GRID tie inverters

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carmic7
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Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2013 9:31 pm

GRID tie inverters

Post by carmic7 » Tue Apr 09, 2013 9:41 pm

Hi all,
I just thought I would pass on some important info for those of you who are thinking of using wind or solar to offset your electric bill. There are many inverters out there on the market labeled "grid Tie". Most of these are from China and are not for tying to the grid, they are for boats or RV's and the grid is nowhere in sight. The term "grid tie" has caught on and is a mis-nomer. A real grid tie inverter has complex electronic circuitry that monitors the phase of the grid current and adjusts itself to match the grid before feeding back to it. These are UL listed and cost upwards of 1000.00. The risk of using the wrong inverter is possibly creating a fire or having no power at all. The other safety point is that if you dare take an inverter and just back feed your home through an outlet or breaker, you may send power out through the lines and if its during an outage, you may energize lines that someone could be working on. Use a transfer switch or interlock that would not allow this to happen.

-Neil

techman
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Posts: 1329
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 11:49 am

Re: GRID tie inverters

Post by techman » Fri Apr 12, 2013 7:37 pm

Very important points. Thank you for your post. I only just recently learned this myself, being fully off the grid, I had no experience with grid tie inverters.

I am not a fan of grid tie interters due to the fact that they shut down when the power fails. What is the point of having solar power and loosing power when the grid goes down?

Using an interlock would be the best route to go, in my mind, if you want to go grid tie.

Thanks again.

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