So I just made a very smart decision or a very foolish one. I ordered a hybrid inverter for our solar panels. But this inverter was also pretty pricey. I know, I know. Just the other day I was complaining about not having enough money. But I've got 8 solar panels that are sitting out there doing nothing. That is literally a waste of money.
I had some room on a credit card and got the inverter and a battery to go with it. I eventually want to build up a battery bank enough to take care of most of our power needs. Except for big appliances like the fridge and stove. Those would require more wiring then I'm comfortable doing on my own. And, of course, the central a/c/heating.
Hopefully this inverter will work a lot better than the cheap, crappy grid tie inverters I've tried before.
Let me explain. A grid tie inverter plugs into a socket and feeds the power from your solar panels into the socket and into the wiring in your house. Since it's feeding power into your house wiring, your meter has to pull less from the electrical company.
But the ones I got were cheap ones from a country that is commonly known for making bad products. I tried to contact one of the companies and they wanted me to fix it myself. If I had that kind of electrical knowledge, dear, I wouldn't need a grid tie inverter. I would be able to wire everything directly into my fuse box. But I don't so piss off. Sorry, I get frustrated at companies that have crappy products and crappy customer service.
So a hybrid inverter also plugs into a socket but it doesn't feed back into your house's electrical. It works like a standard inverter in the fact that it brings power in from your solar panels and converts it to AC power. A standard inverter can also charge batteries with the help of a charge controller, which is usually a separate unit.
This one already has a charge controller in it. A charge controller helps keep your batteries charged at the proper level and not overcharged and explodable. Otherwise your solar panels would keep feeding power into your batteries until.... Well, I've never seen what happens to an overcharged battery and I don't want to. Hence, the need for a charge controller.
The reason that the hybrid inverter plugs into a socket is so if your solar panels aren't producing enough power to charge your batteries, the inverter can switch over to AC power from the socket and charge your batteries that way. Some people use these inverters to charge batteries without solar panels. Usually as a backup system for areas that the power goes out a lot. But once the batteries are charge all the way, say on a nice sunny day, the inverter will bypass the batteries and give you power directly from whatever power supply is suitable. You can set it to use the panels and batteries first or the AC first. If you run out of power on either, it will switch over to the other.
The trouble I might have with this unit is that it does not feed into the house wiring. The inverter and battery will be in the crawl space under our house (we have a sizable crawl space that I can almost stand up in) so I have to figure out how to get the power into our house. I may have to drill a hole in the floor or wall like they do when they're bringing you new internet or tv service. I will probably have to use extension cords or something like that. Maybe one day when we have a much bigger battery bank, we can get an electrician out to actually wire it into our house wiring. But for now, extension cords will do.
The kids rooms will be taken care of first since their rooms are closest to where the inverter will be.
I'm still really nervous about this because of how quickly the grid tie inverters went out on me. But this is supposed to be a good product and they are supposed to have really good customer service. So cross your fingers for me.
I knew I was going to have to get another inverter. I was looking at the better quality grid tie inverters and they were going to be just as much as the hybrid inverter. But that would have been without the charge controller and grid tie inverters do not work without the AC power. It's a safety feature so you're not feeding power into the grid if there are guys working on the electrical lines. But since the hybrid inverter doesn't feed into the grid, that's not an issue. So you can still use your solar panels and batteries even if the grid goes down. The same way a standard inverter works but standard inverters don't usually come with a charge controller and they can not charge your batteries from the AC outlet.
But basically it comes down to the fact that I was going to have to spend money either way. So might as well get something that can give us power independence but also access to the grid if we should need it. As for the battery, I probably could have run the inverter without one. But that's not usually recommended. And it will give us a longer amount of time before the inverter has to switch over to AC power.
Wow, this was a really long post. I was just going to come on here and say that I'd gotten and inverter and spent money that may end up biting me in the ass. But then I started explaining why and what inverter does what.
So I think I will stop that here before I start off on another thought tangent. Those are dangerous. Trust me. Take this post as an example. Also, take care and have a good day.
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