Plugged A Solar Panel Into My Home For 7 Days | Here's What Happened

I love the idea of "Plug-N-Play" solar but is this a feasible way to offset or eliminate your monthly power bill? I tested out a product I purchased on Amazon which provides a way to plug into an exterior outlet and feed power into your electrical system. Before you go out and purchase a similar product let me walk you through my results and also what you need to consider to have a safe and approved installation.

DISCLAIMER: This video and description contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission.

[everydaysolar]

DISCLAIMER: This video and description contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission.

[manolisgledsodakis]

@Everyday Solar To answer your question about the electrolytic capacitors: they should NOT run hot or even warm. That would be a sign that they are incorrectly rated for the application. Electrolytic capacitors tend to have a short life in cheap inverters and charge controllers but failure is usually obvious because the top of the capacitor will fracture and vent smoke OR the rubber plug in the bottom of the capacitor will be pushed out. Yours look OK. More likely that a fuse has melted or a semiconductor has blown. It's hard to tell from the video but it does appear that the semiconductor immediately above the toroidal coil (top right on the lower PCB) has exploded.

[seymourpro]

I'd always prefer to have a solar backup to mains so I'd prefer batteries. Here in the UK feed-in payments have gone down, they were 100% at first but now it's about 5%. Most times I want backup power, it's already dark so a charged battery is more use than a dark solar panel.

[jmorrison]

Permitting in my county is to complicated for a DIY, they talk green, but the use red tape.

[jimcarl]

As an experiment, can you turn your breakers off so the home is not drawing power and show a video of your meter while it is backfeeding. Let’s see if it goes backwards, forwards or stay stationary. I hear lots of opinions, but I have never seen this experiment. thank you.

[richj]

So, the little black devices in the middle of the unit are the things that need heat sinking. If there is a heat issue, it would be there, not the 3 capacitors. You would need to check on the type of devices there. You could also use a infrared camera while the unit is open to check if there is one of those that appears to be hotter than the others. I will bet it will not be easy to get a schematic with parts information, but if you see one or more getting hotter, you can look at the part and there usually is identifying information on them. If you have a warranty, I would not go further, if not and you want to repair, find those parts. desolder the hot ones, and replace them with new parts. Be sure to apply a heat sink compound.

[JanRademan]

It addtion to the pads on each of the 6 capacitors, it looks like they may have forgotten to remove the adhesive blue tape from the two big rectangular thermal pads on the components next to the capacitors. It might be resulting in less heat transfer to the case from those components. You can see they made allowance on the cover for those pads to also dissapate heat.

[jedics]

Had my 2kw solar/9kw battery system producing easily 80% of my needs 4 years now, the first year it produced 95% which was a bit of a struggle in winter but is still amazing for such a small system. Installed it myself so payback is already achieved. Since I did it, its even easier to do yourself with all in one boxes and is a no brainer for anywhere with decent sun.

[ncooty]

Contraptions like these--especially ones that need to integrate with other systems--really make me appreciate standards and certifications.

[bill]

I looked into this just deeply enough to come to the conclusion that I wouldn't live long enough to break even.

[Flppers]

I have an old Y&H/ecoworthy inverter (I think they're part of the same company). What I found is that you cant run them a full wattage/full amperage. You need to halve that or it fails. They're coy with the specs on what tolerances their components have. I suspect the top wattages are the company being a little loose with the truth. Some of the ones I looked at inside had some quality control issues where connections had been reversed on the mp4 connectors. I'd strongly suggest checking your polarity on the unit (even the panels).

[thesurvivalist.]

I did grid-tie for years, now I just bought more poly solar panels, and went fully off grid!

[theandonly]

I'd be interested to get a used solar panel just to run some lights and chargers. Even if it doesn't feed into the grid, it would still replace some power we would otherwise have to pay the utility for.

[Nova-md]

DO NOT give the power company any electricity, they are not your friend. They are profiting from your solar hardware expenses.

[Kantuski]

Another informative video, thank you for taking the time to do this experiment. I have 4 GTI installed and on my 1300 watt setup I am getting right around 1 Kw per day and using over 20, so my ROI is over 9 years but offsets and fun are PRICELESS!

[RobertAnthony-mq]

I just added a two 400 watt panel "Plug and Play" system. Not so much to reduce my electric bill, but we had a power outage and I thought, OK, now what do I do? Bought an EcoFlow Delta 2 and extra battery to keep some electricity 'stored'. Another point is with all the storms, floods, etc. It makes good sense to have some autonomous power capability! I lived on the Gulf Coast for 30 years and we always kept food, water, and extra gasoline in case of hurricanes. My wife is from California and they do the same in case of earthquakes. They don't happen often, but a thousand bucks of insurance will help when they do!

[solarcabin]

Thanks for the follow up and I tried to warn people that microinverter is not going to pass code and does not appear to be safe. There are no heat sinks or fans on that unit. Don't recommend anyone buy one and look at off grid system components from reputable dealers not a plug n system that could burn your house down or cost you your insurance coverage.

[WesternIronwoks]

this is an easy addon to an RV system without any wiring needed.

[aznick]

Looked into this, but was told by some YouTubers that the power that they fed into their house actually ended up costing them because house meter couldn't tell that this energy was being directed into the house not used from the grid. Hope that makes sense.

[Keith-jm]

You exceeded the wattage Input. The power supply is only rated for 300 watts input as it states on the Amazon listing. So on a sunny day, it likely burned up that side of the inverter.