[RE-wrenches] Outback with grid charging

Exeltech exeltech at yahoo.com
Fri Aug 24 06:05:02 PDT 2012


David may be on the right track.

Check for a newer digital watt-hour meter at your customer's location.

Newer watt-hour meters have two "channels" of metering in an attempt
to thwart people who used to flip their mechanical meters over (usually
at night) and run them backwards to "un-use" power, and thus reduce
their utility bill.

As installed, newer W-H meters consider both channels "consumed"
power, so it won't matter whether the meter is installed correctly, or
reversed.  If your customer hasn't notified their utility company of
their system, this could be the problem.

Case in point:
When we installed a grid-tied PV system on our home, we obtained a
grid-tie agreement with the power company, they came out and
replaced our original meter with one that had been reprogrammed,
allowing one channel to measure incoming; the other outgoing power.

Without that change, we'd have been billed for our consumed power
AND our back-fed power, which would have easily increased our
bill by 50% or more.


Dan, Senior Engineer
Exeltech Solar Products



--- On Fri, 8/24/12, David Katz <dkatz at aeesolar.com> wrote:

From: David Katz <dkatz at aeesolar.com>
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Outback with grid charging
To: "RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Date: Friday, August 24, 2012, 7:43 AM


 
 





Check to see if their meter goes backwards.  Some utility meters actually charge for power when you are selling.
Or maybe they have no wind and a new big flat screen tv that they leave on all the time.
David Katz


----- Reply message -----
From: "Jesse Dahl" <dahlsolar at gmail.com>
To: "Wrenches" <RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Outback with grid charging
Date: Thu, Aug 23, 2012 11:28 pm




Hello,



I got a call from a family today about a system they had installed recently and they think they have a problem.  They claim their electric bill has just about doubled since the system has been installed due to outback using the grid to power the loads instead of the battery bank.  They claim the MATE always shows the system buying the exact amount as any load on the system draws.   Due to the distance from my shop, I would like to get any ideas on what could cause this before I drive all the way there.  

 

What I know about the system:

2 - outback inverters, 48v 

2 - whisper 500 wind generators with whisper charge controllers

16 - MK 12v AGMS (8/inverter)



I guessing setting, but if anyone has seen this before, I'd like to narrow it down before the drive.  



Thanks eh!



Jesse



Sent from my iPad!!!

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