Solar in a blackout

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119717700#Comment_119717700

Just remember in a power cut you will need to lower the Discharge SOC so you can use it below your present setting of 40% afaik. Mine is in a hall beside my kitchen so is easily changed if I need that extra power in a power cut.

mswomex

Cheers @con747. Inverter stays on during an outage right? I thought I read in a previous post that the inverter shuts off but thats not correct.

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119717977#Comment_119717977

Once you have a battery it will stay on. You won't know yourself having eggs on toast in a power cut!

slave1

if you had an egg (elder melons will get it)

JayBee66

My KStar inverter (and probably others too) has two outputs "grid" and "back-up". Under normal operation the grid (hybrid inverter plus grid import when needed) circuit feeds the house. When the inverter detects grid loss it switches (<20mS) to the back-up circuit. Due to whatever the regulations are there is a transfer switch that is either set to grid or back-up so when there is a power cut the house will go dark. As soon as you are aware of the power cut, you switch over to the back-up circuit and the whole house is once again under power.

Due to old firmware, which made the inverter import from the grid rather than use the battery overnight, I spent a good few months, last year, in back-up mode with no ill effects to the system. Now that the firmware has been upgraded the inverter is now back on the grid circuit 24/7 but it's good to have the option to power the whole house, rather than just a socket or two, if there is a power cut.

10-10-20

Is anybody using micro-inverters with the blackout/isolation features to allow the inverters (such as Enphase IQ8) to create a grid in the absence of an incoming supply? How is that achieved at the CU, is there an isolation switch still required? Has it worked out ok in those situations?

Hurrache

'tis grand, nevermind what was posted…