Jean-Claude Malengret

The 25% limit on inverters is untenable. If they insist on this our customers will just go off grid and use a 3.5kW battery charger. The grid will essentially become a backup generator for battery low conditions.
I've asked my engineers to design a 3.5kW battery charger with CAN so that it can communicate with SolarMD, FreedomWon, BlueNova, Pylon and other populat brands. It will also integrate with the existing CAN based MLT Inverter ecosystem so that the battery charger will be controllable from the inverter.

(1) Yes, we are adding a software limit setpoint. In the case of the Powerstar (hybrid inverter) it will limit the source, not the load. I can see no reason why the load needs to be limited if the source is limited. The batteries take the difference.
In the case of a passive offline (UPS) type inverter the software limit on the source would automatically mean the load output would also be limited while connected to the grid. This is a problem as no one wants to pay for a 6kW Oasis inverter that can only deliver 6kW when offgrid and 3.5kW when ongrid. The additional output would be redundant. If a customer can only put 3.5kW of his load on the inverter he will likely find the excercise futile and not do it at all.

(2) Yes, if your solar array is less than 3.5kW then magically everything is ok again. The UPS you bought is legal until you put solar on your roof. Even if your UPS has nothing to do with the solar generation. There seems to be a conflation between grid tie inverters and battery based inverters. COTC does not seem to grasp how different these devices are.

As I was saying earlier. We are busy designing a 3.5kW CAN based battery charger that can integrate on the CAN base with other CAN devices. A number of our distributors are calling for this as their customers are all now pivoting to an offgrid topology with the utility being a batttery assist via the 3.5kW battery charger. I'm doing this at my house. This way I dont need to worry about COCT moving the goal posts again and again. I'm essentially offgrid and the grid is my 3.5kW geni backup.
 

Yeah I'm not talking about taking a load off the grid, I'm talking about moving a load onto the grid (because the PV-inverter switched off). When a grid-tied inverter trips, the effect is the same as moving the equivalent power to the grid as a load. It is not a problem when it's more or less random, but it's a big problem if everyone does it in lock step. Like marching across a bridge... 🙂
I've argued before that we can't apply grid-tied rules to off-grid setups (even those with grid backup) because usually those move loads back to the grid much slower (when the battery goes low). Right now that isn't done though. Hopefully it will change.
 

(1) Yes, we are adding a software limit setpoint. In the case of the Powerstar (hybrid inverter) it will limit the source, not the load. I can see no reason why the load needs to be limited if the source is limited. The batteries take the difference.
In the case of a passive offline (UPS) type inverter the software limit on the source would automatically mean the load output would also be limited while connected to the grid. This is a problem as no one wants to pay for a 6kW Oasis inverter that can only deliver 6kW when offgrid and 3.5kW when ongrid. The additional output would be redundant. If a customer can only put 3.5kW of his load on the inverter he will likely find the excercise futile and not do it at all.

(2) Yes, if your solar array is less than 3.5kW then magically everything is ok again. The UPS you bought is legal until you put solar on your roof. Even if your UPS has nothing to do with the solar generation. There seems to be a conflation between grid tie inverters and battery based inverters. COTC does not seem to grasp how different these devices are.

As I was saying earlier. We are busy designing a 3.5kW CAN based battery charger that can integrate on the CAN base with other CAN devices. A number of our distributors are calling for this as their customers are all now pivoting to an offgrid topology with the utility being a batttery assist via the 3.5kW battery charger. I'm doing this at my house. This way I dont need to worry about COCT moving the goal posts again and again. I'm essentially offgrid and the grid is my 3.5kW geni backup.
 

The 25% limit on inverters is untenable. If they insist on this our customers will just go off grid and use a 3.5kW battery charger. The grid will essentially become a backup generator for battery low conditions.
I've asked my engineers to design a 3.5kW battery charger with CAN so that it can communicate with SolarMD, FreedomWon, BlueNova, Pylon and other populat brands. It will also integrate with the existing CAN based MLT Inverter ecosystem so that the battery charger will be controllable from the inverter.