Beginner questions

[greensoldierusa]

Hello to all. So, I had a solar guy try to sell me a 100k system for 21k of pv and 30kwh of battery... So after he quickly left I began stumbling through videos, forum, etc... I have a horrible electric company to deal with if I go solar and they really make it hard. Fist $45 fine (recoup fee), and then I pay a tariff of $3 per kw my system size is. Their idea of net metering is .03 . Well I am definitely not wanting to participate in that.

I cannot afford to attempt to offset my power consumption 100% but Id like to offset some and build on as $$ permits. I have 2 200amp panels that feed 1 meter. My thought was to take one of the panels off and put it off grid and adjacent to the grid? I have no interest in giving back to the grid and would only want to use them for what I cannot produce. Is there a way to achieve this without dealing with their theft? Or is there a better way to be thinking about this.

I thought about using victron however the AIO are appealing and seem like allot less clutter. I have so much clutter all ready with 5 kids and a farm lol.

Thank you all.

 

[BentleyJ]

Seems like the best approach for your situation would be an inverter such as a Sol-Ark 15K or an EG4 18Kpv. They both have 200A pass-thru relays so match up nicely with a 200A panel. This type of inverter is placed in-line with the 200A feeder coming from the meter to the panel and has many user options available to select Time of Use operation and self consumption. CT's are used to monitor power coming in and going out so you can choose zero export.

There is quite a bit of info here about these 2 brands of inverters if you do some searching. Also YouTube has some good reviews.

 

[chrisski]

Here is another thread asking the same thing:\\

Zero-export inverter, not backfeed to the grid

Is there a inverter that supplements/ties with the grid, but does not ever backfeed the grid? When I search it seems this is called zero-export inverter, is that right? Or is it called limiter? I see it's something called zero export to ct, but I don't know what ct means? I just wanna use solar...

diysolarforum.com

Also, for whatever model you decide to go with, I recommend you contact the local distributor to ask them questions for your area. Mostly permitting.

I think the term is also zero export.

 

[highestbid]

If his electric company is like mine he will still have to pay all the fees & tariffs so going with zero export doesn't help at all. all he does is loss the .03 cents for any excess. Sad that companies are allowed to do this to us. The government is suppose to want to go renewable but they stop us at every point.

 

[greensoldierusa]

If his electric company is like mine he will still have to pay all the fees & tariffs so going with zero export doesn't help at all. all he does is loss the .03 cents for any excess. Sad that companies are allowed to do this to us. The government is suppose to want to go renewable but they stop us at every point.

This is probably going to be the case unless I'm completely off grid

 

[greensoldierusa]

Got some more insight from the power company about the fees etc and going into the next year hikes. Basically the company that they purchase the power through establishes the "recoup" fee. The fees are now going to $5 per kilowatt AC sized the system is. So Going to run Parrell to the grid and split my ac/heat from the house onto its own panel. Everything else will be offgrid therefore avoiding any associated fees and (in my mind) reducing the overall system size.

Thinking of purchasing the EG418kp at this moment with 2 power pro batteries. My only concern overall is the limitation of either of these inverters to 50amp with a single inverter. My concern is that we have 2 wells (home and livestock), pool pumps, workshop but most tools are battery with exception of table saws, compressor, etc . Should I possibly consider using 2 of the Inverters to avoid pulling too much amperage?