New Solar PVs

A lot of us have homes we spend some time in. Discussions can be about any topic that may be of interest that you can think of... renovations, purchases, expenses, etc, etc
DerekBullock
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Re: New Solar PVs

Post by DerekBullock »

Our solar doesn’t feed the house in a blackout and considering most blackouts occur during storms and at night it wouldn’t be any good either if it did.

After a couple of blackouts I got the electrician back who wired our house when it was built and got him to put in an input for the generator.

Big thing for us on tank water when there is a blackout the pump on the tank stops and cannot even flush the toilet

On the generator it gives us all lights and some powerpoints particularly the fridge.

So when we have a blackout now I just connect the generator.

Cannot recall actual cost now because he did a few other things for me but I think it was around $400.
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Greynomad
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Re: New Solar PVs

Post by Greynomad »

Don’t think we need to go that far.
When Melbourne was without gas for a month after the explosion at the refinery, we just turned on the gas HWS in our then m/home & showered in it. Had an electric frypan & cooktop, so v little inconvenience there. (Gas oven was useless, of course.)
If we have problems with power here (no mains gas) we’ll just move into Girt for the duration. She has a 5.5kVA genny built in if we need the a/c...
Simples! 😁
Regards & God bless,
Ray
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"I refuse to drink water, because of the disgusting things fish do in it"
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T1 Terry
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Re: New Solar PVs

Post by T1 Terry »

With a battery backed system properly configured, you only export the solar the house isn't using and the battery can't hold because it is full. Once the sun goes down the battery feeds the inverter and supplies the house until the battery is fully discharged, then the mains switches back in or a generator if there is no mains power available.
Built three of these systems so far, one has the grid available and also has a grid feed in solar set up. The house never looses power but the grid tied feed in system spends more time off line than on it seems. When it is working he now sees $500 plus credits each time instead of bills that look more like telephone numbers so he is real happy. He has more than once threatened the grid tie solar people that he will just add more batteries and link that solar into them and go off grid entirely. It seems to have had the right effect because they came and replaced a dud inverter at no charge rather than the $3,000 plus they quoted at first :twisted:

I'll ask Margaret to send me the photos of the 10kW solar set up we did a while back at Rocky Point. They are a few hundred thousand $$ away from the grid so it is all off grid but the house is used the same way as they use their grid connected house back in Adelaide.

T1 Terry
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Greynomad
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Re: New Solar PVs

Post by Greynomad »

T1,
We were told the green light on the inverter should be on if the system is working.
Problems would be indicated by the red light next to it lighting up.
Just noticed that after sunset the green light started flashing.
No action from the red light.
Is this normal?
Regards & God bless,
Ray
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"Insufficient data for a meaningful answer."
Isaac Asimov, "The Last Question"

"I refuse to drink water, because of the disgusting things fish do in it"
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Mrcoolabah1au
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Re: New Solar PVs

Post by Mrcoolabah1au »

Wow 🤔 what 🙏
Coolabah1au
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T1 Terry
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Re: New Solar PVs

Post by T1 Terry »

Greynomad wrote: Tue Dec 11, 2018 10:49 pm T1,
We were told the green light on the inverter should be on if the system is working.
Problems would be indicated by the red light next to it lighting up.
Just noticed that after sunset the green light started flashing.
No action from the red light.
Is this normal?
The flashing light says there is limited or no solar supply. If that flashes when the sun is out it means the solar isn't getting to the inverter or the inverter isn't transferring it to the grid. The people who are paying you for the solar input can control just how much you are feeding into the grid at any time, they claim it is for voltage and frequency stability but it could also be they can get the power cheaper else where so turn your input down or off if it suits them.

T1 Terry
A person may fail many times, they only become a failure when they blame someone else John Burrows
If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine. – Jim Barksdale, former Netscape CEO
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Greynomad
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Re: New Solar PVs

Post by Greynomad »

Big Brother again...
Regards & God bless,
Ray
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"I refuse to drink water, because of the disgusting things fish do in it"
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T1 Terry
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Re: New Solar PVs

Post by T1 Terry »

Greynomad wrote: Thu Dec 13, 2018 9:03 am Big Brother again...
Not really, remember the old adage "there is no such thing as a free lunch" That "gift" of taking your excess solar output and giving you a few sheckels for it (sheckel to AUD = $0.37) is a business transaction and of course has strings attached. One of those strings is they don't have to take your excess power if they don't want it (can't make a decent profit from it) so they created a system of controlling just how much they are willing to take using canbus control through the mains supply cabling, the same was as they switch off peak hot water on/off. They can and do limit how much off peak power or supply time available when the supply is limited or too expensive, one really equals the other, an over supply drops the supply price and a restricted supply raises the supply price just like any commodity.
They only get their knickers in a knot when you decide not to give them your excess generated power cheap yet only buy their power when it's cheap .... they don't like the tables being turned on them :lol:
A person may fail many times, they only become a failure when they blame someone else John Burrows
If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine. – Jim Barksdale, former Netscape CEO
W31r
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Re: New Solar PVs

Post by W31r »

The one thing that always had me wondering was
You take 6 to 8 years to offset the initial cost ( prepaying for the power and loss of earning on payment) and then replacing equipment would be then required on the cheaper units due to age from that time.


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Newcastle George
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Re: New Solar PVs

Post by Newcastle George »

W31r wrote: Sun Dec 16, 2018 9:52 am The one thing that always had me wondering was
You take 6 to 8 years to offset the initial cost ( prepaying for the power and loss of earning on payment) and then replacing equipment would be then required on the cheaper units due to age from that time.
We placed an order for installation at home but cancelled it due to the fact that we use little power during daylight hours but mainly for the reason quoted.

George
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