Solar Forum Trolls of The Energy Industry.

[animalfarm]

Interesting! What is the make / model of your inverter?

Not sure if you are asking me, so apologies if you are not.

Xantrex inverter.

One thing I'm still not wrapping my head around with your setup: If the grid goes down in the middle of the day, are your solar panels still providing power to the inverter and then to the house? Does your system auto-disconnect from the grid before kicking on?

If the grid goes down, solar and/or wind are still charging the batteries. I don't even know the grid is down which is why I must know what my load is at all times. (inverter can only handle <6000 kw at a time and it is best to stay under 5000 kw) Also the higher the load, the quicker the batteries drain if the grid is down, so ideally it is best to maintain under 2000 kw load.

We are grid tied only because propane for generator is more expensive the electricity and we have to learn and fine tune the system before going off grid completely.

The inverter takes DC power from the batteries and converts it to AC for the house. That is all it does. There is a little control box attached, like a thermostat control for your heater, which lets you program what you want your system to do, but it is not the inverter itself which does this.


My buddy works for PG&E (utility out here) and said that they require that inverters shut off when the grid is down because they don't want 4 Kw + being fed into the grid when their guys are up working on the lines that are suppose to be "dead".

So, I'm guessing any system that is grid tied and has batteries, etc. would legally have to disconnect from the grid if the grid goes down to protect the linemen.

I AM NOT net metering (feeding into the grid to save for later) I am only taking from the grid if I need extra. I do have a master switch on the outside of the house so that if I were to do net metering, hydro personel could shut off the power coming from my house but at that point it is very unlikely that there would be any excess power going back to the grid. This stuff is pretty much all automatic since one could not guarantee they would be home when the power went off.

There is a switch in my breaker box which lets me go from straight hydro to hybrid/off grid or vice/versa. All very easy.

 

[sunsaver]

Last night i was attacked by a solar forum troll.

The energy industry wants the cost of transitioning to green energy to be born on the backs of the middle class. You pay for the solar panels and assume all risk, pay for home-owners insurance, etc. They get all the profits, buying your cheap solar power and selling it to your neighbors at peak times of hot and sunny days. They also get your carbon credits, and trade them for the right to be more polluting in other ways. The solar panels will pay for themselves, yes. The consumer's bill will be lower, yes. But ultimately it is the energy industry who is the big winner when it comes to grid-tied solar. If you go off-grid solar, you are the victor, the energy industry looses a customer, and carbon pollution is reduced instead of transfered around. They are just mad at me because i called them out about it, and because i have been making a public stink about the injustice of it.
I'm very glad that the moderators of this forum have been on my side with regard to this issue. People should be free to grow their own food, make their own electricity, knit their own clothes, collect their own rainwater, or raise their own chickens and eggs. When these rights become illegal, you'll know that you live in a corporate dictatorship, and you'll remember that Sunsaver tried to warn you.

 

[dragonlaurel]

I saw that one last night and reported it as a spammer. I didn't know anything about their company, but they obviously didn't belong on that thread.

 

[calendula]

I found it odd that this person already had a member title...

 

[savingdogs]

I saw that one last night and reported it as a spammer. I didn't know anything about their company, but they obviously didn't belong on that thread.

Me, too. I was impressed how quickly they got rid of the troll. Yay Nifty or whomever that was! I felt like our own Sunsaver was protected! That post did not belong here.

 

[sunsaver]

I saw that one last night and reported it as a spammer. I didn't know anything about their company, but they obviously didn't belong on that thread.

Me, too. I was impressed how quickly they got rid of the troll. Yay Nifty or whomever that was! I felt like our own Sunsaver was protected! That post did not belong here.

kstaven was the moderator who banned the spammer. I just want to say thanks to all of you for looking out for me. This is the best forum on te net!

 

[Wifezilla]

We r te awesome!

 

[Sebrightmom]

I would love to go off grid, but my husband already thinks I am crazy. I would love to just live off what we grow and raise. I want a more simple life. I am sick of how everything is a rush. We are lucky because we have an outdoor stove to heat the house which saves a lot of money. But I hate paying all the bills every month. I wish one of you lived closer so I could learn more about how it all works in person. No one around here that I know of has solar panels. I dont' know how to even get started. I would love to start small and keep adding as we go.

 

[sunsaver]

I would love to go off grid, but my husband already thinks I am crazy. I would love to just live off what we grow and raise. I want a more simple life. I am sick of how everything is a rush. We are lucky because we have an outdoor stove to heat the house which saves a lot of money. But I hate paying all the bills every month. I wish one of you lived closer so I could learn more about how it all works in person. No one around here that I know of has solar panels. I dont' know how to even get started. I would love to start small and keep adding as we go.

Being able to grow your own and live completely ss off the land is the hardest part. There's canning, drying and other ways of preserving your harvest, but i'm in zone 8 and the winters are mild, so i grow produce year -round, and just eat whats in season. Storage crops like sweet potato and butternut squash will keep all winter lying on a table in a mostly unheated room. Root cellars work good up north. Raising chickens or rabbits is easy, but when you get into dairy farming and cheese making thats a whole new ball game. I still buy, oil, cheese, milk, butter, flour, and the odd meat product. I would need a partner to tend the animals, while i tend the garden, in order to be completely food ss.
As for the solar, i started slow and made an expandable system that just about anybody could do. You would need some basic knowledge of electricity and home wiring. Generating free electricity is much easier than learning to be a successful home grower.

 

[valmom]

Gee, I guess I missed the troll incident. I think they are like driving past a car wreck, you can't help but look - and getting them kicked off the forum is even better.