I used to manufacture PV panels and believe me, the back isolation is really thin and any scratch can cause isolation problems even in rainy days so better not to put it in direct contact with liquids for a long time.
The panels are not that efficient, most of the light is still turning into waste heat and the panels can get to 50+ degrees easily.
If you are already using electric based water heaters you already spend power on the heaters, so giving the heater warm water to start with will save power. Solar water heater installations are often augmented by electrical heaters already. What I'm proposing is free cooling for the panels and free preheating for the heaters.
Yes the inverter generates a sinewave with the same phase but with a higher voltage than the mains and it also has a high output impedance approaching current drive. If there are too many inverters on the grid it can drive the actual mains voltage too high and all inverters have an over voltage limit to shut them down when this happens. They also have a feature called anti-islanding which means that if the grid and mains fails the inverter will shut down thus making the grid safe.
When I watched the video I first thought WTF, everything's outside, the mains distribution, gas, the boiler and the inventer. Over here (nearly) all homes got a cellar, so everything's inside. And the few homes whithout a cellar got a dedicated utility room for all that stuff.
That simplifies the installation but is a bad feature IMHO. I'd like an optional mains contactor to disconnect the grid and run my little island if the grid has on outage. If the grid is online again the inverter would need to re-synchronize to the grid. Of course the inverter needs a sensing input from the grid, i.e. parallel to the mains contacter. And if the inverter it's synchronized it would connect the grid again.
over here the meter lies on the downpost from the overhead lines(or underground downtown) with a transparent plexiglas window(it's not a protruding wall-installed box but an embedded one), the door has a special secure lock that only utility guys have a key to access.
That box is han
On another small box lies YOUR side of the grid per-se where you have to put two big screw-in ceramic fuses(they look from around 1920ish) in what iirc is a lot like an edison screw, the fuse is actually a strand of wire(the fuse itself has two screws to replace the "fusing element"), if it blows you essentiually eyeball it.
Also, i don't remember seeing a differential breaker(or at least not in the configuration i'm used to, which is that king of fat/boxy front ones), that strickes me as odd
over here the meter lies on the downpost from the overhead lines(or underground downtown) with a transparent plexiglas window(it's not a protruding wall-installed box but an embedded one), the door has a special secure lock that only utility guys have a key to access.
That box is han
On another small box lies YOUR side of the grid per-se where you have to put two big screw-in ceramic fuses(they look from around 1920ish) in what iirc is a lot like an edison screw, the fuse is actually a strand of wire(the fuse itself has two screws to replace the "fusing element"), if it blows you essentiually eyeball it.
A typical mains distribution panel for a home looks like this one: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IlFRyHMSviA/TN70AWU7hYI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/1bh1C0vtB-Y/s1600/00000001.JPG The black cover will be replaced with the meter. And the main fuses are NH types (http://mschrod.de/Elektrik/Sicherungen/NH.jpg) with 35A (3 phase system is standard).QuoteAlso, i don't remember seeing a differential breaker(or at least not in the configuration i'm used to, which is that king of fat/boxy front ones), that strickes me as odd
RCDs are placed in the distribution panels for each flat/apartment/floor, or if there's just a single main distribution panel then it's placed there. A standard 3 phase one: http://www.voltus.de/out/pictures/generated/product/1/665_665_75/2CSF204201R3630.jpg.
Got solar panels (non PV) for water heating and supporting the central heating on the roof. On a sunny day in the summer the temperature goes up to 160° celsius.
over here the meter lies on the downpost from the overhead lines(or underground downtown) with a transparent plexiglas window(it's not a protruding wall-installed box but an embedded one), the door has a special secure lock that only utility guys have a key to access.
That box is han
On another small box lies YOUR side of the grid per-se where you have to put two big screw-in ceramic fuses(they look from around 1920ish) in what iirc is a lot like an edison screw, the fuse is actually a strand of wire(the fuse itself has two screws to replace the "fusing element"), if it blows you essentiually eyeball it.
A typical mains distribution panel for a home looks like this one: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IlFRyHMSviA/TN70AWU7hYI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/1bh1C0vtB-Y/s1600/00000001.JPG The black cover will be replaced with the meter. And the main fuses are NH types (http://mschrod.de/Elektrik/Sicherungen/NH.jpg) with 35A (3 phase system is standard).QuoteAlso, i don't remember seeing a differential breaker(or at least not in the configuration i'm used to, which is that king of fat/boxy front ones), that strickes me as odd
RCDs are placed in the distribution panels for each flat/apartment/floor, or if there's just a single main distribution panel then it's placed there. A standard 3 phase one: http://www.voltus.de/out/pictures/generated/product/1/665_665_75/2CSF204201R3630.jpg.
None of which is remotely like that used in other countries.
Got solar panels (non PV) for water heating and supporting the central heating on the roof. On a sunny day in the summer the temperature goes up to 160° celsius.
That would be for steam heating then.
None of which is remotely like that used in other countries.
None of which is remotely like that used in other countries.
How does a typical mains distribution look like in the UK?
How does a typical mains distribution look like in the UK?
I don't have any pictures on hand, Google works as well for you as me..
This is a fantastic thread/video. I wanted to get in that industry about four years ago, but didn't get the chance. It still is a topic of interest for me.
Internet, meet reality.
Internet, meet reality.
Thanks! Wow! The local power companies would refuse to connect such distributions to the grid (maybe the first and the third).