by ELROY (Posted Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:20:28 GMT)
I have one of those smart meters. You can see in my very first post, SCE can monitor your hourly usage. So yes, if it somehow went backwards, which in not hard to imagine when at times during the day I am averaging under 1kWh. But with summer coming, the window A/C unit alone will raise that by close to 2kWh. So if I have a system that would offset the usage through a wall socket, it would be refreshingly simple. It would actually be nice to have an inverter that you plug the AC system into, and then it would just draw off the grid power whenever needed to make up for the deficit. But in a way, with everything drawing off the same house wiring, its probably effectively the same net difference any ways.
Wonder how an inverter such as this EBay one syncs to the AC grid power. Does it trace the wave form and frequency, and perfectly work in sync/phase with it instead of accidentally shorting out??
I have one of those smart meters. You can see in my very first post, SCE can monitor your hourly usage. So yes, if it somehow went backwards, which in not hard to imagine when at times during the day I am averaging under 1kWh. But with summer coming, the window A/C unit alone will raise that by close to 2kWh. So if I have a system that would offset the usage through a wall socket, it would be refreshingly simple. It would actually be nice to have an inverter that you plug the AC system into, and then it would just draw off the grid power whenever needed to make up for the deficit. But in a way, with everything drawing off the same house wiring, its probably effectively the same net difference any ways.
Wonder how an inverter such as this EBay one syncs to the AC grid power. Does it trace the wave form and frequency, and perfectly work in sync/phase with it instead of accidentally shorting out??
AndyH wrote:
Elroy,
I had a small 'guerrilla solar' system running for about two years. It is possible to do, and energy added to the house will offset household usage. Provided one has a meter that'll spin backward, it will anytime your local generation is greater than your energy use. I was able to get the meter to run backwards, but only after I turned almost everything in the house off.![;)]( "Wink")
It's not difficult to do in a completely functional and safe way, but it'll likely not be considered legal by the power company or the local code enforcers.
A legal option option that many are doing is to install panels, battery, and inverter and dedicating it to a single or small group of circuits in the house. Some take their home offices 'off grid', others run the refrigerator and freezer. They're basically building a PV-charged uninterruptible power supply. They use a transfer switch to reconnect to the grid if anything happens to the PV system.
Andy
I had a small 'guerrilla solar' system running for about two years. It is possible to do, and energy added to the house will offset household usage. Provided one has a meter that'll spin backward, it will anytime your local generation is greater than your energy use. I was able to get the meter to run backwards, but only after I turned almost everything in the house off.
It's not difficult to do in a completely functional and safe way, but it'll likely not be considered legal by the power company or the local code enforcers.
A legal option option that many are doing is to install panels, battery, and inverter and dedicating it to a single or small group of circuits in the house. Some take their home offices 'off grid', others run the refrigerator and freezer. They're basically building a PV-charged uninterruptible power supply. They use a transfer switch to reconnect to the grid if anything happens to the PV system.
Andy