• drkt@scribe.disroot.org
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    3 days ago

    Do you know how these kits work? The whole point is that they’re plug-and-play. If the feed back into the grid, they are not plug and play and will require coordination with your power company lest you accidentally kill someone because you’re backfeeding into a line they turned off so they could work on it.

    The kits have built-in measures to avoid backfeeding, or they would be illegal. Where I live, they’ve been deemed so unsafe, failsafe or not, that you’re just not allowed to use them.

    • Sleepkever@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      They cannot back feed when there is no grid power, yes. But they cannot differ between power used inside the house or outside the house. They can and will definitely push power back out to the grid as long as they detect grid power from other sources.

      • eleitl@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        If you happen to have an old Ferraris meter without a ratchet it can even run backwards when you produce more than you consume. And, of course the 800 Watt EU limit is a worst case limit. If you feed in on a dedicated (no other consumers or generators) line with its own fuse and sufficient wire crossection you can feed in up to about 2 kW. Be aware that the fuse will not trigger if you have a near-short while you generate peak or near peak which can cause overheating and is a fire hazard. While none of the above is legal and you will lose house insurance in case some electric-related fire event occurs it is safe technically.

    • Asetru@feddit.org
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      2 days ago

      Do you know how these kits work?

      Yes I do. Had one for some time before we got our own house and ramped it up to a “real” 8 kWp array.

      If the feed back into the grid, they are not plug and play and will require coordination with your power company lest you accidentally kill someone because you’re backfeeding into a line they turned off so they could work on it.

      Which is exactly why there are harsh regulations about the index of these things in Germany. Before you plug it in, you have to register exactly where you’re plugging what in.

    • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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      2 days ago

      Why dont they install switches on both ends of the line? Seems obvious. Power is no longer unidirectional.

      Decentralized grids are the future.