agsolar
New Member
I'm looking to build a battery storage system in the order of 5-15KWh.
AC coupled to be charged from existing small PV but to be mostly charged overnight on cheap TOU.
I've been looking at a number of inverters e.g Solis and others. Many have either 1 or 2 CT clamps for monitoring solar production or direction/phase of total load in case there is 'spare' power to charge.
My question is on the phase monitoring CT - does it need to be connected to the tail of the import meter, or can it go anywhere ?
The reason is that my house was extended before we moved in. There are two consumer units - the PV inverter is connected to the 'new' CU in the basement and access to the import meter/mains entry is impossible. The charging inverter would be in the same place.
Can these inverters work without CT monitoring, in a sort of manual mode? I.e I'd accept just timed charging. Or possibly, me observing spare PV generation and doing manual top up in the day (guess I would lose a balanced demand though?)
Edit: Ive seen that some folk like @SeaGal and @SteveB123 got CTs working over RS485 to Powerline converters, and Im researching that.
But still interested in knowing the inverters can be configured to work without.
AC coupled to be charged from existing small PV but to be mostly charged overnight on cheap TOU.
I've been looking at a number of inverters e.g Solis and others. Many have either 1 or 2 CT clamps for monitoring solar production or direction/phase of total load in case there is 'spare' power to charge.
My question is on the phase monitoring CT - does it need to be connected to the tail of the import meter, or can it go anywhere ?
The reason is that my house was extended before we moved in. There are two consumer units - the PV inverter is connected to the 'new' CU in the basement and access to the import meter/mains entry is impossible. The charging inverter would be in the same place.
Can these inverters work without CT monitoring, in a sort of manual mode? I.e I'd accept just timed charging. Or possibly, me observing spare PV generation and doing manual top up in the day (guess I would lose a balanced demand though?)
Edit: Ive seen that some folk like @SeaGal and @SteveB123 got CTs working over RS485 to Powerline converters, and Im researching that.
But still interested in knowing the inverters can be configured to work without.
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