Youtube: Solar power, in emergencies.

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#1854919 29-Aug-2017 18:43

I hate to ask a stupid question, but all this "anti-islanding " is applicable to electrical generation of wind power also, right?

Lastman

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#1854932 29-Aug-2017 19:53

kingdragonfly: I hate to ask a stupid question, but all this "anti-islanding " is applicable to electrical generation of wind power also, right?

It would do as it relates to the electrical system.

From my reading, I don't believe there are approved inverters for providing back-up power in NZ homes that are grid connected and relevant stadards are still being refined.

Aredwood

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#1854950 29-Aug-2017 21:18

If you are in the Vector Lines area (Auckland), Vector offer a Tesla powerwall based solar and battery system that is both grid connected and can operate "off grid" in an outage. They also used to offer an non Tesla version of the same system. @Ruki and at least one other GZ member have those systems installed.

Stan

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#1855496 30-Aug-2017 20:38

What you would need for this is a solax hybrid inverter+a few lead carbon batteries with an EPS relay.

My solar wont work during a power outage but as I hardly ever get one its not concerning.

kingdragonfly

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#1855603 31-Aug-2017 07:46

I was thinking about what would happen during a natural disaster.

My understanding about lead carbon batteries only last about 7 years.

Here's an article from HomePower about various batteries

https://www.homepower.com/articles/solar-electricity/equipment-products/grid-batteries

Stan

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#1855682 31-Aug-2017 09:09

kingdragonfly: I was thinking about what would happen during a natural disaster.

My understanding about lead carbon batteries only last about 7 years.

Here's an article from HomePower about various batteries

https://www.homepower.com/articles/solar-electricity/equipment-products/grid-batteries

The amount of cycles you will get out of a lead carbon battery depends on how deep you discharge it when you discharge it, if you only discharge it 20% each time you could get 11000 cycles even daily that's a 30 year lifespan.

Simply put size it correctly and you will get more than 7 years.

If you want really long lasting batteries go with NiFe but as you will find out like all batteries they have there drawbacks (charge and discharge efficiency)

kingdragonfly

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#1861966 10-Sep-2017 20:47

Good article on very big batteries.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3182369/sustainable-it/san-diego-installs-massive-flow-battery-that-can-power-1000-homes.html

"San Diego installs massive flow battery that can power 1,000 homes
Flow battery systems have an expected lifespan of more than 20 years

By Lucas Mearian
Senior Reporter, Computerworld

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has taken the wraps off a new battery energy storage project that will store up to 2 megawatts of electricity -- enough to power 1,000 homes for four hours.

The new vanadium redox flow (VRF) battery substation was installed by Osaka, Japan-based Sumitomo Electric and will store renewable energy harnessed from solar panels and release it when resources are in high demand during peak business hours.

...
One problem with flow batteries for residential use is that they're enormous. In order to power a house, you'd need a flow battery about half the size of your garage, Frankel said.
...
"

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neb

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#3007138 8-Dec-2022 04:03

This thread is now a couple of years old, has anyone looked at the Enphase IQ8's, whose claimed big feature of is that they provide isolated power during an outage, their buzzword terms being Sunlight Backup and Grid Agnostic, other vendors have other names for their versions of the same thing? Enphase have been stringing Aus/NZ users along for about a year now with these, the latest claim now being early 2023, but if they ever get here it looks like they'd provide the necessary solar backup to essential systems.

kingdragonfly

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#3007184 8-Dec-2022 09:19

From a US video posted November 2022

... Enphase has been talking about it for probably two or three years. They finally brought it to market. The really cool thing about this microinverter is it can supply your loads off the grid when the power's down with any available sunlight without batteries. So, that's unique in the marketplace.

All versions still converts DC power to AC power for each module, one microinverter per module. Really the only difference is this unique feature called sunlight backup.

The IQ8 is available. It's not available in large quantities, but there are some quantities available. It's a product that we can get. As far as pricing, it's more expensive than the IQ7. And then in addition, you also have to add some additional parts and installation of those parts, which can be to the tune of maybe $3,000 plus just for those additional products.

Pros: the IQ8 allows for the sunlight backup, which is a really cool feature unique in the industry.

Cons: Additional parts and price.

These additional parts allow you to back up some of your loads for some of the time. So if a cloud comes over your array, now suddenly you can back up less loads than you could a few seconds ago when the sun was out and shining brightly.

In addition, you're not backing up your whole house, you're just backing up some of your house and backing up some of those loads. Really cool feature but not whole house back up, and you could still add batteries if you needed to.

...You're probably just backing up a few small loads. And if a cloud suddenly goes over your array in the middle of the day when the grid's down and you're on sunlight backup, you might actually have to shed some of those loads for a time 'til the sun comes back up.

So the first thing I want to remind us is that the sunlight feature only works when the sun is shining. The sun goes down or a cloud comes in front of the sun, it's not gonna work at all at night, and less when there's a cloud in front of the sun.

So what happens is when the sun is shining on the panels, what we would do is connect some of your smaller loads to a load control feature from Enphase. And what that load control feature does is it pushes as much power as it can toward those few loads that you've chosen to back up. And then if a cloud comes over the sun, then it would drop off loads as needed. In addition, there's a transfer switch that's set up so that when the grid goes down, it switches to sunlight backup only, so we're not pushing power back out to the grid.
...

neb

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#3007384 8-Dec-2022 14:46

Yeah, based on what I'd read a while back they would be pretty much perfect for me, the loads are only a hundred watts or two which would be fine even on a cloudy day, and I've got a UPS in front of the biggest set of them to smooth out a short-term total loss. Problem is the availability, I assume they can't make them fast enough to meet demand.

pipe60

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#3007424 8-Dec-2022 16:40

You can get hybrid string inverters with a back up circuit, no battery required.

neb

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#3007425 8-Dec-2022 16:46

pipe60:
You can get hybrid string inverters with a back up circuit, no battery required.

Our roof has variable shading due to trees and odd roof angles, so we need to go with microinverters.

kingdragonfly

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#3007605 9-Dec-2022 08:25

This is all new to me. I found this article

Solar Reviews: What are hybrid inverters?

Back-up power limitations.

Some hybrid inverters like SMA or Sungrow don’t have the ability to use the electricity coming out of your solar panels when the grid is down in your home, known as pass-through power. This can be a frustrating realization if you don’t have a model with back-up power capability and the grid is down.

Other hybrid inverter models, like Imeon or Redback, allow you to route both solar and battery power to smaller essential loads during a grid outage.

While some hybrid inverter models such as SolarEdge do allow for full power to flow from your battery to your loads during an outage, others have a capped amount of electricity that can flow from your battery to your home loads during blackouts.
...

Gordy7

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#3007628 9-Dec-2022 08:43

When I last looked in 2017 GWL had grid free microinverters.... but appears they may be no longer available...

https://www.img4.cz/i4wifi/attach/StoItem/5071/gf-YC500_YC1000_ext._warranty_EN.pdf

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kingdragonfly

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#3007968 10-Dec-2022 07:23

I did a little research. This is GWL most expensive microinverter

GWL/POWER Gridfree AC Inverter With Limiter 2kW, High Voltage (60-110V)
GF-SUN-2000G2-T

"The inverter does not operate in island mode (offgrid)

Its operation requires a connection to the public grid.

The inverter switches off immediately in case of public grid failure."

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