EEVblog #484 - Home Solar Power System Installation

Installing and initial testing of Dave's 3kW home solar power system. With Sunnyboy SMA inverter, 250W LG Mono-X solar panels, and net metering.

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[brianhilligoss]

Here in Iowa our meter spins in reverse when we supply to the grid. When we built the house we covered both east west roofs with panels. Cost was high but we almost have no power bill. RI is 7 years at our current figure. Then a 1kw wind turbine will go up.

[LiezerZero]

I would suggest taking that extra power your panels are creating and pipe it into a battery bank that would also power a hydro cell that would produce hydrogen gas for your gas water heater. But I would suggest you have a valve to switch back to the natural gas when you don't have the extra power to donate to the cell or upgrading the cell.

[turboslag]

There was a massive surge in PV installation here in the UK about 2 or 3 years ago, due to a government subsidy on the install price and a special deal on the feed in tariff back to the grid.  When I investigated the viability of the deal it fell down pretty quickly.  Depending on how many KWH a system fed back into the grid it was going to take 10 -15 years to pay for the system. Now, given that system prices would fall substantially in that time and the life of todays PV panels will probably only be about 20 - 25 years the numbers just didn't make good sense. And further, to qualify for the deal it was mandatory for the system to be installed by an 'approved' installer who would issue the necessary certificate in order that the owner could register for the feed in tariff payments. So it was all a bit of a gravy train for the manufacturers really.  And of course, in the UK, the hours of sunlight are far less than down there in Oz, so the rate of KWH production is way less.
PV panels prices have already fallen massively in the last 2 years, so those mugs that paid £10-20K for their 'subsidised' systems will be feeling a bit pissed off I would imagine!   I'll wait another 2 years when a whole system can be had for maybe a thou or two, then I'll buy and fit myself.

[loughkb]

Here's my question.   Your electric bill the month before and the month after the panels were installed?

By the way,  I have a tiny system with 3 15W panels and a 200Ahr deep cycle battery.   I use a 12V CFL camping light for reading, run my ham radios, and charge my cell phone/tablet off the system.   It was very handy when a winter storm knocked out power for 4 days once.

[EEVblog]

Yes, I was surprised they didn't put in a smart meter. Guess it's not standard/mandated in NSW yet. I'm thankful.

[Pathfinder]

EEVblog It would be nice to get a small update-video of how much power your system produced, how much you used of this and how much you fed to the grid.

[GadgetAddict]

Looks absolutely amazing and seems to be working great. I'm very jealous !

[EEVblog]

Yes. Majority of houses in oz do not have 3 phase.

[EEVblog]

Yes, two DC isolators, one on the roof, the other next to the inverter.

[Bryan]

My current project is micro-inverters for PV installations. This avoids the one shaded panel problem and provides redundancy for the inverter so the installation doesn't fall over if you lose the (one) inverter of a traditional system.

[snooze]

I love how you are just digging through his stuff and checking his things out, marvelous :D

[EEVblog]

One is for off-peak hot water which we don't have, but the meter is there anyway.

[mjlorton]

Hats off to you for taking the plunge!
...and yes...now that I'm in the northern hemisphere...I was wondering why I'm having a double summer!!! ;-)

[Dannyboy]

He explained in the video, but one is for tracking total power usage, and the other tracks the power generated by the panels.

[tunac]

Ripple control involves superimposing a higher-frequency signal (usually between 100 and 1600 Hz) onto the standard 50–60 Hz of the main power signal.

When ripple control receiver receive this signal, they shut down the load until the signal is disabled or another frequency signal is received.

Ripple control systems are used for switching tariffs, street lightning or other loads

[EEVblog]

We have a decent size block, but it's got some odd angles, so some parts not very usable.

[zforce]

The interesting thing, is over on the other side of Australia, we only have one meter for both solar and house. Some states over east use a net metering system so they need two meters.

[Footrotflats]

the ripple controll receiver is for switching between peak and off peak
hot water in nsw isnt controled it just has its own meter

[aryesegal]

Here in Israel we also have everything inside the house. I also find it interesting how the stuff are arranged @ Dave's place... Great video non the less, Dave. Thanks for sharing! :)

[Macka]

Yep, gas meter & gas hot water system, electricity meter and fusebox are all generally outside in Australia. Makes it easy for the utility companies to read your meter for billing.