solar grid tie hybrid questions

[charles2,david000k]

http://www.solarpaneltalk.com/forum/solar-panels-for-home/solar-panels-for-homes-with-solar-batteries/22886-solar-grid-tie-hybrid-questions?p=295957#post295957

I like evacuated tubes ideal! Wood.

[charles2,david000k]

If this is the incorrect Isc issue you described in your first posts, it was because you were using the meter incorrectly. There are two ways for you to handle an issue like that:

1. Blame the meter, ignore advice and claim it's not your fault
2. Learn from the mistake and use it correctly next time

If you want to go with 2) then great; you can learn a lot here. If you want to go with 1) then there are much better boards out there - boards that will tell you how smart you are and not try to correct you.

I set clamp meter to 400A DC then press zero then hang the clamp meter on one single wire. Meter reads OL. I take batteries out and replace with new batteries I set clamp meter to 400A and zero meter hang it on one wire. Meter reads OL. I set meter to 40A DC and zero I hang meter on one wire again meter reads OL.

I then set meter to 400A AC zero meter and hang it on single hot from service drop. meter reads OL. I then took a AC analog meter and tested voltage between the two hot service drops set to 250V AC and got a reading of 240VAC. So the line is hot. Is my new meter bad?

[Zardiw]

I'm an electrical engineer; why do you ask?

LMAO........sorry.......z

[Zardiw]

Consider heating your hot water with evacuated tubes or gas. It makes no sense at all to run inductive loads like electric heaters from solar/battery. If you were to grid tie your system, consider a critical load sub panel, it allows you to isolate and shed heavy loads during power outages. Wood or pellet stove for heat?

You can heat water nicely with a water heater core tank that has closet mirrors set up in a semi circle on the north side of it. You can augment that by using wood to heat it when necessary.

You can also make your own Bio Gas and use that to heat and cook with

z

[Mike90250]

fuse was too small and cased a issue

It's always a problem when the factory installs too small of a fuse. What did you replace it with?

[charles2,david000k]

It's always a problem when the factory installs too small of a fuse. What did you replace it with?

It was the distributor that furnished the fuse. I called the factory and they said a 250A ANL fuse was wrong and needed to be a 300A ANL fuse.

I like the new look of the site but grammar and spell check are not working is there a way I can fix this?

[charles2,david000k]

Never mind I got spell check to work unless you guys got it at the same time i was trying but for others I just cleared my browser history on chrome. Write down you login info though you will lose it. Yep spell check are working first try without the edit option.

[Bala]

It was the distributor that furnished the fuse. I called the factory and they said a 250A ANL fuse was wrong and needed to be a 300A ANL fuse.

I like the new look of the site but grammar and spell check are not working is there a way I can fix this?

You say you have a small battery bank, and you have a I believe a 6000w Inverter @ 24V.

You should explain what you battery bank is, I would suggest you have no where near enough battery power to run a 6k inverter and you have been overloading them causing excessive current draw through poor wiring and connections.

If you were blowing 250A fuses that is just telling you that you have SERIOUS current draw issues, not that the fuse is wrong.

A bigger fuse is just going to makes things worse.

You need to determine what current your batteries can supply and work with that, not the size of the inverter.

[charles2,david000k]

You say you have a small battery bank, and you have a I believe a 6000w Inverter @ 24V.

You should explain what you battery bank is, I would suggest you have no where near enough battery power to run a 6k inverter and you have been overloading them causing excessive current draw through poor wiring and connections.

If you were blowing 250A fuses that is just telling you that you have SERIOUS current draw issues, not that the fuse is wrong.

A bigger fuse is just going to makes things worse.

You need to determine what current your batteries can supply and work with that, not the size of the inverter.

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...keyword=48+plt

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/a...les#fragment-2

O there is no doubt in my mind that the bank is too small but it is all I have on hand locally and the auto part store said they would not give me any problems when I burn them up just bring them in and swap them out I give them a lot of business. I am working on the battery issue though I went out to a new town today and passed out more flyer on the cork boards offering money for old batteries.

A grid tie inverter though will give some where for the energy to go and I don't have to rewire 6 or 7 things. Sun grid tie is a plug and play inverter all else fails and I only have to run one 20A AC drop my system would tie right in. My bank is fully charged before 11AM IF I even us it the night before. Wiring Is MC4 from panels to combiner box then 4Awg breaded tin covered copper rated at 350A from bank to inverter the wire is 2 Awg copper bread and the 4 and 2 Awg are hair fine wire I couldn't even start to count the strands. The 2 Awg I can not find a Amp rating for but has a 0.26% voltage drop over a 10foot run. My line is a max of 5 ft long though.


How many Amps should I be able to pull from two of those batteries?

[inetdog]

I set clamp meter to 400A DC then press zero then hang the clamp meter on one single wire. Meter reads OL. I take batteries out and replace with new batteries I set clamp meter to 400A and zero meter hang it on one wire. Meter reads OL. I set meter to 40A DC and zero I hang meter on one wire again meter reads OL.

I then set meter to 400A AC zero meter and hang it on single hot from service drop. meter reads OL. I then took a AC analog meter and tested voltage between the two hot service drops set to 250V AC and got a reading of 240VAC. So the line is hot. Is my new meter bad?

What exact make and model clamp meter do you have? We can try taking a look at the instructions to see what might be going wrong. Or you may even have a bad meter.
Note that the clamp will NOT ever read voltage. It is just for current and you MUST select a current rather than a voltage range on the selector for the clamp to work. It sounds like you are doing that correctly. Is there a separate battery for the clamp unit? Some meters with add-on clamp units will have two battery sets.
Whether or not the AC line is hot will have no effect on the current flowing. (Well, if it is not hot there will be no current, but if it is hot there still might be no current if there are no loads.)
If you have the Sears unit the way the Zero button works is not intuitive, so be sure to read the instructions carefully.

[charles2,david000k]

What exact make and model clamp meter do you have? We can try taking a look at the instructions to see what might be going wrong. Or you may even have a bad meter.
Note that the clamp will NOT ever read voltage. It is just for current and you MUST select a current rather than a voltage range on the selector for the clamp to work. It sounds like you are doing that correctly. Is there a separate battery for the clamp unit? Some meters with add-on clamp units will have two battery sets.
Whether or not the AC line is hot will have no effect on the current flowing. (Well, if it is not hot there will be no current, but if it is hot there still might be no current if there are no loads.)
If you have the Sears unit the way the Zero button works is not intuitive, so be sure to read the instructions carefully.

I took it back to sears today to see what they had to say after the owner of the building sat on the phone with tech support for what felt like forever they agreed to accept the return. It was just a bad meter it happens if I didn't have bad luck the last year I wouldn't have any. But ya I read the instruction front to back. It was this one http://www.sears.com/craftsman-digit...p-03482369000P I put fresh new batteries in both time I picked them up when I picked up the meter from the store. I called tech support also to make sure I was using it right it was the meter. The service drop reading should have picked up a few amps from the two old school TV, fish tanks, water heater DVR, and other things in the home running.

Do you guys have any reviews on the Sun grid tie micro inverters?

On a good day how many Kwh would 1750W worth of panels put back into the grid

inverter specs
Model SUN-2000G
Normal AC Output Power 1850W
Maximum AC Output Power 2000W
AC Output Voltage Range 230V
AC Output Frequency Range 46Hz ~ 65Hz
Total Harmonic Distortion(THD) <5%
Power Factor >0.95
Normal Efficiency@1850w
(AC230V DC50-89V) 90%
DC Input Voltage Range 45V ~ 90V
Peak Inverter Efficiency 94%
Standby Power consumption <1.4W
Output Current Waveform Pure Sine-wave
MPPT Function Yes
Over Current Protection Yes
Over Temperature Protection Yes
Reverse Polarity Protection Yes
Island Protection Yes
Stackable Yes

panels specs
Current system specs of 1750W system
seven 250 watt PS6A-250 SolarFennel corp solar panels
Electrical Data
POLY-156mm Solar cells PS6A-250
Nominal peak power(Pmax) 250Wp
Maximum power voltage(Vmp) 30.91V
Maximum power current(Imp) 8.09A
Short-circuit current(Isc) 8.62A
Open circuit voltage(Voc) 38.11V
Optimized cell efficiency(η) 17.60%
Power Tolerance: 0 ~ +3%
Limits
Operating temperature -40℃ to +85℃
Maximum system voltage
(IEC/UL standard) 1000VDC/600VDC
Temperature and Coefficients
NOCT 48℃±2℃
Current temperature coefficient %/℃ 0.09
Voltage temperature coefficient %/℃ -0.43
Power temperature coefficient %/℃ -0.43
NOCT:Nominal Operation Cell Temperature
Additional Data
Number of cells and type of connection 60,serial connection
STC: Irradiance of 1000W /m2, Air Mass of 1.5, Cell Temperature of 25°C
Guaranteed Power Output
Warranted Tolerance: ±5% 15 year:90% of its nominal power rating
25 year:80% of its nominal power rating
Impact Resistance Can bear the force that is generated by one 227g
steel ball falling down from 1m height
Warranty period 10 years:Materials and workmanship defects
Certificates UL1703/CSA, CEC.
Cells Polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic cell

[sensij]

Do you guys have any reviews on the Sun grid tie micro inverters?

inverter specs
Model SUN-2000G
Normal AC Output Power 1850W
Maximum AC Output Power 2000W
AC Output Voltage Range 230V
AC Output Frequency Range 46Hz ~ 65Hz
Total Harmonic Distortion(THD) <5%
Power Factor >0.95
Normal Efficiency@1850w
(AC230V DC50-89V) 90%

Sure, buy it, throw more money away. It produces 230 V, probably expecting one leg to be ground as in European wiring. In the USA, 240 V is generated by two hots that are shifted by 180 deg in phase. No UL approval, and any "plug in" type inverter you find is not legal to install and will be fire hazard.

Seriously, find a competent electrician or electrical engineer to help you out. Buying cheap chinese junk you don't understand is asking for trouble.

[charles2,david000k]

Sure, buy it, throw more money away. It produces 230 V, probably expecting one leg to be ground as in European wiring. In the USA, 240 V is generated by two hots that are shifted by 180 deg in phase. No UL approval, and any "plug in" type inverter you find is not legal to install and will be fire hazard.

Seriously, find a competent electrician or electrical engineer to help you out. Buying cheap chinese junk you don't understand is asking for trouble.

My power company and the entire TVA has literally dropped the requirement for NABCEP because of their price gouging. Give me a suggestion that doesn't involve me getting ripped off again and I can do my self and I'll run with it

You guys said drop the off grid inverter and go with a grid tie it gets rid of the batteries and all the extra dc wiring. Well that's what I am trying to do for the time being on a budget of $470. I thought pure sine wave was two legs of 120 and that inverter is rated from 190 Vac to 260 Vac output. I like you! You tick me off and push me to learn more every day but you gonna keep riding me at least buy me a drink and some lipstick!

[SunEagle]

My power company and the entire TVA has literally dropped the requirement for NABCEP because of their price gouging. Give me a suggestion that doesn't involve me getting ripped off again and I can do my self and I'll run with it

You guys said drop the off grid inverter and go with a grid tie it gets rid of the batteries and all the extra dc wiring. Well that's what I am trying to do for the time being on a budget of $470. I thought pure sine wave was two legs of 120 and that inverter is rated from 190 Vac to 260 Vac output. I like you! You tick me off and push me to learn more every day but you gonna keep riding me at least buy me a drink and some lipstick!

They are trying to help you. If you want a legal grid tie solar pv system then you have to spend the money to get it.You can't do it on your small budget. A UL listed grid tie inverter (SMA, SolarEdge ABB, Fronius, Solectra) to name a few, will cost you at least $1000 and should be approved by your POCO.

Using non UL listed solar equipment (purchased off of fleabay) will end up getting you in trouble with your POCO or worse causing a fire.

[sensij]

My power company and the entire TVA has literally dropped the requirement for NABCEP because of their price gouging. Give me a suggestion that doesn't involve me getting ripped off again and I can do my self and I'll run with it

You guys said drop the off grid inverter and go with a grid tie it gets rid of the batteries and all the extra dc wiring. Well that's what I am trying to do for the time being on a budget of $470. I thought pure sine wave was two legs of 120 and that inverter is rated from 190 Vac to 260 Vac output. I like you! You tick me off and push me to learn more every day but you gonna keep riding me at least buy me a drink and some lipstick!

Going to grid tie is the right way to get the most value out of the panels you own. There are relatively inexpensive *legal* grid-tie microinverters out there. For example, this would work with your panels, and would be under your budget before adding in cabling, a disconnect, and over current protection. (Buy 1 per panel)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Enecsys-...-/181931035581

It is not a good idea to try and go grid tie without getting the proper permits and approvals. If your power company finds you backfeeding into the grid without approval, you could find yourself *charged* for that energy, instead of receiving credit. At worst, they could disconnect you, although I'm not sure there are any true stories out there of that actually happening.

The permit process should not be hard, but may take you some time. You might be able to find examples of others near you who have done it, and use their designs as a template.