Solar Panels

[Kanaloa]

Can anyone give me any information as to the rules regarding fitting a grid inverted to my electricity meter? I would like to equip my house with solar panels, whilst I realise that government / electricity company do not offer any financial incentives. I want to know that I wont be sued by them when the grid inverter starts to wind the meter back! Any advice would be gratefully received

[stevehaigh]

i don't have an answer but do you think you will make enough electricity to send it back to the grid? what kind of setup are you planning?

[JetsetBkk]

i don't have an answer but do you think you will make enough electricity to send it back to the grid? what kind of setup are you planning?

Something like this?:

[stevehaigh]

i don't have an answer but do you think you will make enough electricity to send it back to the grid? what kind of setup are you planning?

Something like this?:

solar.jpg

solar panels don't work well in really high temperatures, i think they actually work better in places like Germany!

for a place as hot as Thailand, concentrated solar power plant make more sense (for utilities, not people)

'Nevada Solar One uses proprietary technology to track the sun’s location

and concentrate its rays during peak demand hours. The plant uses 760 parabolic trough

concentrators with more than 182,000 mirrors that concentrate the sun’s

rays onto more than 18,240 receiver tubes placed at the focal axis of

the troughs and containing a heat transfer fluid (solar receivers).

Fluid that heats up to 735 °F (391 °C) flows through these tubes and is used to produce steam that drives a Siemens SST-700^[10]steam turbine, adapted to the specific requirements of the CSP technology,^[11] which is connected to a generator to produce electricity.'

[Longtooth]

When I asked PG&E (public utility in northern CA) about something like this in California, they said they needed a $1,000,000 insurance policy against possible damage to their grid. Of course, if the power pumping back to the grid is potentially less than the power used by, say, a very large aircon, I don't see any way the grid could be damaged. They just want to discourage people from the practice of cutting into their business. I think you 100% need an automatic disconnect to take you off line when it senses that the power company power is off. Otherwise you might kill a lineman doing a high voltage connection somewhere on the local distribution system (or even a 220v connection, if he thinks it should be dead). (You will pump backwards through the utility company's transformers and make high voltage too, that's how the power you make is used on the major grid.) I don't know if the workers here test for voltage and then apply temporary safety grounds when they do work, or not.

[gamba]

Nearly a year ago I buy a 3kw on grid system but unfortunate I still have no time to put it up. but soon hopefully.

I have no idea what they would say but they properly not have any valid answer to give anyway.

If a small system as I have, it will properly never reverse the meter anyway.

To no external grid power, the inverter properly see it as a short cut to low voltag and power off not to harm you electric installations.

Edited April 10, 2013 by gamba

[cloudhopper]

Don't even think about it here. Just use the grid connection for charging your battery bank when the cloud cover prevents adequate solar charging (which is very common here) and invest the saved money in extra battery storage. I doubt you would have much surplus power unless you had a 5kW or larger array, and then only occasionally.