We live on Bonaire an island near Aruba, it has expensive electricity, lots of sun and a Dutch run grid system. The AC to our house is 3 phase 127V 50Hz.
After much research a Growatt SPF 5000ES seemed perfect to power a subset of our 230V 50Hz appliances in a batteryless configuration.
The panels, inverter etc were purchased in the USA and shipped to Bonaire. A local registered electrician with solar experience installed the system for us. Once we removed the bonding screw it appeared to work OK. We programmed it to use PV first then AC from the grid. The PV array generates plenty of power that we can measure using a clamp meter. We were satisfied and very happy.
A month later we received our first utility bill - no savings. We did some measurements. It appears that the inverter is not using the PV power and simply passing through AC from the grid to match the attached load. ie its "stuck" in bypass mode. This is also what we see on the display and on remote monitoring using the dongle.
Interestingly, when the AC input is turned off, the inverter powers the load with PV OK, but as soon as AC is restored it is 100% passthrough.
Having read lots of threads about grounding issues with this inverter do I need to change the installation in any way to help the inverter to work correctly?
I have attached my home made diagram of the installation.
any advice much appreciated
phil
After much research a Growatt SPF 5000ES seemed perfect to power a subset of our 230V 50Hz appliances in a batteryless configuration.
The panels, inverter etc were purchased in the USA and shipped to Bonaire. A local registered electrician with solar experience installed the system for us. Once we removed the bonding screw it appeared to work OK. We programmed it to use PV first then AC from the grid. The PV array generates plenty of power that we can measure using a clamp meter. We were satisfied and very happy.
A month later we received our first utility bill - no savings. We did some measurements. It appears that the inverter is not using the PV power and simply passing through AC from the grid to match the attached load. ie its "stuck" in bypass mode. This is also what we see on the display and on remote monitoring using the dongle.
Interestingly, when the AC input is turned off, the inverter powers the load with PV OK, but as soon as AC is restored it is 100% passthrough.
Having read lots of threads about grounding issues with this inverter do I need to change the installation in any way to help the inverter to work correctly?
I have attached my home made diagram of the installation.
any advice much appreciated
phil