Just for your information .....

[Daniel65]

Back in mid-Sept, I asked if anyone had any recommendations for Solar
Battery Installers .... Well, Buyer Beware!!

Back in 2020, having a bit of money to spare, I had a 18 panel, 4.5kW
Solar Panel system installed and now, having more money to spare, I paid
Solar Battery Group just over $8,000 to install a 5kW Battery, thinking
that would give me Power security .... but NO!

Yesterday, at about 7:15p.m., the local Mains power went out and I was
left in darkness. Surprise, surprise, when the Mains back on about a min
later, so did my Power. At about 10:00p.m., when I checked my Power
System, the battery was still indicating over 60% full.

So this morning I rang the Solar Battery Group, the supply/install firm,
and they said the Solar Battery arrangement had worked as expected. The
system wasn't meant to maintain power in place of Mains power, it was
only meant to supply power WHEN THE MAINS WAS AVAILABLE so "in place of"
NOT "in the absence of" mains power.

The SOLAR BATTERY GROUP will, however, sell you, for $1,300 or so, an
optional extra, a Power Outlet connected directly to the Battery System
which will supply up to 3kW maximum .... but, still, during an outage,
you'd have to go out to the Battery (or the special power outlet
adjacent to it) with a extension cord to plug in your most desireable
(less than 3kW) devices!!

I suppose, eventually (if I live long enough), I'll get back my $8,000
for the battery and $2,500 (I think) for the original Solar Panels ....
but who knows!! ;-(

Just FYI .... if you are considering getting a Battery installed.
--
Daniel

[Sylvia Else]

You also need to check that the system will be able to charge the
battery from the solar panels during a power outage. This appears to be
not a given either.

The ability to do that saved us from the effects of an outage that
lasted more than a day (and a week for some people in my area).

Sylvia.

[Daniel65]

Sylvia Else wrote on 5/1/24 8:20 pm:

Bugger!! Guess what my Power Supply Company has scheduled for me on
Monday 15/1 (9:00a.m. till 5:00p.m.)??
--
Daniel

[Phil Allison]

Daniel65 wrote:
============

** In order for a solar system to power a premises during a blackout, the AC supply line must be disconnected first.
Otherwise the solar system will try to power the whole neighborhood and also electrify cables that are expected to be dead by electrical workers. Though possible, such automatic disconnection is rarely installed.
Typical solar systems RELY on the AC power being present to work at all.
Running a gene or an inverter direct from the battery are the only options.


..... Phil

[Computer Nerd Kev]

Daniel65 <dani...@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:
> Yesterday, at about 7:15p.m., the local Mains power went out and I was
> left in darkness. Surprise, surprise, when the Mains back on about a min
> later, so did my Power. At about 10:00p.m., when I checked my Power
> System, the battery was still indicating over 60% full.
>
> So this morning I rang the Solar Battery Group, the supply/install firm,
> and they said the Solar Battery arrangement had worked as expected. The
> system wasn't meant to maintain power in place of Mains power, it was
> only meant to supply power WHEN THE MAINS WAS AVAILABLE so "in place of"
> NOT "in the absence of" mains power.

Yes to power the house when the grid's down you're required to have
extra circuitry to make sure that it definately can't feed power
back into the grid and zap someone working on the line.

> The SOLAR BATTERY GROUP will, however, sell you, for $1,300 or so, an
> optional extra, a Power Outlet connected directly to the Battery System
> which will supply up to 3kW maximum .... but, still, during an outage,
> you'd have to go out to the Battery (or the special power outlet
> adjacent to it) with a extension cord to plug in your most desireable
> (less than 3kW) devices!!

I guess that's a lazy way of them meeting the requirements, some
people (in Australia) do have systems that switch over the house
wiring to battery/solar when the mains goes out, but I guess that's
not offered by all installers. It is a surprisingly expensive option
from what I saw online.

An alternative to their system would be to just buy a UPS. It'll
need a separate battery, but you could keep it inside, and it would
switch over automatically for devices connected to it.

> I suppose, eventually (if I live long enough), I'll get back my $8,000
> for the battery and $2,500 (I think) for the original Solar Panels ....
> but who knows!! ;-(
>
> Just FYI .... if you are considering getting a Battery installed.

It looked too doubtful that I could make back my money before the
batteries died when I considered it. But I haven't even got around
to setting my solar panels up yet to be honest, too many other
jobs.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _# | Note: I won't see posts made from Google Groups |

[Daniel65]

Phil Allison wrote on 6/1/24 1:41 pm:

<Snip>

> ** In order for a solar system to power a premises during a
> blackout, the AC supply line must be disconnected first. Otherwise
> the solar system will try to power the whole neighborhood and also
> electrify cables that are expected to be dead by electrical workers.

AH!! Brings back 'fond' memories!!

I was in the Army for twenty years, in R.A.Signals. At one time, maybe
late 70's, I was at the H.F. Transmitter Station at Digger's Rest, Victoria.

One evening, the Mains died, so one of three 300KVA Blackstone Diesels
started up, as it should, but the lights, etc., were cycling on and off,
on and off.

As were the lights, etc., in the homes at Diggers Rest.

Seems, rather than losing the three phase mains, we had lost the Neutral
line, so the Generator started up as it "should" .... but, with-out the
Neutral to reference, the Phase Voltages were wandering all over the place.

And the Three Phase supply hadn't been 'lost', so the Mains CCT Breakers
hadn't dropped out, so the Army Camp was trying to supply "wobbly" three
phase power out into the real world.

Opps!!

--
Daniel