    the battery UPS setup. The switch in the meter box and connections were
    all done by a sparky so i dont kill anyone .

    All my computer setup and entertainment setup is also run through
    ups setups with similar battery setups.

    I get about 5 hours with the tv - amp - austar etc running and i get
    about 10 hours for the computer setup 3 monitors plus peripherals connected.

    the internet modem has a separate modified ups and it can run 3 days .
    Last edited by fandtm666; 25-08-20 at 11:22 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by VroomVroom View Post
    yes , but isnt it designed that way so power line workers dont get zapped during routine maintenence of the system?
    Yes, it's called " Anti islanding" and as far as I'm aware is a universal standard for every GTI anywhere in the world.

    I have had a LOT of discussions with do good safety zealot bedwetters over this in relation to IMAGS ( Induction Motor Generators ) with regard to the idea that certain appliances could have enough capacitance to keep them going when the power fails. It's complete and utter bunk but of course the high and mighty go on with BS about if there is a one in a million chance...... An IMAG is a very unstable beast that do not like varying loads even to small percentages. The idea that the main power on the grid could fail and a little 5 Kw generator of any sort could them power miles of line or either the homes either sides with everything switched on and connected and not be overloaded takes a LOT of imagination. The impedance of the lines would present a decent load in itself.

    I recently jumped on the opportunity to talk to an actuall power line crew maintence manager and put this to him. He said it's an old and Highly improbable scenario especially now. He said before working on any lines, they test for any power at all. They then attach " Shorting bars" ( He had a specific name I now forget) that are designed to short circuit the lines and stop any back feeding that way. He said where they can they also open the fuses on the section of line they are working on to isolate it as much as possible. He said the other thing is they work on live lines all the time anyway and it's not an instant death knell at all and they still wear protective gear wether the lines are Hot or not. He said if the generator were big enough it may power up the line transformers and energise the wires but it would have to be a BIG generator and it's still too improbable for him to worry about.

    I said so in other words the chance of anyone being zapped are extremely remote?
    He said mate, there are about 100 other things I can think of that I wish were as unlikely to happen as that is. He said they take precautions to prevent problems of this type, mainly other workers re energising lines when they shouldn't have but what is good for one is safe for the other.
    Added up with exactly what I thought but good to hear from the horses mouth.

    Not saying it does not matter or shouldn't be paid attention to, just putting the risk in real proportion rather than the always blown out of proportion by the moral High ground virtue signalling Ignorants.

    I went to have an ATS fitted about a year ago. The things are not effing cheap! As sparky said, as long as you turn off the main switch you are fine and if you don't I'm sure you are soon going to know when the generator breaker pops when you try to power the entire street.
    An ATS would not work with brining a standard GTI online anyway. You have to have the initial output within the right frequency and voltage to start with and you have to have a load present that will absorb all the power you are making from the solar before you switch in the inverter.

    If you don't have the load, the GTI will try to do what it was designed for and push power back to the generator which will take VERY unkindly to that and try to push back. The end result will be inevitably smoke and maybe some fireworks as well. The way it works is to have the load that the GTI feeds with a shortfall that the generator or inverter makes up. A generator output can be and is designed to be variable. You can run an LED light bulb or you can drop 5 KW on the thing and it's fine.
    A GTI on the other hand is designed to push back all the power it can and keep searching to maximise that power output. If it has no where to go, the result is not good.

    While you can use a standard GTI this way, for me, and I think I'm fairly knowledgeable with this sort of thing, it would be a case of last resort in limited Circumstances. You would have to always make sure there was enough load to absorb all the GTI could handle and that would limit a lot of things that switch like AC, Fridges and hot water heaters. using a GTI is supplemental rather than stand-alone.



    If one wanted backup from solar, a Hybrid like this would be the way to go.



    These can be hooked to an array, batteries and a generator for complete blackout protection and will backfeed while there is mains power then switch to solar only, battery and solar or generator with battery charging function when the power goes out. With batteries they act like a UPS and auto switch over.
    I set a similar one up for my fathers neighbour and although only early days yet, the functionality of the thing is excellent. He has a small 2 Kwh battery bank on the thing and it can be charged by the solar or the grid. At night he disconnects the mains and powers the house off the batteries. A false economy which I tried to point out but his money and decision. His is the 3 Kilo version and so far we have 4Kw of panels on the thing and I'm taking him up another 1.5Kw next week.


    These style inverters are widely being used by the people building their own power walls out of used 18650 batteries and seem to be well regarded. teamed up with a forklift battery pack, one could have a good measure of independence of full off grid capability with a decent array and a generator.

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    Quote Originally Posted by fandtm666 View Post
    the internet modem has a separate modified ups and it can run 3 days .
    Had a blackout here November last year.
    Fired up the big genny, offered a line to the neighbour but he was just firing up his genny as well. We both lit our houses up like Christmas to 1, show off to the other neighbours we had power :0) and 2, in my case, to give the genny something to work against to smooth it out. Put the outdoor floods on as well as all the LED's in the house don't add up to squat. I had the TV going for the Mrs and she warmed up a frozen dessert in the Microwave and boiled the electric Jug.

    Felt all very clever and satisfied with myself till I discovered there was no internet. I don't watch TV and am a bit lost without it. Spoke to neighbour next day and he said he couldn't get it either and rang them. Apparently the Node or repeater or whatever it is goes down when there is no power and has no backup. Seems pretty stupid but that brought us both undone as he doesen't care much for TV either.

    I wonder if the NBN connection we are having forced on us soon will be the same?
    As the phone and TV will run though it as well, I hope to Fk they have got some sort of backup for it!

    UPS are great for preventing your computer going down in outages.
    I had a couple on my computers and printers etc at the last place. In the 12 years I had them hooked up, we NEVER had a single effing blackout!
    Talk about reliability! :0)

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    got a question are you still connected to the grid or is this all done as a off grid solution
    become a premium member ---- DO IT NOW!!!!!!
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    I am still connected to the grid and will stay that way long as I can.

    Was only talking to a guy that is a manager for a large power co yesterday whom I sold 5 Kw worth of panels and an inverter to about this. Same as me, he crunched the numbers and came to the conclusion staying on the grid and Minimising your costs with solar is by far the cheapest power you can have.
    People that think they will save money with batteries are simply misinformed or deluded. If you have the grid, as expensive as it may be, you still can't make your own power cheaper atm.

    If things went really nuts, then I'd opt for a DIY system with a Forklift battery pack. Or 2.
    Cheapest capacity you will find, Big, heavy, very reliable, well understood and proven Tech, easily repairable and worth good Money at end of life. I wouldn't' be moving the thing around so couldn't give a rats about the size and weight. Add in some Chargers which you could double for redundancy, inverters or 3 the same, and you could have the highest capacity system for the lowest price out there. Throw in a Diesel Generator/ Charger of which I already have a proclivity for and you are set. Having the amount of panels I do is useful both ways. Saves me a literal fortune being on grid and with some re wiring the arrays, would be just as valuable off grid.

    It's still an investment I'd be scratching to save any money on over it's lifetime with the minimal I pay for power now thanks to my solar obsession.

    I could make it work for our power hungry home pretty easily I think.
    The main change we would have to make would be to go to an alternate form of heating. We use AC or resistance heating now and in our cold climate, that sucks Biblical amounts of power. We were using 70 Kwh + a day regularly this winter just gone. I have experience building waste oil Burners so going to that for our heating (House and water) would reduce our power consumption to about 20% of what it is now. The solar I have would keep up on all but the worst days but that's not a problem for me either. I could have my slow speed Lister Generator Chugging away through the day putting about 3 Kw into the batteries or fire up one of the other Bigger gennys and pump 10Kw in or just have the geeny covering the draw of anything heavy I was using at the time. I have been running Diesels on waste Veg oil for 20 years next month so I'm well experienced in that for of free fuel as well.

    Summer cooling can use just as much power or more but that's not a problem. The sun is powerful and the days long so making power in summer is a no brainier. I have more than half my systems down now and still making more than double than what we are using but in fairness, we are doing minimal heating and no cooling now. When the regular 40o+ days come, That AC will be running flat out.

    I just bought 20X 270W New panels ( 5Kw worth) for $1000 ( $50 ea) I am going to replace some of my older panels with. Got them home and decided I'd go another 5 Kilo but the guy I got them off sold out. I did manage to pick up some LG Black 285W panels from the Dumpster at the local scrappy that seem to have no more defect than some lichen growing on them. How many times have I seen that before? I reckon people must see the performance has dropped off and go for new systems when all the things need is a good Clean. Got some about 18 Months back that were covered in the stuff. Cleaned them off and they had hardly any degradation I could measure.

    Pretty much re doing my entire systems atm which is not a small job. Have a lot of mixed sizes and Brands which I am trying to consolidate or at least update to new panels. I have really been using anything I could get my hands on last few years and it's all worked well and saved me so much money it isn't funny. Now I have learnt and made some connections to get these things at the right price and can sell the old ones for the same as I can buy new, may as well update them. I have also seen where I could make improvements and what worked best for my circumstances so I'm going to go from the testing setups I have to something that will be optimised
    and more set and forget.
    I'm going to upgrade my fathers setup I put on his roof a while back with some of my old panels. They all work and don't really matter what they are on his shed roof which is pretty much out of sight. He's got just under 3 Kilo of panels now so I'll ramp that up to 6 or 7 and see how he goes with that. He's using more power now he's retired ( at 82) than what he was running the business from home on so I'll ramp up his system to keep the bills at a minimum. He's Got enough roof area for about 50 Kw of panels on his sheds without even having to think about optimising the layout. Of course then I could put another 20 on a ground mount which would be better positioned than the sheds!

    Handling the amount of panels I have is one hell of a workout. It's going to be a LOT of work taking off the panels I want to replace and hauling up new ones and then there is just stacking the old ones up and then moving them again when I sell them. Manual handling of TONS of the things all up. I moved over 600Kg worth of panels Twice yesterday and I'm not getting any younger and it does not feel like I'm getting any fitter either.

    Faster I get the final setup done the better. :0)

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    Quote Originally Posted by george65 View Post
    I got my big Thumping Diesel genny ready and waiting that does enough power to keep my good neighbours either side powered up as well as myself.
    Long power leads between neighbours?

    How is the power connected? The reason is that question is because of the bush fires power was supplied by a neighbour's genny, a long power lead and a hard wired connection, by a sparky, to the meter box. Any , umm, simpler way?
    If Australia is a democracy why, then, is voting compulsory?

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    I find it somewhat laughable that ScoMo is threatening to build a gas plant in the Hunter Valley. Power companies must be thinking, "Beauty. Money we do not have to spend."
    If Australia is a democracy why, then, is voting compulsory?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Guiseppe View Post
    Long power leads between neighbours?

    How is the power connected? The reason is that question is because of the bush fires power was supplied by a neighbour's genny, a long power lead and a hard wired connection, by a sparky, to the meter box. Any , umm, simpler way?
    You can just run a power lead and tap off that. It will work fine, with caveats.
    Firstly, how long is the run between Genny and load? Next, what size cable you running? 3rd, how much power you need? This is largely determined by the first 2 parameters.

    In a basic setup you could run a 25M lead which is about the longest I have seen premade from the genny to the house and pull about 2000W off it without too much problem. Not ideal but in a pinch.... It would be better if you used a " Caravan " type lead which will be 2.5mm core instead of 1.5 or 1mm. Less voltage drop and you could pull around the full 2400W a power outlet Normally gives.

    From there it's a bit more expensive and complex. You could connect 2x 25M caravan leads together but you'd probably want to drop the draw back, Maybe 1800W? There are charts for this sort of thing that show Voltage loss per conductor size, length of run and heat rise which is also a factor.
    If you wanted to go longer, you could but the power you could pull without getting too much voltage drop would start to fall pretty quick. I'd think maybe 1000W for a 50M run but that's still enough to power the fridge, lights ( LED) Tv and computer. Just run that from a power board to the individual loads.

    You could go up to 4 or 6mm and go 100M and still pull 2400W or more.
    It's a balancing act between the 3. If you wanted to use just normal extension cords which are often just 1mm core over say 50M, you probably wouldn't want to go over 1000W. This is all off the top of my head and like I said, there are voltage drop tables that give numbers but I have found they tend to vary from one to another and are often written to different countries power standards so vary as well.

    The simplest way of all is to fit a change over switch and the proper socket for feeding from a Genny. Looked into this a year ago and it was too much for the time I'd need it. Change over switches are't that bad but the wiring and putting in a socket can add up then you need the HD cable from the geeny that even in consumer generator ratings don't tend to be cheap because of the plugs and the tough cable they are made from.

    As our blocks are only 50M wide, I could feed my neighbours either side with a standard 25M lead and it would only be to run basics like Lights, Fridge, TV etc. They are smart enough to know the limitations and it would get us all through an outage. If we knew it was going to be a week then we might invest in a roll of 2.5 or 4mm Cable and I could hard wire it up for more juice.
    If they want to run their Ducted AC, Then that's going to cost plenty for that cable and would have to be hard wired. Might start to tax my Genny a bit if we were all running at the same time but would probably be OK but they can bring their own cable for that one!

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    Been a productive week in Solar Sourcing.

    Local guy replaced a system on the house he moved into at Christmas after discovering it was not near big enough for his Mini Mansion and sold the inverter and got stuck with the 7x 275W panels not even a year old yet. Thought I did him a big favour taking them away for him and giving him 100 Bux. Next Day I went and got 14 Risen 400W panels I lined up I thought were used but turned out to be brand Spankers . Leftovers from a factory commercial job. $70 ea, thank you very much!

    With the 400's, the 27x 270/ 275's 's and the 285's I picked up the other week and the 6.2 Kw system I put up couple of months back, that's a bit over 22kw of panels on their own.
    There is about 9 Kw on the garage so that will make a decent amount. I'll have a look at what is on the shed and clean some up there as I know there is an array there that's not even been connected for 12 Months. They are on the south side and do OK in summer but the tree on that side and the birds make a hell of a mess on them that's impossible to keep clean so I'll take them down as I hardly need them now and sell them off. I have an idea one array on the shed is 190's and if that's the case I'll replace them with some of the 250's I have on the house currently. The shed has a valuable north facing aspect so prime area but it only has a 2.5MM cable going up there so power restricted. Not worth putting 3 phase up there now as I was going to do but I'll make the most of it I can for valueable winter generation. I don't know if there is something wrong with that setup, it's never really given me the power I felt it should despite going over it a number of times. Was the first setup I did so won't hurt to pull it apart and start again with better panels.

    I'll probably take everything I have off the south end of the western roof of the house and put the 400s there. Have to figure out whether to put them together in an array that will fit that end in a double stack or go along the top edge of the roofline and across. I'm not sure I can get a double layer on without an overlap on the ridge capping which I don't want. These things are over 2M long so take up roof area quick and also waste a lot of space along ridge lines where you have to bring them well out to fit in the angles. I can fit them lengthways but I'll have to do the arithmetic on packaging that way as well. From memory of putting the other ones up a couple of months ago I just took down and sold off, I think that roof is 7M straight to the sunroom from the top Ridge along but if dosing the panels sideways I'd loose much less room on the angles.

    Other consideration I'll be more aware of this time is matching the arrays to the trackers on the inverters. I'd like to get another 5Kw inverter for the 400W panels even though there wouldn't' be much of the usual overclocking. These panels are 45V Vmp so will have plenty of voltage and being on the west roof are going to only start making power later in the day anyway. I know where there is a good 5Kw inverter but typically the guy that has it seems to think the things improve in value with age and wants far too much for it. I might just wait him out till he realises himself his ask is something I'll never get.

    I have 8M on the other end of the roof where I have some panels I'll replace that are 240W I think but seem to make good power so I'll probably take them down as well and put the Black LG's there where they can't be seen. All nice and stylish ( although I wonder about the practicality and wisdom of making a Panel have any more black area than needs be) but will stand out with all the other silver framed units I have.
    Depending on what I do with the 400's I'll have to see where to put the 20 275's.

    All this power will be good when the spa I'm putting in is set up. I think that will take a heap of power and I'm not sure how much it will get used but it's a keep the Mrs happy job.
    I'll have another HD Circuit put in for that so I'll also be able to tap into that for back feeding with inverters as well if need be. I might put one there with the change over switch and use that as the balance circuit between the phases.

    I also managed this week to pick up a roll of solar cable Cheap. Guy just round the corner had it which was convenient. Picked it up a while back from a job he was working on with an off grid setup and hadn't used it so I was happy to give him the 50 for it and save myself about 100 in the process. I know I'll need more for my own setups and upgrading my fathers which I'll do in a couple of weeks when I go back up.

    A good week over all with getting all this stuff. Now comes the work in pretty much redoing my entire installations on the house. Be double the work putting them up because I'll have to take about 30 Panels down to start with. Going to look like a used panel recycling centre here but I don't have any trouble selling them off because I sell them cheaper to get them out the way instead of trying to be greedy and ask more than they are worth like so many others do.






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    I just had a call from Origin yesterday saying new rules in SA mean that I must have my new upgraded solar system that was to be installed on Monday connected to the 'net so SA Power can remotely turn off my panels. Since I'm in QLD at the moment and have had the internet disconnected because I am not there, they can't install it! I may not bother, because when I do, eventually, get home, I'll probably sell up and move to QLD anyway.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    I have not heard of that before!
    Talk about big brother!
    I would hope at very least they are just talking about turning off the back feed on your inverter and not turning the whole lot off so your property gets no solar power.

    I don't blame you in the least for wanting to get out of SA or anyone wanting to move from Vic or qld actually.
    From what I have seen, there are a lot of used panels available in QLD. If you find a place that has an only spinny Meter you are home and hosed to do your own solar and wind the meter back through the day so you get a 1:1 return on what you generate instead of the piss poor returns the power co's do give their customers now.

    Really stunned they want to be able to control your solar. I spose if one power co has started it they will all be onto it before long. I'd be wanting to have control over when -I- could turn off the back feed.... Like on hot days when they are trying to get people to use less power I'd not be giving the bastards a single watt. If they could control when they wanted my power and when not, only fair I should have the same choice right?

    I can easy tell when power is getting short round here on a hot day. The grid voltage actually comes down to where it should be instead of barely in spec at the high end.

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    looks like remote disconnect is coming alright- .

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    I looked this up and it's a Complete and utter Scam.

    The idea is to shut down domestic solar to prevent grid over supply. They are still building huge solar farms to generate power to sell customers so the question would have to be asked why do this when they are already trying to reduce solar supply. The answer is of Course obvious, PROFITS.

    Seems in fact they will shut your entire inverter down so you make no Solar and you have to buy it all from the grid at what will be a peak time. In my book, that's simply corruption and profiteering. There is no way on this Fking earth I would let anyone get away with that. Luckily for me I have the skill and the dishonesty to bypass their BS regulations and set up work arounds for this . Few other people would want to break the law as it would but to me a law based on complete and utter bullshit and designed to in fact rip me off is not a law at all and certainly something I would not respect.

    It's not the monetary factor that Shits me with this, it's the beligerance and treating people like morons that pisses me off. If there is too much solar then the state as High as it is on green energy should be shutting down the solar farms not the domestic supply and certainly not preventing people from supplying their own homes. Tha's Fking Ridiculous in my book.
    It all comes down to the gubbermint failing to adequately manage and control the power generators whom they are no doubt completely in bed with and getting unlimited backhanders from.

    SA has a very high rate of domestic solar because of their extortion power prices with thei Pipe dream of an all renewable power grid, which it[s nothing like despite their BS claims, and not they want to fk people over again. It's disgusting. The next thing is they will want to stop people going off grid when they find people start bailing and would rather pay for batterys than have their intelligence abused like this.

    If anyone is to be shut down, it's the generators just like they have done since the begginning of grids. When there was no solar, power stations were ramped up and down. And the whole thing ov an over supply is a crock of shit to start with. You HAVE to have an over supply. They make out they match the power for every Kettle and washing machine turned on. What's more they have massive amounts of Data and modelling to predict what power demands will be. again, they have for decades so it would be no trouble at all to limit the input from the generators the same as the market through AEMO works now where they all submit in advance the amount of power they are going to supply at specific times on given days.



    This whole thing is just a Giant load of shit designed to extort customers for more money to keep power Crunt profits up.

    Everyday, all these New world order and conspiracy theories just get more and more evidence to support them being spot on and the absolute truth.

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    Quote Originally Posted by george65 View Post
    Seems in fact they will shut your entire inverter down so you make no Solar and you have to buy it all from the grid at what will be a peak time. In my book, that's simply corruption and profiteering.
    yeah i thought it was . But - if your inverter was forced to connect to the net , i would imagine it would be via your own home network. and if that connection was broken , say by an unplugged network cable , then it cant be shut down remotely

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    Quote Originally Posted by VroomVroom View Post
    But - if your inverter was forced to connect to the net , i would imagine it would be via your own home network. and if that connection was broken , say by an unplugged network cable , then it cant be shut down remotely
    I think the inverter will be controlled by a contact on the suply authority metering similar to off peak loads.
    Don't worry, it only seems kinky the first time.

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    ^^^^ Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Connect it all up so they are satisfied and then soon as they are gone, Ooops internet connection has gone down.
    Even if like power meters, the inverter has wifry built in, chances are it will have an antenna. Baked bean can over the top will soon fix that " Problem".

    Other thing I'd do is simply have another inverter there I could change to for at least powering the house.
    Seems incredible to me they can switch you inverter off denying you the ability to power your own home from your own equipment and forcing you to by power off the power co.

    They are talking about the same sort of thing with smart appliances. Grid is running down they can switch off or thottle down your AC. Yeah Right. Like I'm going to allow these greedy pricks to do that! Nothing to do with protecting the grid or any other BS story they give you.

    It's all about cutting costs, maximising profits and giving the customer as little as they can till it hurts their revenue.

    Everyone should have ( and probably would have with these new inverters) the ability to shut their inverter export off and do that on the days when the grid is struggling to keep up under load.

    If it's good for one it's good for the other right?

    Next thing we'll have to have Wifi on the shitter so they can control how many dumps a day and flushes we can have.

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