Enphase equipment readings and accuracy

[willow1]

Butch, thanks. I wasn't sure how my installer met the 10kW limit, but you are right about the Solaredge inverter and Enphase microinverters. They are IQ7-60-2-INT each.

[ButchDeal]

You have 37 x 350 watt panels = 12950 watts? 29 x 350 = 10150 watts solaredge + 8 x 350 = 2800 watts enphase. By adding the enphase system haw are you able to purchase a larger system and still get around or maintain netmetering?

he has a 7.6kW SolarEdge inverter with a battery AND 8 enphase inverters of some size less than 350w each (maybe IQ7+ or 290w each, so 2.32kw)
so 7.6kW + 2.32kW = 9.92kW which is less than 10kW limit..

[Ampster]

Sorry, your system setup makes absolutely no sense to me? I expected your 29 panels to be tied to the grid to offset your house power consumption for netmetering and the 8 other panels to be tied to charge your backup battery system for when you loose power which should be infrequent. ...... I'm going to go have a beer and think about this some more.

All his panels are tied to the grid. The Solaredge only charges the batteries when they need charging which is infrequently. Most of the time all has panels are selling to the grid after serving the house loads. It makes sense to me. Reread the thread while you are having a beer and test your assumptions again.

[Wavelet8]

Ok, so the confusion is just in the written text.
but look at it this way, I have 360w panels x 34 panels= 12,240 watt system for the 10 kw output limit for the largest system I could purchase without reduction due to netmeter rules in Massachusetts.

You have 37 x 350 watt panels = 12950 watts? 29 x 350 = 10150 watts solaredge + 8 x 350 = 2800 watts enphase. By adding the enphase system haw are you able to purchase a larger system and still get around or maintain netmetering?

[willow1]

Subpanel covers refrigerator, oil burner/hot water/baseboard heating, garage doors, security system, outlets for lights, tv, internet, chargers etc. Got tired of throwing food out of the refrigerator during even short power outages. Only expect to have backup for a day or two on an extended outage unless solar power returns and can recharge battery. Unlikely in winter if panels are snow covered. If an outage lasts more than a day or two we would likely have to leave the house, but could do so with less stress than before.

[Mike90250]

...... was not able to bury propane tanks for a generator due to wetland conservation issues, and didn't want to run a natural gas line just for a generator.

Diesel is another viable option, What are you expecting to run during a power outage ?

[ButchDeal]

No. He said that the 29 panels feeds the inverter which feeds the sub-panel for the battery backup system. It only discharges in case of power failures. The 8 panel enphase system feeds the grid? This seems reversed to me.

The 29 modules feed the DC buss on the Solaredge storEdge and the battery is in the DC buss. When the battery is full which he said it is most of the time, then all the power goes to the inverter which sends it to the grid.

[willow1]

Butch is right as far as I understand the Storedge configuration. I was originally just pointing out the additional panels with microinverters allowed us to go over 10kW without a separate smaller Solaredge inverter.

[Wavelet8]

No. He said that the 29 panels feeds the inverter which feeds the sub-panel for the battery backup system. It only discharges in case of power failures. The 8 panel enphase system feeds the grid? This seems reversed to me.

[ButchDeal]

Sorry, your system setup makes absolutely no sense to me? I expected your 29 panels to be tied to the grid to offset your house power consumption for netmetering and the 8 other panels to be tied to charge your backup battery system for when you loose power which should be infrequent. Are you sure it's setup that way? I have 34 panels 360w and I make over 7mwh a year. RESU10H, which has a usable capacity of 9.3 kWh. Is currently the only one for sale in the U.S. I'm going to go have a beer and think about this some more.

The resu10h is DC coupled and gets power directly from the optimizers. The solaredge inverter is tied to the grid and does offset his power consumption via net metering along with the 8 additional micro inverter modules.

[Wavelet8]

Sorry, your system setup makes absolutely no sense to me? I expected your 29 panels to be tied to the grid to offset your house power consumption for netmetering and the 8 other panels to be tied to charge your backup battery system for when you loose power which should be infrequent. Are you sure it's setup that way? I have 34 panels 360w and I make over 7mwh a year. RESU10H, which has a usable capacity of 9.3 kWh. Is currently the only one for sale in the U.S. I'm going to go have a beer and think about this some more.

[willow1]

The battery is fed from the 29 panels via the Storedge inverter. It sits there at full capacity and is only discharged via the subpanel if there is an outage (or I simulate one). At least I know the battery is at full capacity if there's an outage. I don't have an EV, but doubt I would charge it from the battery even if I did. There are no TOU lower rates in Massachusetts at night, so would prefer to maximize netmetering and stick to backup from the battery. The 8 panels with Enphase microinverters feed AC only via a combiner box just in front of the Eversource production meter. It's a bit of a hassle to have both Solaredge productio monitoring as well as Enphase production monitoring to look at, but can see both on my phone at any time.

[Wavelet8]

Interesting: thank you for mentioning the chem Resu. I haven't seen that hardware yet. You are using it for backup only and do not actually perform Any load shedding on the grid? What happens when it's fully charged from the 8 solar panels? Isn't that wasteful or are you diverting the power annually to charge a solar vehicle or something else?
massachusetts just started their storage incentive program, are you able to take advantage of that to offset the cost somewhat?

[willow1]

I have a 12.95 kW system in Massachusetts with a Storedge inverter fed by 29 LG 350 panels and a Chem Resu 10 battery for backup only; this is combined with 8 LG 350 panels using Enphase microinverters. This was an expensive but effective way to maximize roof capacity without a second inverter, and get the backup subpanel circuits I was looking for. Netmetering has not been an issue with credits covering my electricity billings to-date.
BTW, I know the Storedge/battery combination was an expensive backup option, but was not able to bury propane tanks for a generator due to wetland conservation issues, and didn't want to run a natural gas line just for a generator.

[ButchDeal]

I guess it’s all how you look at it.
1) I looking into getting a Chevy bolt electric vehicle.
2) My understanding is I can deduct 30% off the cost of a solar electric backup generation system should I loose electric power as long as it’s not tied perminately to the grid.
3) if I utilize the backup storage system to power my electric vehicle with a manual transfer switch it’s a win since i’m Likely charging the vehicle at night.
4) should I loose power due to a winter snow storm I would be able to use my storage battery system w/ inverter to power my house with a
generlink and use the dc charging port on my Chevy bolt as a power wall.
5) power loss in my area is infrequent so when my batteries are fully charged in summer I would want to discharge at least 30 -40 percent back onto grid when i’m Over producing onto the battery system.
6) a small inverter for a 7-8 solar panel system shouldn’t be an excessive cost when compared to the cost and maintenance of an gas/natural gas/propane backup generation system.
7) I should be able to integrate the battery system into my enphase combiner box when the batteries are fully charged or over producing using a small inverter in parallel with my micro inverters.

it could be all about how you look at it but some of your concepts are based on inacurate assumptions.
1) ok
2) you get a tax credit on solar equipment regardless of it being connected to the grid
3)if you have net metering there is no need and in fact you would have a lot of power loss charging batteries from other batteries.
4)if you had a bimodal system you would be able to power part of your house (without your car). If you had an off grid system you would be trying some Rube Goldberg type stuff.
5)the power loss frequency makes the other points about backup, rather silly. Why would you want to discharge your battery? You likely are NOT allowed to discharge the battery to the grid as well.
6)an off grid system with batteries is likely much more costly than a genset for similar production.
7) This would require a more expensive bimodal system not a cheap off grid system.