Re: Solar Electricity

Doug Laidlaw wrote:

My Retirement Village is switching to solar power. Applications have gone
in, but I don't know when it will happen. Excess solar power will be fed
back to the grid.

I missed the residents' info session, and my questions would have been too
technical, anyway. I really have only two at this stage:

a) In the specifications, the details for a battery were blank. Could
that
be right? Some details were omitted if standard, but these specs are to
support a Government grant. Perhaps we use the grid when the panels don't
output enough, but I would have expected a battery to even out short-term
fluctuations, e.g. when a cloud passes the sun.

b) Is my computer likely to be affected? It is a tower with a standard
switch-mode PSU. Only a model number for the inverter is given, but with
only one in the house, it would have to be suitable for everything, so I
would expect it to be sine-wave.

Doug.

I have solar panels at home myself.

The reason why you don't see battery specs is that your system is connected
to the grid.
So solar panels and the grid are both working at the same time
The moment you consume more than the panels produce, extra power is taken
from the grid. When the panels produce more than you consume, the surplus
power goes into the grid and your meter is counting backwards.
There is no switch that switches either to the grid or to the solar panels,
both are continuously connected.
There is a safety regulation that forbids solar panels feeding power when
there is no grid power is off.
The reason is that if grid power is cut for maintenance works, people with
solar panels continue to feed power onto the grid and maintenance workers
risc being electrocuted.

When a solar panel system works in "island mode", there is no connection to
the grid and surplus power is used to charge batteries. when there is no sun
the batteries will take over and feed power.
Normally this mode is only used for stand alone appliances like a phone
booth, a parking ticket machine and things like that.


--
MarcB

.

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