Random Renewables Thread

I'll leave that up to the installer! He has a few bits to do and said he would do that as well. I will post here if I get it done but he's up to his tonsils at the minute so I'm down the list.

It will do both. Everything will be the same except the inverter will not generate more than the house load + battery max input (You'll see this as an EPM), as there's nowhere to backfeed the excess to.

If you have a battery bank that can supply 100A or more and the inverter to do it, and you have wired most sockets and lights circuits to the EPS as opposed to the main grid connection, then you can continue as normal in a power outage.

(No one suggested backfeeding through the EPS. This may or may not work depending on the inverter but I woudlnt reccomend it!)

I know Victrons do, and I'm pretty sure Solis do too. The 6kW inverter has a 5kW limit on the EPS output.

As I said, depends on the inverter. Just because you have one that works (and that's great), I wouldn't presume that every device will do the same. I'm not 100% sure that the GivEnergy one that I have will do the same.

Using a Home Battery in a Power Cut, Home Battery Backup - Joju Solar

WILL SOLAR PANELS CHARGE THE BATTERY WHEN THE GRID GOES DOWN?

You’d assume it would, right? Unfortunately, it’s not always the case. More “cost efficient” backup systems will just discharge their stored energy when the grid goes down and the solar will turn off. This is partly due to the fact that if the battery inverter is smaller than the solar inverter then the solar inverter could overload the battery system. More expensive battery systems can be charged by the solar when the grid goes down. To do this, the battery inverter will have a higher capacity than the solar. Once the battery is full, the solar will either turn off or, if the systems can talk to each other, the solar will ramp down to match the building’s load exactly.

Most Victron hybrids have 2 outputs. Interesting design feature is that the AC1 output is the critical loads and AC2 is the limited one. Typically seems to be 32A or 50A on the bigger ones

I think it comes from the off grid idea, so you'd put something power hungry like your immersion heaters on AC2, so they don't accidentally drain your battery in a power cut. And you still have full power from the inverter for critical loads

If you want the best, get an SMA sunny boy.

Okay, I'm going to harp on about the fireman switch a bit more. I'm trying to get my head around the SEAI requirements. There's the infamous section 4.7 on the fireman switch

Okay, seems fairly straightforward. You need an automatic isolation switch which cuts the output of the solar panels to the house. It has to happen upon "removal of the AC supply" to the house and can't be from a dedicated switch.

It has to be the same switch that disconnects the house also disconnects the solar

But then there's section 4.9 concerning off grid and backup power situations

So it says that section 4.7 can be achieved using the requirements under backup power

It's also important to note that backup power is defined here as PV and battery storage. This implies that the solar panels are included in the backup power supply and it isn't battery only

Here's the problem, I cannot see anything in that section which seems to clarify the requirements around the fireman switch. It all seems to be around grid isolation to prevent the system feeding power to the grid

The only part which seems relevant is the statement around moving the LOM protection to the meter box

So, if I'm reading that correctly (and I'm probably not) then you can have the fireman switch fed by the backup power supply, on the condition that there is a single switch in the meter cabinet which isolates the grid supply to the house and also isolates the PV array. That switch also needs to lock in the off position, so that it cannot be returned to the on position accidentally

Finally, there's the recent technical bulletin which seems to throw all of that out the window

So it seems that SEAI are contradicting their own code of practice

Personally I think this is something they need to address pretty soon as it's just going to lead to people removing the fireman switch in a power cut which completely defeats the purpose of one

Other countries are quite able to have solar panels providing backup power without electrocuting their firefighters, so I don't see why Ireland needs to be special

Signed up too, but expecting just a load of spam from it.

Its just that same really overcautious obsessed with insurance & liability attitude that you see from the same civil servants who give us all our signalised roundabouts. These lads don't ever have the ability to say "Ah, thats grand, horse away". They'll have to put some twisht in the tail to leave their mark and slow people down

The only control SEAI have is the payment of the grant, nothing in legislation or on the DNO side. Once you get the grant, there's nothing wrong with removing the firemans switch installed per the grant requirements. This is what I will be doing. Long term, I'll be off grid anyway so there may not ever be a grid connection

Depends on the context of what you mean by "do I need an electrician". If you are talking about if it's a legal requirement, then no. If you are talking about do you (personally) need an electrician, then I guess it's down to how comfortable knowledable you are with electrics.

Yes, sorry I was querying the legal requirement. I'll have a look and see how things are up there.

I could put it on the landing but it'll look a bit **** so I wouldn't, nor would the missus accept it either. I'll stick a thermometer in the hot press and see how it is but I don't think it's all that hot.

I actually tried that 🙁 3M extension and an external aerial. It worked far more frequently, but have had at least 2 dropouts in the past week. Stupidly there's no way to check the RF signal strength between ME devices. They can see something but wouldn't share what it is. Also it's not just a case of the Eddi dropping out, it takes the whole myenergi system with it so also impacts the Zappi.

Instead of moving the Eddi, would it be easier to move the Hub? I'm guessing you've the older model which still requires the hub

Maybe a couple of homeplug ethernet adapters would let you move the Hub closer to the Eddi?

EDIT: Have you tried changing the channels on the Zappi and Eddi? I found I had to change channels a couple of times before I got good reception