My Grid Tie Batteryless Solar Panel Setup
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ก.ย. 2019
- Showing everyone my whole grid tie batteryless solar panel system. It is dead simple and wiring plugs into my wall. It's mostly a test bed for me to tinker with for fun. It has the advantage of providing a small amount of electricity during peak hours.
Get paid to save Electricity, Get $10 after first use: refer.ohm.co/soopersaver
Eligible for California utilities (PG&E, SCE, SDG&E), New York ConEd customers, and friends in Texas who can choose their own electricity provider and get rewarded.
DISCLAIMER: Before purchasing any products, know that in order to feed power to the grid, it is required to have a contract in place with your utility company. Since solar products generate live electricity, these things require proper installation for safe usage. Improper usage and even not installing a breaker at the power output of this system could cause fire and/or death in rare cases. Please use these products at your own risk. Just because it is sold on the market does not mean using them guarantees safety.
Solar Panel: amzn.to/2xnhXQ7
Grid Tie Inverter: amzn.to/41mDFAI
Short Pig tails to connect to connectors: amzn.to/2MP6DGd
► More resources at my Patreon: / beatthebush
► My honest reviews on Amazon: www.amazon.com/shop/BeatTheBush
► Mint Mobile, as low as $15/month: mintmobile.com/bush
► Moomoo, up to 17 FREE stocks: j.moomoo.com/008UFx
► Webull, up to 12 FREE fractional shares: bit.ly/2XwlcQ4
► Get $30 when you spend $30: www.rakuten.com/r/FRANCI7350?...
► FREE Audible Audio Book: bit.ly/2Z4RrN7
► Build Credit w/ NO Credit by Self-Lending: self-lender.3qcw.net/YYZBP
► BeatTheBush Honey Badger T-shirt: bit.ly/2FBAeLA
Other BeatTheBush Channels:
/ beatthebushdiy
/ beatthebushfoods
Ending Song: Rondo Brothers, Mr. Tea - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
![กินอาหาร ถูก vs แพง!! จานละ 500,000 vs จานละ 50!! [Ver. 2024]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FF_HppKg4vs/mqdefault.jpg)
You explained it perfectly! This is what I've been trying to explain to people! I love the schematic and how you talked about the to wires in parallel
Just what I had laying around. To think someone disagreed with doubling them up.
I'm laughing at all of these comments.
Thanks ... this is GREAT. I always wanted to play around with solar but never wanted to invest. This seems to be a great starting point. Thank you .
Watch out for the safety concerns. This one does have anti-islanding feature but you also have to take care to add a fuse to the system. If something shorts, it will trip.
Make more videos likes this please! I Love the technical side of beat the bush !
=D
Helpful, thanks for taking the time to inform us.
thank you very much this is one of the best videos i have seen on the subject.
Excellent video. Makes sense, thanks for posting, thumbs up for the video.
Thanks!
Excellent explanation. Cheers from Michael. Australia.
A very clear and clean xplanation i did subcribe i am a filipino living here in carson ca. Thanks for the info
"Should I touch it 😀 📻👈👈" "Haha, not dead"
😂😂😂😂
11:08 This "feature" is called anti-islanding. Sometimes referred to anti-islanding mode, or protection. I think all grid tie inverters have this safety feature, even if it's not advertised. Of course, it would be nice to test it out (like the host did) just to make sure.
Yup! I guess I didn't have the word for it when I made this video. Many people freak out saying it will shock electrical workers in the event of power outage.
I like that you tested that. But I really do think a true test that would be needed is to cut the power to the house from the electric panel. Reason is that when you pulled the plug on the power strip it would not test if the device was just testing for an available ground. Since a home has its own grounding rod, that is something that would not be disconnected by the power company. But some houses have the grounding wire done after the master cut-off (inside home wiring) at the master circuit breaking point. So you may want to test that side of things. Either way, very intriguing system and I'm tempted to try this myself!
I knew someone will say something but I will wait until next time to prove this. This second video addressed the grid-tie actually having an anti-islanding feature. Next one, I'll add that one.
Great Video. Lots of good information!!
Thanks!
Very nicely spocken.
its about time i find someone that explains how it works. you dont know how many videos i have watched until i found you. now i know i need a grid tie inverter. i'm not looking to get my bill to zero but this 2 to $300 a month light bill is killing me. we lost our dryer a couple months ago and now its cool enough we dont need a a/c on most days and still had a $250 light bill. and just got my bill a few days ago and with no dryer running no A/C and now my oven went out so no oven and i still have a $200 light bill. and in the middle of building a new house so not wanting to waste any money on anything i have been looking at on grid solar. but i do know that entergy WILL NOT pay you any money if you put power back on the grid if you get enough they will just Zero your bill. and if you put some back in you just lost it. but that would be ok with me. and maybe when batteries start dropping in price i will add some later
..good job!
Yes, you are right! I have studied and indeed when the power goes out, the inverter stops working.
BUT!!!!! But the question is: if you produce more power than you consume, you will send power to the Grid. You will have negative energy metering. This is a signal to the electric company that you have an illegal solar system.
I recommend buying an inverter with a limiter. Solar on Grid Tie Inverter Power Limiter 1000w. In this case, if you do not have big consumption but the solar panel produces electricity, the inverter GTIL2 will stop the excess energy. It reads your consumption using the CT sensor and limits production. Therefore, with such an investor you will NEVER send excess power to the grid!
How's your grow?
@@auntyuber5127 Today I’m waiting for a tool to put a lug on DC wires to GTIL2 1000w. And Today I will test launch the system: 4 panels of 280 watts ea and everything else. 10 elements of protection.
I turned off everything in the house and let only the solar power run for an hour to get negative power on purpose. It shows on my smart meter but I ended up not receiving credit but it registered 0.
@@BeatTheBush Just do not let the meter readings go into the negative zone, because then they (Energy Mafia) will send to you an inspector. Therefore, inverters with a limiter were invented So that you do not accidentally go into the negative zone.
@@BeatTheBush Interesting. So you were never contacted by the elec company when your meter went negative. You just never received credit, which is understandable since you don't have "net metering" meter and contract in place. I suppose if they were alerted by your standard smart meter and had an issue with your system, they'd send out some sort of cease and desist notice. So maybe they were not alerted because your smart meter doesn't have that capability. That tidbit of info would be interesting to know.
This is something that I should consider doing
=D
Veryyyyy good review!
Great video
Very nice and informative. I was scared you couln''t use 2x 36 cell 18v with grid tie but you explain it's not problem. This solar panels are cheaper and more compact for on my balcony!
Super helpful thanks
I always wanted to use solar panel or wind turbine in my home for reusable energy. I also plan to install rainwater harvesting system to collect rainwater from my roof and even make my own LPG, as I live in the rural side.
Wind power for residential homes are borderline worthless. They need to be up 60 feet to truly work, and even at that, they hardly produce. 1 extra solar panel will run circles around 10 wind turbines. (Hey they look neat though)
Nice job
If your speaker wire is 18 gauge (like mine is) and you connect both of the wires together for each leg of the circuit, you will effectively have 15 gauge wire. At 18 gauge it is referred to as lamp cord and was adequate to run the old 100watt incandescent light bulbs in table lamps. But, you have doubled the wire thickness on each leg so for your 130 watt system, I say no worries.
I like your affordable experiment that lets you explore the whole solar power possibility without the typical $20k expense. My neighbor is not really happy with the results $$$ of his expensive solar install. I believe the pigeons are definitely cutting into his cost of ownership significantly.
He had to hire a solar panel cleaning specialist to go on his room and power wash the dirty panels. Now that is an up and coming service career opportunity!
Your videos are great!
It took some time to wipe it clean. If I had it on my roof, I would probably just strap myself to some safety harness and wipe it down with windex. This is indeed a learning platform and it did its job. I may work up to adding to it later.
Speaker cable and lamp cord degrade in the sun, plus the insulation isn’t rated for DC (DC has a higher arc/flame potential) and is hazardous. 15ga is also insufficient to efficiently carry the solar electricity for any distance.
This is all just wrong. Unsafe, not efficient.
Excellent
Great Explanation
=D
I connected my grid tie 8nverter to the grid power for a month and when I got the bill it was actually double of what I paid the previous month...so I'm back to using it all off grid!
Thank you for sharing your exprience. I was wondering this because one need to deal with the utility. They might need to change the meter etc. In my area, without any permits I cannot touch the grid at all. Only way to go is off grid
Nice, good job
=D Thanks!
Good job! I am thinking of adding a grid tie connection to my setup.
It’s fun even if you only partially supplement you energy use.
@@BeatTheBush Indeed. Currently, the Solar project I am building is on my garage. With the goal of charging my PHEV vehicle.
Ultimately I want to expand it later to supply the house as well. Though that will be a separate system.
Finally Bro Ur amazing thanks
=D
Awesome video and buying a solar panel is a smart way because it will save a ton of money on electricity
With a max output of 150 watts, when the sun is shining, it won't "save a ton of money on electricity".
Break even is 3 years. The savings will be about $100/year after.
@@DisabilityExams ok lesson learned
@@BeatTheBush Saving $100 per year consider is a big money.Can use the $100 to invest to make more money
That's a very nice digital multimeter (DMM) you have there. I recognize the brand. It must pay to buy the high quality product, take care of it, and keep it for years versus buying a lesser quality one.
Fluke meters are the standard. This is a very old meter... more than 10 years.
BtB! This has made me interested in researching solar power on a small scale--like your two panels. Here, in Texas, some people have half their roofs covered in panels. I don't want to do that--not attractive real estate.. This helps a lot. Thanks, my friend. Take care.
I didn't want to put down $10-20k for a system having to wait 20 years to get a return. This way, I can experiment and play with it a little. It's about 1/30th of the $10k investment.
Gary B not attractive real estate??? Are you high? Everyone I know would love to have a solar system already installed onto their new house. You must be in a area full of boomers that hate new technology.
@@markm0000 I was just about to say if I saw a house with solar panels I'd be like um yes this one please, lol
I think his view point might just be from an aesthetics point of view.
The guy next door to me just had a full blown system installed by a solar company. No kidding...3 days later his house was on the market. Apparently, his realtor advised him to install a fully compliant solar system to raise the asking price of the house. He had an offer within a few days, so he will not actually get to enjoy any benefit of the system, other than it helping to get a quick sale. Is this a common sales tactic these days?
To save money I'm putting this video on 144p
This video does have a bit more visuals than normal so 144p may not be enough.
This is easy for you because you understand how electricity works
I modified my videocard and it converts the video to 8-bit.
That's really saving me a fortune!
I do that when I watch on the bus using my data :)
I've actually wondered how much power consumption differs on different video resolutions.
Up here in Canada they just approved a 400MW megaproject, Greengate Travers. They plan on setting up 1.5 million 200 watt solar panels (with possible expansion to 2.5 million panels if everything goes ok) Its not all that far from where I am. The chose the spot as it is the sunniest in Canada, and its also located close to a dam which can provide hydro power during the night, but conserve water during the day.
Nice! It's always fun to look at those large projects.
NICE VIDEO THANKS FOR MAKING IT. GIVES ME SOME IDEAS
=D
Very cool!
=D
omg we asked about this in a long time ago :)
Thanks for getting back to us
People kept asking so I had to respond. =D
Thank you.
You're welcome!
One thing is that this should be connected to a dedicated circuit. If there is a draw somewhere in the branch circuit, it could be fed by both the main panel and your inverter exceeding the capacity of the wire.
this is simple.! the current that goes through wires are Voltage devide by the load. Load decides how much current goes through wires at that particular time.
It will be the same current regardless of solar or grid, or solar grid all together providing the electricity.
inspiring, thanks
Great video!! I have been looking for a 'plug and play' solar panels set up, somthing I can litterally plug in and use to reduce my bills but then easily unplug if moving house and I think this is the solution!
Yeah, this is it. But it still needs its own circuit breaker not shown on this video. Also, the panels are not mounted so it's not wind proof for high wind areas.
@@BeatTheBush brilliant, thanks for the advice!
Very cool.
=D
Hi. I heard that a typical household in the US receives 2 phases (Here in germany it's 3), but your inverter can only supply 1 phase. How did you make sure that you cover most of your appliances? Are all circuits in your house connected to a single phase? Or did you just make sure that most of the appliances are connected to the solar phase?
I have a couple questions. Does this reverse on your meter? Didn't you say you saw negative power consumption on your meter? Also, do you get in trouble if you don't notify your electric company?
interesting, i really enjoyed your informative knowlege, but when you plug in your system into the recepticle , do you have to turn off the main breaker from the panel box. im thinking if you dont turn off the main breaker maybe you will experience a back feed from the panel box. help?
this guy was an electric engineer for a long time.
Great job man ! you've really simplified this explanation to a level anyone can make sense of it. That is how you teach people "stuff" . Keep up the great work! Now you have at least one subscriber in New Zealand! :D
Thank you! Not the dangers of doing this yourself and local hookup regulations with your electricity provider though.
@@BeatTheBush Absolutely! you made that really clear in your video. I am actually going off the grid altogether in the new year , but I watch and learn EVERYTHING solar, anyway. In this instance, I actually forwarded your link, to family on the grid, who are considering grid tie (in the US) . If anyone doesn't understand the concept, after watching your video, then i give up! :D
Great video, you area a natural teacher! Anyone have a link to a UL listed one for purchase?
Am I correct in assuming that the outlet used matters. That it will only feed power to the leg of your panel that you put into?
@BeatTheBush I don’t know why i was recommended this 4 year old video by TH-cam, anyways i watched it, most everything you have stated is about right with a few miner exception, for example ALL off-grid inverters with grid input connected is also technically connected to the grid, hybrid inverters with Zero export function with CT’s connected to the grid input acts like off-grid inverters if zero export is enabled or export limiter set to 0, in both case no net metering agreement is needed, ONLY when you export to the grid a net metering agreement is needed, so you can legally use a grid-tie or hybrid inverter with zero export or export limiter set to 0 without an net metering agreement.
Also the main technical reason why the power you produce from your solar panels is consumed by your house first and only excess energy would go to the grid is because grid-tie inverters synchronize with the grid with a higher peak curve energy signal, thus the higher peak current signal is consumed first, it does not have anything to do with the DC input into the inverter its the change in the output wave signal.
I use my solar setup for preparation in case of blackout. So I need the battery to keep empowering my house lighting.
Grid tie wont have a battery and the controller isn't meant for that.
Thank you for this video. I am facing a situation in uk where feed in tariff is no longer available. I want to grid-tie but I’m worried it increases bilks instead of decreases. I don’t have enough space on terrace to off-grid so I have to connect to my existing panel.
Here is the original video that caused people to ask about how everything is connected: th-cam.com/video/UWIccIrZMWI/w-d-xo.html
Assuming I don't have the ability to use a speaker wire. Or shrink wrap / sodder what line could I buy to accomplish what you did here?
What amp going in? You did not mention circuit breaker which you draw but you showed direct from grief tie to Main without circuit breaker?
You would generate better production by shortening your lines from the panels to the inverter, then running the distance of 30 feet (or however much you need) to the wall via AC power. Also, a question I was wondering. In your example where you are generating 150w and no systems are pulling that energy thus pumping back to the utility company. Would your meter begin to think you are consuming that energy? Since it is not net metering, would it just think that the energy passing through your meter is going to the house and not to the grid?
Yes, you would get billed for your own energy production if the meter doesn't "know" which direction the juice is flowing.
Don't you need a solar charge controller with the solar tie in? Someone please help if you know. Also do you know if there is a wattage minimum for this inverter?
Great video, but I don't see the sense if when power is gone inverter won't work. Is that something just to offset your light?
It's really just a toy for learning. Power is usually not out.
Smack some power storage into that setup and you won't be sitting in the dark during the next blackout.
Exactly thinking about that like storage in DC batteries!
I have separate backups if I want lights during a blackout.
Batteries are expensive and don’t last forever. A generator can power most of your home for a couple days until the power comes back.
@@BeatTheBush Do you have a separate video up talking about your back up system for blackouts. I want to keep computer and few lights running as we have a few power outage a year
If power is out then it probably wont power the internet either. With my low burn rate and minimal resource usage, I can probably go a week or two with no power. LOL. No video on living with next to nothing just yet.
I bought NewPowa 100 watt mono solar panels and still have not used them. This is my DIY channel but will be adding them to my other channel. I may try picking up a grid tie inverter for a 400 watt array.
will the power from the electric company back feed on my set up if i leave the main breaker open? im thinking the power will come back in on my setup and trip my 15 or 20 amp breaker , help
I feel your explanation was the best I have ever seen. I like many others I'd guess would like to dabble in solar power. I like that you make it doable for the average person to mess with it also. I want to do this also and get my feet wet in solar power. You'll never truly know what you are missing until you jump into the ring and do it. Thanks for making this video and taking the heat of the experts and answering the back seat drivers. I want to know something about this shit! I want to get dirty also! Making only a drop of your own power has to be a little bit exciting. We are so controlled by the power companies and there bend over and pay the bill bullshit. It always goes up, and you feel trapped into there paradigm. Always brand new trucks and pay the bill yesterday corporate threats.
Me buying this system had multiple purposes. First really was to try it out and I actually did learn a lot. It's pretty fun to generate your own. Second is lower my electric bill even if its a little. Third is I can make a video on it! =D
It's also a fun conversation piece when people see it. I also just like looking at it.
Thank you for the video. One question I have would be is there a way you can place an extension cord from the Grid Tie Inverter to the outlet in my home? Looking to put the solar panels in my yard about 100 feet from my home. Does this reduce the amount of power coming from the panels through resistance in anyway? or better question may be is there a specific type of extension I would need to use for this? Thank you.
Ac is designed to transfer well over a distance but there will still be some loss. I’d say a few percent. Thicker the cable the less loss.
so question, if your power were to get cut off during a storm or outage, would you not be able to generate power from the panels?
The grid tie inverter does not generate AC out when the mains is not powered. The panels will generate power but you will need an off-grid inverter to do so.
Great video! I'm thinking of doing the same setup but with 4 panels max...plug-and-play style. Will this cause any issues with the power company if they notice any power going back into the grid here in LA Cali?
Have you had any problems ?
Thanks for sharing. Your grid tie inverter, how does it operate in the event of a power outage? Isn"t it like the utility guy cut off the power?
Yes. It doesn't work in an outage.
You forgot to mention that the power from the inverter is only going too one leg of the 220 volt that is supplied from the grid. Nice simple setup but I would use a limiter. So inspiring.
Yeah, I didn't mention that.
Can you have multiple grid tie inverter plugged on your normal power distributor?
Does this solar power setup power lights(or other appliances) that are connected to a different breaker than the one connected to the solar power setup?
If all breakers are on, and powered by external AC then yes. If no external AC not detected, this grid tie system will not provide power.
love your video. i suspect your grid tie inverted has to have input from the grid to match the sine wave of utility company
What happens if you add an additional inverter (multiple inverters), each connected to its own set of PV panels, and have them both/all plugged into the same home (on same or even different circuits)? Will you simply get a cumulative effect where you are producing more power for your home devices, or will there be some sort of conflict between the different inverters?
Another question is can typical smart utility meters sense when you are pushing power back into the grid and subsequently get you into trouble? I suppose you could easily calculate your base usage level (the amount of power your home never goes below) and try to approach that level with your panels without ever feeding back to grid.
I have not done so but my guess is that you can just connect it all to the same circuit. Each inverter will only increase the voltage very slightly by a fraction of a volt to push energy back. Each one senses the phase of the power line and matches it in order to push power back.
I purposely pushed power back to negative as an experiment. I talked about it in my previous video with screen shots from the utility company. I was not given credit and paid zero for it instead.
Great video! I'm planning to do the same setup here in LA Cali. with 2 more panels in series but what will happen if the power company red-flags you? Will they fine you?
Hi,you better use off grid solar system with batteries.
So you can have this plugged in any wall socket in the home , and use another wall socket elsewhere - example Kitchen and Bedroom , and saving pulling power from the grid still applies ?
When all your breakers are on, the AC lines are all connected. You must then make sure not to over load the wires from the panels to the load. Hence a properly size breaker before connecting to AC is needed.
I guess these grid tied inverters have in built redundancies in the case that the feature that senses the grid voltage fails, but I'm wondering if you can add your own redundancy somewhere else to automatically shut off from the grid power when it goes down and automatically re-engage grid power when it comes back on?
When you turned off the power strip and read the male plug you are on the "off" side of the power strip. You would need to provide a path from one of the other sockets (on the strip) and read it there. You will find that the other sockets are "hot".
Tested with the power strip switch in on and off positions. This inverter has anit-islanding.
If I do this system and then later what to add another system can you plug two systems into outlets and increase your output. Meaning will the two systems work together for more power or against each other?
My guess is that yes you can but I have not tried it myself. Each system will look at the voltage on the line and raise their own voltage slightly to push power out. So someone down the street having the same mini system will work also.
Wow this really reminds me of highschool.
This was called science fiction back in my day
=D I learned a lot just from getting this small setup. It was my goal while getting a little solar energy while doing it.
Hello friend, how does the circuit breaker works and makes stove consume energy. its little confusing for my self. it seems cheaper solution compared to zero export system ? thanks alot
which fuse/breaker do you suggest?
Is that 150 watts per hour feeding back into the grid?
What happens when there are other solar systems connected on the same neighborhood grid? Wont the inverter think there is still 110v on the grid when the power from the electric company is turned off?
No, each house is in parallel up to the node.
You can take the engineer of the engineering job, but you can’t take the engineering out of the engineer 😉
Working at a typical job, you wont get to play with a system like this unless maybe you work for a solar company.
Do you have a bigger system kit to recommend? Grid tie system without battery that is.
No at the moment but when I am ready to add more, I might just add another setup that's exactly the same.
More i think about my question i am now wandering if one inverter would lie to the other in a utility power outage and not shut off and in return put power out on line possibly hurting a utility worker.
If there is some device that push power back out then this inverter will still think the line is active and still send out power. But any anti-islanding inverter will also do that. Hence, there will be one non-compliant inverter that will be responsible but the other ones will get tricked into contributing.
What if you plug the AC power cord side into a backup battery that are made for computers will it recharge it?
No. This system requires an external AC voltage to be present before it will send power out.
My home has a digital energy meter, do you know if I connect the solar panels directly to the grid, the digital meter will still go backwards? Thanks
NO it won't. Digital smart meters will not to this, if fact there are power company's (like mine) will CHARGE you for the power you are producing and bu the way, inverters like this one are ILLEGAL here in the USA
Thanks for the video. Do all grid-tie power inverters have the automatic cut-off safety feature?
Not sure. But the one I showed will not send back into the grid without already having power there.
@@BeatTheBush Thanks BB
Can you put them on any circuit or does it have to be it's own circuit. for example say you plug it into a living room socket with a TV running would it not cause the breaker to kick in with 2 sources of electricity hitting each other? Or does it just offset your normal supply from the grid say 150 coming from the panels and the other 250 coming from the grid
He explained that in the video when he used the stove as an example. No breaker will "kick in". The device will draw power from either source as needed.
@@AGhostInTheMachine I see thanks for clearing that up 😂
It offsets your normal usage from the grid. But you do have to watch out for not overloading the wiring in your house. 150W is fine but you might have problems when generating 1kW and pushing it into the internal wiring.
The grid tie inverter is not really freely generating it's own synchronized sine wave. It looks at what is on the grid first and generates a sine way that matches in phase with what is out there. It raises the voltage by a tiny fraction of a volt to push energy back out. So it's not like using a car ac inverter and plugging it into your home wall. In that case, sparks will fly and trip a breaker.
If you house is wired with a generator transfer switch can you set it up to power a few breakers? I think when switched it wouldn't back feed, but if it doesn't detect the grid because its switched separate would that inverter not work at all
For grid-tie inverters in general, they do not work when the power is out or when used by itself.
Are sure about that test? You have the output of the Wattmeter plugged into the output of the inverter. The Wattmeter is designed to measure the input power on the side you have connected to the powerstrip.
Yes it works both ways. Kasa smart plugs that measures energy works as well. It wont read negative though, always a positive wattage.
what do you recommend for a grid tie but with batteries. Basically i want to build a custom battery backup
The battery backup option is very different because the inverter is a different unit.
Question: If the grid tie imverter shuts off power when the powerline worker shuts off power, won’t that also block it from working during a power failure?
Correct. When there is a power failure, a grid tie inverter will not operate. This is a safety feature and required.
So do you wire to the breaker or are you just plugging into any outlet in the home?
You must wire it to a circuit breaker so that it can trip in the case there is a short on the same circuit.
3:22 You measure voltage across the wires wires straight from the panel and claim it has something to do with the inverter logic. Was that a mistake?
LOL, I'm glad you're not dead (4:16) so we can see more videos served with a smile (11:32) :-)
I try not to touch any AC contacts by habit. Even if I just measured it.
If I already have a system with Sun Run and it is under producing can I setup some panels on the patio and plug this into an outlet out there to offset my short fall per year after the true up?
Technically yes, but to be safe you shouldn't have anything else on that circuit. The reason being is your circuit breaker can't sense the additional strain on the circuit being feed by a plug in system and it's possible you could over stress the wiring (which is what the circuit breaker is there to protect against). In practice, if the plug in system is somewhat low output like this one, and there's not much on the circuit, the risk is minimal to nonexistent. If you aren't going to hook this up on a dedicated circuit like you should, the safest way to hook it up would be at the END of an occupied circuit (the last thing on the wire coming from the grid/service panel on that circuit). This way the other devices that are on the circuit consuming energy will be feed from either end and there's little to no chance of over loading the wiring (assuming the output of your plug in solar system is below the capacity of your household wiring on that circuit).
Hopefully this all makes sense.
I’m planning to build an apartment with a submeter for electricity in it. Can I install solar panels on my apartment so that my tenants can use the solar power?
What would happen when you have your neighbor with solar setup also feeding the grid? ( maybe more powerful system) Would that trigger your inverter to think utility power is still connected?
If utility turns off power and the neighbor has a solar setup feeding the grid WITHOUT anti-islanding feature. This inverter will this the grid is still on and still continue to feed the grid. So it relies on compliance from everyone on the same circuit.
Ok easy so far. Now how would you scale this system up? More dual panels in series connected in parallel to stay 24v? And given your current inverter limitation how far can you scale. Is larger gauge wire a better choice and is solid better than stranded?
It is limited by the inverter. So I could technically add another 2 panels to this inverter. And if I wanted more, I could add another inverter and keep on adding panels.