Search results

Aside from volt-watt, PV inverters should also have Volt-Var management, adjusting the level of reactive power generation as needed, be it leading or trailing as the voltage determines.

Rooftop PV plays a minor but important element in strategies for reducing carbon emissions, and enables use of an idle asset (rooftop space) to contribute towards that. In that sense it has much wider value than just to the homeowner. It is after all the reason why there are incentives around...

That's for the grid's protection, not used as a tactical curtailment strategy. Tactical changes to demand and supply are used to adjust the grid's frequency, not the other way round. Put another way, if you wanted to curtail rooftop PV by employing a tactic of raising the grid's frequency...

Or use a means to reduce exports, or even production, to zero during such times. My inverter has export control, should that ever be required. But if prices are negative, then turn on discretionary controllable loads (e.g. water heater, EV charging) and get paid for consuming.

Pretty much all grid tied inverters have that but changing the grid's frequency is ASTONISHINGLY DIFFICULT and would never be a tactic ussed to throttle grid tied PV. There is MASSIVE inertia in the grid and grid operators work very hard to keep grid frequency within a very narrow band. They do...

People will buy them. There will be die hard off-grid lead acid set ups using 2V cells who need either more or replacement capacity. At worst they have scrap value, roughly $0.50 per kg of battery. Metal recyclers will take them.

The vast majority wouldn't. For those interested, watch the development on this stuff in the state of South Australia. They are the world's canary in a solar mine with solar PV meeting close to 1/3rd of the state's electricity demand and VRE (solar + wind) at 75% so for this year. Yeah it's...

It probably won't need to get quite that high. Check the volt-watt requirements for grid-tied solar PV in California though, I don't have that at my fingertips, but on the high side, I think when voltage exceeds 106% of the standard then the PV inverter's volt-watt mode kicks in and begins to...

You can if you allow grid voltage to rise high enough. Crude, indiscriminate as local voltages vary considerably, but it works. Better to have smarter control though.

I note in recent days California's grid batteries have been discharging at 6+GW during the peak period and covering 25% or more of the power demand for 60-90 minutes. In those peak periods they were the single largest source of grid electrical energy, that light green blob on the right is...

I run a hybrid LiFePO4 and SLA battery so it is possible. However it depends on few things. Objectives? Type of lead acid battery and the charge voltage specs? They differ depending on the lead acid battery type. Relative capacity of batteries? What is charging them? In my case the SLA (~400...

This morning I hooked up the spare AIO for charging the battery. Unfortunately it looks as though the comms in my AIO is toast. Comms were a bit intermittent to begin with, I did a bit of fiddling with settings and comms came alive and I was able to adjust parameters as normal. All good I...

No.

No. Not sold in Australia. In my case Solar Assistant communicates with my AIO inverter and also my Victron Smart Shunt for overall battery status. But instead of the shunt it can instead monitor the BMS of a battery system directly. My AIO inverter is not set up with closed loop comms with my...

You sure are full of good ideas! I have a spare 4 kW AIO which can act as a charger. Indeed I recently hooked up this spare AIO to the home battery so I could test out using our EV's V2L as a means of providing supplemental charge if we had an extra long outage (instead of using a generator)...

It will depend on what data the Sol Ark supplies to Solar Assistant but I'd imagine that it would have AC input voltage and probably grid frequency. You can use those to set up an automation. Mine tracks a few things from which an appropriate trigger can be based: e.g. I have an automation...

Apologies, just realised following is not specifically about Victron and regulatory issues but is following on from the discussion on permitted wiring methods. I hadn't thought about using a 32A x 3-phase cable/plug/power inlet tied together at the AIO's output. But it's a great idea. I have...

I run like the above - with a manual transfer switch pretty much permanently left in in generator/off-grid supply position, the power for which comes from my AIO inverter. But I do feed my AIO with grid power from a dedicated (non-backed up circuit) for pass through to loads when I want that...

I think we have crossed lines. I'm not talking about what it is is/not permitted but rather what it is capable of. Some inverter AC inputs are incapable of energising the circuit is supplying them. For them power can only flow in one direction and they can only ever present as a load. As far as...

That's a bit of a confusing description. What do you mean by "input", input to the grid or input to the inverter? For some devices they are one and the same thing. If the connection to the grid has the potential to energise the grid, then that is the concern. My inverter has an AC input but...

I'd have thought that would apply to generation source which has the potential to energise the grid.

Contact Tesla directly and escalate to level 2 support.

Interesting, must be different set up specs to here. I note the document is some years old and mentions compatibility with Gateway 1, which hasn't been used for some years. Gateway 2 is the current model. I would want to check on the specs for generator use. It also has some inconsistencies...

That's unfortunate.

The Powerwall is a highly functional battery system and can do many things when set up correctly. They are mostly designed to do the thinking for you. As to operating the Enphase PV (at least some of it) during a grid outage, that is definitely is possible and the installer (or Tesla) should be...

I use Node Red for the logic for deciding whether or not supplemental charge is required: That then updates relevant entities which are used in Home Assistant automations which switch the supplemental charging on or off as well as manage the rate of charging based on available excess PV: I...

No, it's not. The Powerwall operates in different modes when grid is and is not available and the AC output is not the same in each mode. In off-grid mode the PW will raise the frequency of the AC output, especially if the battery is at a high state of charge. I can't imagine what would happen...

I use Solcast and have it integrated in Home Assistant. Provides week ahead and hourly forecasts. Can see how it performs over time compared with actual. The dashed line in the lower chart is the PV forecast provided by Solcast:. Daily: Hourly (archive): Hourly (live): I use it in...

Was this requirement stated in your brief to the installer before they quoted for a system? What was the operational promise they made to you about how the system would operate? Surely if you are spending $100k you are going through such details before anything is installed? Powerwalls...

I’d tell you a joke about a blunt needle but it’s pointless.

I put my old cheapie spare 4 kW AIO back into action as a charger for occasional use to charge the home battery from the car's battery via the vehicle to load adapter. But when not used I turn the AIO off as it has a 45 W idle draw. I could use the idle mode which is supped to reduce that to...

Finding a good joke is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Yes but $150! Man Pis are expensive. Pretty sure mine were never that much. You still need to purchase a Solar Assistant Licence. It might be cheaper just to buy a pre-loaded Raspberry Pi from Solar Assistant. You just go to the local IP address for the instance of Solar Assistant. Suggest...

Oof.

And here's me thinking torque is cheap.