Fair enough.
All I was saying is if you are syncing with the mains, make sure you have the relevant protection fitted, don’t rely on the lack of mains commutation of the inverter as stopping the panels feeding the mains.
As for why they might output power, well depending on the design and what protections are built into the inverter and what else is connected to the mains a variety of things might happen.
It all works as a system and looking at one component in isolation is no guarantee of what will actually happen.
It all works as a system and looking at one component in isolation is no guarantee of what will actually happen.
Thanks. Yes, I was referring to the system I have works, as far as I understand it - and I assume other systems are the same. I'd assumed that the reason the inverter isolates itself on loss of mains was a protective measure not fortuitous, but I'm a civil engineer not electrical so don't know the detail!
You probably have a correctly installed solar generator.
Unfortunately not all are.
And equally unfortunately as soon as one installation is connected to our network it becomes part of a wider system of components that includes what your neighbour has installed and the residual bits of our network on your side of our disconnection point. It all gets messy.
And you’d be amazed how many people with those little Honda generators think a bit of flex with a 13A plug at both ends can be used to keep their lights on during a power cut. Not a good idea.
Apologies that you’ve ended up on the end of 28 years worth of rant.
Feed-in is now officially dead. The replacement thing, SEG doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get much of anything for your exported electric, unless your electric company is generous.
This. The lack of subsidy has torpedoed the economics for domestic solar PV.
For those interested in typical generation these are the monthly figures for our 4KWh system near Chester.
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It's a 50:50 split East/West which actually has hidden benefits in that in the main 6 months it will start generating earlier in the morning an finish generating later in the evening compared to a South facing system.
This actually gives you more usable power as you don't have quite the same peak in the middle of the day when you are less likely to be using that power.
Overall an E/W aspect doesn't produce a lot less than a South facing system, and seeing it still producing decent numbers at 8pm is pretty cool!
Hadn't thought about usefulness of East West split before 🤔, always been envious of neighbours due south roof calling out for solar.
Hadn’t thought about usefulness of East West split before 🤔, always been envious of neighbours due south roof calling out for solar.
Don't be, you can be using your own generation well after they've started importing power.
We also have a 3KWh system in N Wales which faces due south. This is a 'perfect' days generation (for the middle of September):
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As you can see it's pretty much done by just after 5pm
By comparison this is our E/W system at home the following day (not so sunny but still illustrates the point) and you can see that it's still generating well after the South facing system has packing in for the day:
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So don't discount an E/W facing aspect.... it has its benefits!!
Cheers Sharkbait 👍
