Scatterling Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 Hi All, I have just had my PV system installed, and to be honest, I find much of the technical details quite confusing. My house is fed directly off the Eskom grid via a pre-paid meter. My grid-tied system has two strings of panels feeding into a Freedom Won Lite 10/7 lithium iron phosphate battery and via 5kW OmniPower Hybrid Inverter into my house. Everything, bar my electric oven, is connected to the inverter. After 9 days of running the system I am contemplating to also connect the electric oven to the system because of the surplus power available. Here is my problem: Notwithstanding my consumption feeding off my solar reserves, my Eskom pre-paid meter indicates a fluctuating trickle of about 10 kWh over a period of 6 days. I also run a Smappee power consumption monitor that shows the fluctuating trickle. Question: Should there be a trickle, or should the switch be completely off whilst the system is fed off solar? Am I looking at this the wrong way? Thank you kindly. Scat. Mark 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
___ Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 1 hour ago, Scatterling said: Eskom pre-paid meter indicates a fluctuating trickle of about 10 kWh over a period of 6 days That's around 70W constant. It's common enough for inverters to not aim exactly for zero, and aiming for 50W is a pretty common value. Maybe it is actually configured to do this? In addition, the inverter always react retroactively to changes in load. When a large load turns on, for the first second or so it runs from the grid, and only then does the inverter adjust to cancel it out. When the load turns off, it usually feeds back into the grid for a few seconds until it's adjusted back down again. If the ramp-up and down isn't completely symmetrical, I'd expect it to skew to one side or the other. Mark 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scatterling Posted May 9, 2018 Author Share Posted May 9, 2018 27 minutes ago, plonkster said: It's common enough for inverters to not aim exactly for zero Thanks. That indeed makes some sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Youda Posted June 21, 2018 Share Posted June 21, 2018 (edited) plonkster is correct. This inverter has many operating modes and while in hybrid mode, it draws aprox 80 Watts from the grid. In the offgrid(III) mode, the inverter will internally disconnect from the grid, but will stay synced with the grid frequency. This mode is drawing just 4 Watts. Edited June 21, 2018 by Youda sorry for writing in bold, it's a mistake Chris Hobson 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scatterling Posted June 24, 2018 Author Share Posted June 24, 2018 Youda, thanks for the confirmation and taking time to respond. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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