A 220v/50Hz Grid-tie installed in a 220v/60Hz house?

[old dodge]

This site will give you an overall picture

Great info to have on hand

[noelana]

Don't hold your breath waiting for an answer because the OP has not logged in for 3 years.

ow, so sad, thanks for the info sunking!

[Sunking]

Hi rboos,

May I know if you'r still using the 50Hz inverter in your house that's having 60Hz supply from the grid? Is it still working well?
I have the same situation, It is hard to get a good quality grid tie inverter having 220v-60hz specs, so i'm planning to buy a 220v-50hz and that's why I'm looking for a thread about this subject.

Don't hold your breath waiting for an answer because the OP has not logged in for 3 years.

[noelana]

A 220v/50Hz Grid-tie installed in a 220v/60Hz house?

Thank you for the answers!

Actually it is installed and generating an average of 330W (from a 2x200W PV array), so somehow it is tied and working.

It completed 7 days now, and my doubt was about any (1)drawbacks it could generate (burnt lightbulbs or something) or (2)loosing some energy while converting and not synchronizing a 100%... but it seems to be working ok.

The seller sent me this model and does not have a 60Hz version to trade (of the same model), so I guess I might be loosing some percentage of the PV energy, what the GTI manages to "inject" is used and the out-of-frequency part gets lost, maybe?

What actual wattage should I get from a 400W PV array in full sunlight? 80%? 90%? Or does it actually produce the full spec wattage?

Maybe I will accept the seller idea of exchanging this one for a couple 300W - 220v/60Hz and then check if the overall wattage furnished into the grid if higher... then I would know if the frequency difference was responsible for some loss..?

Thank you again,

Rod!

Hi rboos,

May I know if you'r still using the 50Hz inverter in your house that's having 60Hz supply from the grid? Is it still working well?
I have the same situation, It is hard to get a good quality grid tie inverter having 220v-60hz specs, so i'm planning to buy a 220v-50hz and that's why I'm looking for a thread about this subject.

Thanks,
Noel

[computerpc101]

I got my cheap 600Watts Ebay Power jack GTI, it is 28V-55V input/output 110V 60HZ version not 220V 50HZ, inexpensive and very basic model.

It comes with user manual, very low quality and teach me how to repair it.

I tested it with batteries with 1/2 power point 300Watts, Its efficiency is about 83% and it is quite close to User manual rated 85%(seller post 90%, lie), Its sine waves output is slightly not very clean and it sync with 60HZ very well, I can not do farther testing because my setup is not ready.

It is not hard to Sync between 50Hz to 60HZ but slightly increase waveform distortion and slightly lower efficiency, As long as your 220V 60HZ work,, However, it does voltage cutout below 25 Volts and above 60Volts.

Biggest problem for Ebay's Power jack GTI is not that it is only lower efficiency, It burned out easy which end up cost more money.

I think that I make a mistake, I did farther research, FEEbay's power Jack is cheap and low quality, I paid $139 including shipping, However, I find that it comes from China, In China, If I pay slightly more, EX, $169 including shipping, I can get one much better quality GTI than Power jack with 94% efficiency plus other functions, FEEbay's version of Power jack is almost the lowest quality GTI in China.

$139 GTI from Retailor = $25( Courier) + $25(end Retailer) + $25 ( wholesaleer) + $30 Labour cost + $34 material cost
$169 GTI from Retailor = $25( Courier) + $25(end Retailer) + $25 ( wholesaleer) + $35 labour cost + $59 material cost
I think that it is what you pay and what you get, ThereFore $59 VS $34 = better Quality

I do like Sunny boy Germany GTI, However, It is much heavier ( quality) for shipping and It uses very high input voltage, 200V to 600V, It needs to serial connect many solar panels to start it which is not suitable for small hobbyist who use few solar panels as a small starter project.

[Mike90250]

After you measure it, please let us know what the efficiency is.

Most good GT inverters are in the >95% range, reports on the cheap ones are 50-70% efficiency, increasing the break-even timeline.

[computerpc101]

Those power jack Inverter do work in wide range.
I just got one 600W.

They are not UL.

From Tester point of view
They can work in line frequency from 45Hz to 65HZ
For 220Volts mode, they can work for wide range voltage 180V to 240V.

Those Microcontrollor inside them are quite smart, They are able to Sync to wide range of Power.

[rboos]

Hi John!

It is interesting to notice that we end up in the same line of thinking... I was also in doubt this manual information could be trusted.

When I received the GT, it was well packed, and had a solid construction (external I mean), good overall appearance (not like an Enphase, lol) with a xerox copy of a manual, and got me thinking why it wasn't a nice printed manual...

This GT was advertised as 220v/60Hz but this copied-manual had a table of the models produced and the frequency of each one; in the table says the 600W model is 50hz. I saw another table from the same manufacturer that said the 600W model was 50/60hz (both freq)... so there is a huge chance this table in the manual has a different info than it should. I guess this chinese GTIs are produced by many different industries (despite having the same external appearance) and I got a model with the wrong copied manual... the only info on the GT is a "220v" label on the power button.

Thank you all again for helping me out on this issue, since it has been 8 days now, probably the manual has the wrong info...

Rod - Brazil.
PS: gonna re-check tomorrow with the amperimeter if it is not consuming the ~230W...

[john p]

I dont believe it. I have tried a few modified gt inverters that were made to go up or down 5hz and after you get more than half a hz out they malfunction
I now believe this is not the facts.:-I recently installed two 200W panels (400W total) with a Power-Jack 600W Grid-Tie inverter, and in the manual it says it is a 220v/50Hz model.
My house is 220v/60Hz, so I am worried if this difference in Herz is going to cause any problems

I think the manual is incorrect.

[Mike90250]

Somehow, your GT inverter is managing to sync to the grid. if it tried to inject 50hz into a 60hz grid, Hover Dam will win, and your inverter would vanish into a cloud of smoke.

So far, you are lucky, if it's not consuming power, and actually pushing some into the grid.

Say 300W, for 6 hours a day - that's 1800wh day, at 15cents per kwh, almost 30 cents a day you are saving, or $9 a month.

[rboos]

Mike!

Thank you again, you are absolutelly right...

I just re-checked the screenshots I made from the wattimeter and the 330W is actually the peak I got when installed the panels (was higher Watt count in the first 24h). The seven day average is in fact 230W, I was wrong there, sorry for giving that wrong info in the first post.

I was afraid, at first, that the GT would be consuming the 230W, 'cause there should be a "minus" sign in front of the wattage on the lcd ... so I took an clip-on amperimeter to the whole-house meter and the amperage (on the phase I connected the GT) fell from 2,745A to 1.7A when I turned the GT on, but the best confirmation will be my monthly bill...

In fact the climate here is cold(ish), clear and breezy, with good insolation; but in my newby mind I might have another explanation for some wattage peaks... I got some 353W peak sometimes: maybe the 50hz/60hz difference could be messing with the precision of the kill-a-watt meter? the meter has a GT injecting 220v/50hz in one side, and a grid 220v/60hz on the other side...

Thank you again, your last post gave me the necessary math to know what should I expect from that set-up... I guess it is working as it should, the only question that might need some digging is this 50hz/60hz mix I am doing here, lol...

Rod!

[Mike90250]

400W of panels can be expected to harvest about 80% of that, yielding 320w to the inverter input. If the inverter is 95% efficient, then I'd expect the kill-a-watt to read 304 watts. You read 330W

So, either the weather there is cold, clear and breezy, keeping the panels cool and producing more power than expected, or the metering is wrong. Or you have achieved over-unity somehow. Or, the GT box is just plain consuming 330W, and not really generating.

Most of the little plug in inverters are lucky to get 90% efficiency, many are reported to be 50% - 80%. So you have a winner, if it's not a consumer.

[rboos]

Thank you for the answers!

Actually it is installed and generating an average of 330W (from a 2x200W PV array), so somehow it is tied and working.

It completed 7 days now, and my doubt was about any (1)drawbacks it could generate (burnt lightbulbs or something) or (2)loosing some energy while converting and not synchronizing a 100%... but it seems to be working ok.

The seller sent me this model and does not have a 60Hz version to trade (of the same model), so I guess I might be loosing some percentage of the PV energy, what the GTI manages to "inject" is used and the out-of-frequency part gets lost, maybe?

What actual wattage should I get from a 400W PV array in full sunlight? 80%? 90%? Or does it actually produce the full spec wattage?

Maybe I will accept the seller idea of exchanging this one for a couple 300W - 220v/60Hz and then check if the overall wattage furnished into the grid if higher... then I would know if the frequency difference was responsible for some loss..?

Thank you again,

Rod!

[john p]

what does it matter where it comes from or where it was made??? Why is everyone even bothering to look for this info.; ???
I cant see how a grid tie inverter at one frequency can sync or stay connected to a grid at a different frequency.?

[bidaw]

This site will give you an overall picture

This is some good information!

Thanks!