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Reading this thread, I believe the topic starter is in Phoenix, and the utility company is SRP. The prices and demand-related problems are very familiar with the E27 SRP Solar plan. So, welcome to the club. Here is my own thread, discussing a very similar problem with a detailed analysis...

I recently added 17 more solar panels, currently having 70 total. It was commissioned by SRP again just yesterday. So, I don't have enough statistics yet. The system is purely solar, with no batteries. It produces much more energy than my annual consumption, covering all energy expenses, taxes...

I also live in Phoenix, and I'm also with SRP on the E27 TOU plan with "Net Metering." But the "Demand fee" is an ugly elephant in my electric bill making 70-100% of it. Here are my experience and suggested solutions on how to mitigate it...

The proper "commissioning" of Sunny Boy SMA SB7.7 or turning it on after the maintenance is connecting the AC, and then turning on the DC solar disconnect switch. That's according to the instruction. If I do that early morning or late afternoon when the sun is low, there are no issues, and the...

Thank you, Hedges. That completely answered my question. I looked into the "Manual" and found those statements you mentioned. I wish I saw them earlier. • The neutral conductor of the AC output is not bonded to the ground within the product. • The neutral conductor of the AC output for secure...

SMA Sunny Boy inverters SB7.7-1SP-US40 and SB6.0-1SP-US41 have a "Secure Power Supply" (SPS) component, which can be wired to a separate SPS outlet. It can provide up to 2kW of 120V AC power in SPS mode in case of a grid failure. In such a case, it must be manually activated via an SPS switch...

I have two inverters: SMA SB7.7-1SP-US40 and SMA SB6.0-1SP-US40. TIGO TS-4-O modules are installed with each solar panel to meet NEC 2017 requirements for "Rapid Shutdown." SPS works perfectly for me in both inverters. However, TIGO TS-4-O modules are not configured to operate via inverters. I...

MPPT is designed to squeeze out the maximum possible DC power from the DC source (PV modules) with a large fluctuation of output voltage. The MPPT would draw as much current as possible to achieve the biggest power output. Hence it will try to get the maximum power from the battery, which it's...

>>>filter caps will be charged to the peak Voltage (V RMS x 1.414 That's true only without load. As soon as the IC1/T EE22 - based inverter on the diagram above starts operating, the inductance of L2 would prevent C1 voltage from achieving anything close to 1.41 x AC. What is this? I have...

Thanks, everybody, for sharing your experience and ideas about using the solar DC directly from the panels. I'm looking forward to more stories on the topic. However, starting this topic, I shared my own experience with my own equipment operating in modes not certified by manufacturers. I...

Nowadays, many electronic devices and power adapters are certified by their manufacturers to run from 100-240V AC. That makes sense, allowing them to be plugged into any household grid worldwide: 120V, 208V, or 240V @ 60Hz in the USA, 220V/50Hz in Europe, etc. No voltage converter is needed. In...

Hi. As far as I understand the electronic circuitry, the absolute majority (if not all) of modern electronic power supplies have a rectifier at the entrance, converting the AC from the grid to DC. Then its built-in inverter turns DC back to high-frequency AC in order to use a tiny ferrite-based...

I just realized that if the Grid power fails, the DER system with battery and solar (as shown on my first posting here) keeps back-feeding the ATS via the lines L1,L2,N, ("Loads") it might never disconnect the DER from the utility. That's a dangerous situation the ATS is intended to avoid. Are...

After doing some research, I believe that the ATS Cummins RA212N3 (aka RA200NSE) can do my job by adding a simple 12V AC/DC adapter to its entrance lines. Cummins has great documentation describing how their ATS works on pages 35-36...

That link wouldn't give an answer to my question. It points to the Website of another solar installer company, which I'm absolutely NOT interested in. I'm expanding my existing interconnected DIY system and would like to find a make/model of the ATS, compatible with no-name generators providing...

I'm trying to add battery storage (highlighted in yellow on the screenshot below) to my existing grid-tied solar installation with the primary goal to mitigate demand fees during peak time. You can see that discussion in a separate topic...

I was glad to help. BTW, I live in Arizona, and my utility is SRP. They use California standards and documentation for DER. Hope it could help some AZ residents coming to this forum.

Since you live in California, I believe this can help to solve your problem: https://solarequipment.energy.ca.gov/Home/PVModuleList Use only the panels listed in that spreadsheet for your project. If everything else is correct, the project will be approved and the panels never rejected.

That's what I'm thinking as well. However completely disabling (same as trying to do it with A/C) would raise a lot of yelling in my house My already running DIY "Smart Demand" system is pretty effective with managing demand under 5kW just by manipulating with A/C compressor at peak time...

Solution described above might work if all house residents cared about saving money on electricity. Unfortunately they don't. So all those efforts break because of the human factor The solution I'm looking for must be purely technical and meet following requirements: Mitigate energy...

When it's over 100 degrees outside after dusk and A/C set for 77 degrees, indoor temperature grows very fast if A/C is not running. However my DIY "Smart Demand" system described earlier on this forum is mitigating demand spikes with A/C pretty well keeping demand level under 5kW. Please see a...

Here is demand chart for last 30 days. SRP will charge for 7.1kW peak at 8pm on 4/29/21 ignoring all my efforts to keep demand below 5kW for the rest of the month. What a shame with such rip-off for 20 minutes running laundry dryer and oven at the same time! That even considering that A/C was...

Unfortunately there is no confusion between dollars and cents per kW when SRP calculates demand fees. Please see my posing in this thread from Jun 27, 2020 with explanations of those ridiculous rip-off charges

How's about timeanddate.com? It has everything related to time and calendars including sun calculator

Which affordable software can be used for designing of site plans and 3-line diagrams similar to those in attached samples? "AutoCad Electrical" would be ideal. But it's very expensive and it gives only 30 days of free trial period. I doubt it's possible to learn such complicated package within...

SRP allows DIY solar installation. You can go to SRP Web-site and follow all guidelines for contractors. They apply for DIY projects as well. Download these two books from SRP Web-site: ESS_Full_Book SRP Distributed_Generation_Interconnection_Handbook They are very helpful and have most of NEC...

That's pretty interesting idea. But if I understand correctly, 1Ton in HVAC is amount of energy needed to melt 1 weight ton of ice at 32F degrees within 24 hours. Please correct me if I'm wrong since I'm not a HVAC specialist. So if A/C is 5Ton, it means it can melt 5 ton of ice in 24 hours of...

This is my energy report for almost entire year in Phoenix, AZ. Please see a screenshot My system was commissioned with just 42 panels and one inverter 7.7kW in November, 2019. Then I upgraded it with second inverter to 12.96kW and 64 panels total in April. It covers 93% average of 11 months...

SB5000US-11 is a pretty old model manufactured in 2012. In the end of last year (when I submitted application for utility permit) it was still on their approved list. I was lucky that my system was approved and commissioned before utility removed that model from the list of approved equipment...

My second inverter SB5000US-11 is negative grounded on DC. Actually there is a choice in it which side of DC to ground "+" or "-". I chose "-" for convenience. Also P2.1 on page #12 of its Installation Guide it Says that "Sunny Boy is suitable for use with fuel cells, small wind power plants and...

I'm still researching a DIY solution based on diagram #2 from my posting on 6/29/20 above. Unfortunately I don't have a vacant MPT channel in any of my two inverters. So I'm thinking about hooking up battery inverter with rectifier in parallel to one of solar strings and without PWM. It will...

Hedges, thank you for information Below is 1-line diagram from SBS6.0-US-10 manual and my own 3-line diagram approved both by SRP (utility) and AHJ (City of Phoenix). It was inspected and officially commissioned by both those sides in April. I just erased PII from it If I understood you...

I already looked at "Sunny Boy Storage" SBS6.0-US-10 battery inverter. It looks promising for my goals and it's certified by SRP (my utility company). However my biggest concern is a 360V "high voltage battery" which is pretty special, expensive and not common for the market. I'm looking...

I turned on my DIY "Smart Demand" system on 10/18/20 with preset demand limit 5kW in PowerShell code running it. Diagram below shows how effective is demand mitigation with manipulation of just A/C compressor based on momentary and average demand levels during peak time This is how it's...

Now, when Summer is over, here is more detailed statistics of energy generation and usage in my household. Please see a screenshot from utility bill "On Peak kW Max" - that's infamous monthly peak demand explained on 6/27/20 in this topic which I'm trying to mitigate As I mentioned earlier, my...