@BalooUriza @balkonsolar no, the panels have a built-in inverter that only works as long as it detects a healthy grid supply. This was specificly designed as a safety measure to prevent backfeeding of disabled circuits.

They are also limited in power to ensure that they can't defeat circuit breakers in detecting overcurrent through house wiring.

(This toot only applies to the situation in Germany)

@anthropy Yeah, I am going to look at one of those however they have the downside that they are single phase. If I am a good boy and register the change I also need to register my current non-certified equipment and that probably won't end well. Plus the inverter is near the end of the life cycle already.

So we are still doubting between doing the legal/right thing of replacing this setup with an inverter/solar combo that is at least on the approved list or just being a bad citizen and take the risk. Going only single phase there are some cheaper options, but cause it causes grid imbalance not something too good and it will not solve our problems of dropout when the grid capacity is exceeded.

Our power company offers as solution for 7000 euro, excl. the needed additional costs for the meter cabinet (which I am definitely not touching and needs full replacement) something. I do think it is what most people will be looking at as an indication.

We will be leaning to something not so 'right' because it's insane, but at the same time my partner works for the grid provider... xD Perhaps his employer might be able to help do it right and chip in (though in exchange for privacy, they want all data then).

It's a messed up situation for sure though that everyone with solar panels will need to navigate within a year. xD

@maruno I mean, the companies that actively reach out to market a solution to you, are definitely the most expensive options you can get on the market x3;

If you want it cheap and easy: 3x that plug-in battery as example, one per phase, 7.5kWh total, will cost you ~3k, with zero additional costs, AND you can take it with you when you move to a new place.

But it's up to you in the end, perhaps your partner's employer can help, but the cheap options are not the obvious ones usually.

@anthropy I know you mean well, but best to stay with single phase battery instead of plugging in 3 batteries in different phases, still requiring a meter cabinet change and even more difficult and less up to code rewiring keeping a single phase inverter and just pumping power around the house, overloading all cabling. Ahaha xD

BTW, a fixed installation can't be taken with you yes, but it is sort of part of the house value so.

We still got to see, but probably one somewhat larger battery that can perhaps stop most exporting so we don't have to pay is the simplest solution and when we want to use it in the evening the grid is not overloaded anymore would be the simplest solution, even if it's not approved. At least till one of our inverters dies of old age.

@maruno if you have a rather standard digital meter, it SHOULD in theory be possible to just get the state through the P1 port, see whenever you're starting to send power back to the grid, and put that power into the batteries instead.

The battery I linked you actually has a P1 meter dongle you can just tack on for 25€, which should work with a large share of the meters out there.

but again yea, you can do it any way you want, all I'm saying is it neither has to be expensive, nor complicated

@anthropy I know how these batteries work, yes that is how I would set it up. There is still some issues not solved by it though and it's not exactly according to the rules. But yes a lot cheaper

Edit: the only thing not coming from the P1-meter directly though is resistance from the grid when it's overloaded. So it would actually need to store even when I am using energy on a different phase to prevent the solar panels from completely shutting down >.>

@maruno well regarding the "overloading": if you put them on less filled power groups you will not have this issue, and honestly most cabling is purposely overspecced; they want you to use 2.5mm^2 cabling for 10-16A but that can easily carry 27A, as example, and you'll find it's hard to get there.

As for solar shutting down due to grid overloading: the only real option there is off-grid unfortunately, your batteries won't cause the grid voltage to drop enough for the inverters to turn back on.

@anthropy It already is on a overspecced cable, there is something really think going there saying 50A or something on it, but it's not helping much. xD

And yeah, I can put all my energy users on that phase and rewire half my house LOL, that ain't easy either and can cause other issues. There is a reason why this is no longer an allowed setup, with a 3 phase inverter the export resistance is a sqrt3 of a single phase and it doesn't cause grid imbalance. A modern smart inverter can probably even generate more power to one phase based on usage perhaps?

Anyway all expensive solutions with the economically cheapest solution still being to just disconnect the solar panels and perhaps get rid of them is insane. >.>

Off grid is cool and makes sense with all the issues, but also feels like giving up and definitely a bit shady for a city house. All because our government sucked at anticipating the energy transition.

Let's do this.

Let's do this.

@pfriedma @f4grx @BalooUriza true, you can't use these in an outage. They don't oscillate themselves, need the grid to follow it (not an expert, @balkonsolar know the details probably). So for danger, the remaining thing is the shape of the plug, with the german "SchuKo" style hiding the pins until the connection is severed, which isn't quite so easy with these flat US-style sockets i guess... There's still discussion about "but what if i really quickly pull the plug out" though...

@BalooUriza @pfriedma @f4grx @balkonsolar
A grid-tied solar PV inverter isn't like a gas generator. It follows the grid waveform and will cut out within one cycle if the grid is lost. Unplugging the inverter, the plug is dead before the pins are exposed to be touched.

At 230V, 800W (the German limit for plugin solar) is ~3.5A. The German electrical regulator has deemed that a typical 16A power circuit wired in 1.5 sq.mm. cable will still be safe with 3.5A of current fed from the "wrong end".

@derdo OK, so can't use 'em in an outage because there's nothing stopping the power escaping the house back up grid... so what's protecting the circuit you're plugging into? Is that also nothing? At least in NEMA world, this would be the case, which would mean it's also a fire hazard and electric shock hazard for the user...

@pfriedma @f4grx @balkonsolar

Let's do this.

@pfriedma That's considerably less terrifying but everybody is seeing why this just screams unsafe to me right?

@f4grx @balkonsolar @derdo

@pfriedma That's considerably less terrifying but everybody is seeing why this just screams unsafe to me right?

@f4grx @balkonsolar @derdo

@pfriedma Yeah, the system my neighbor used was similar but the back feed generator interconnect was to select the locally generated solar and wind resources, fall back to the grid power as a source, or use grid power as a sink, and that was *mostly* automatic, and using contactors. Knowing how that system worked is why I'm looking at this plugin PV and thinking the only saving grace in terms of fire safety is that it's 5A.