Cheap Chinese grid tie inverters on e-bay

[K8MHZ]

I was amazed at the vast quantity of cheap grid tie inverters for sale. One, however, stood out from the rest.

From the ad:

Our inverter is a constant current constant power output .it would not exceed the 1000W, and not explode!!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/1000w-grid-tie-...572?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20bb3cc18c

I wonder how many of these are listed and safe to use.

 

[Electric-Light]

I doubt the utility would allow that to be hooked up.

By Ohio, I think it means drop ship form China. I can't believe the amount of writing fail in that listing. 'systen funcion" ?

If you connect them up to a power strip with male plugs which then outputs to master male plug, how would each unit know if the line is energized from other units or from the grid when the master plug is unplugged? hmy:

Of course the supplier will effective with their hands of liability by having their business in China.

 

[jaggedben]

I doubt the utility would allow that to be hooked up.

I agree.

I was actually surprised at the amount of specs listed and the claim of up to 94% efficiency. Don't think I really believe all those claims. It's also just funny that they say maximum DC input power of 1100W but only at 30.2 volts. You'd have to put panels in parallel to achieve that, and it's not the way anyone else does it.

The biggest problem I see, even bigger than no UL listing, is no mention at all of ground fault detection and interruption.

Most likely these things, if they are not actually dangerous, are a ripoff, and their real efficiency is very low, and/or they will just fail after not much use. If people are stupid enough to go for these and install them without a permit, my guess is at best they will never last long enough to pay themselves off. And that is if the person doesn't have a smart meter that adds energy exported to their bill.

If you connect them up to a power strip with male plugs which then outputs to master male plug, how would each unit know if the line is energized from other units or from the grid when the master plug is unplugged? hmy:

The same question could be asked about Enphase or any GT inverter setup with multiple inverters (including you and your neighbor both having solar systems). The answer is it isn't a problem. Even if the inverters don't lose the frequency clocking when the grid goes down (and they'll probably lose it), they can't maintain voltage on the whole grid, so the voltage will fall out of their range and they'll shut down.

 

[K8MHZ]

I doubt the utility would allow that to be hooked up.

How would they know?

 

[K8MHZ]

It seems that they are lightning proof, as well.

"you may have experience, when meet the big lightning, the power source of
the home appliance may damage, same reason, will also cause the inverter
damage, in this moment, the lightining protection can release thousand
voltage to protect the inverter not damage."

 

[ggunn]

How would they know?

When they investigated the fire, maybe?

 

[K8MHZ]

When they investigated the fire, maybe?

The real hazard would be islanding, not so much fire. Fire is just an additional concern.

Although.....as someone that, uh, knows someone that, uh, inadvertently tried to power a furnace blower motor with a regular old inverter and the power was still on....they will catch fire. The fire will mostly be contained in the enclosure, which is extruded aluminum. The internal parts didn't appear to be 'self sustaining' and the damage would be almost completely contained within the extrusion.

:slaphead:

 

[jaggedben]

The real hazard would be islanding, not so much fire. Fire is just an additional concern.

The fire will mostly be contained in the enclosure,

:slaphead:

Well, one possible danger is that some yahoo would connect 2 or 3 1000W inverters to a single 15A branch circuit with enough load on it to burn the wires where they're plugged in but not trip the circuit breaker. The basic problem is that this is being sold to consumers via e-bay as something they can just plug into the wall and power up. I'd say there's all kinds of ways that fires could occur.

 

[tallgirl]

The same question could be asked about Enphase or any GT inverter setup with multiple inverters (including you and your neighbor both having solar systems). The answer is it isn't a problem. Even if the inverters don't lose the frequency clocking when the grid goes down (and they'll probably lose it), they can't maintain voltage on the whole grid, so the voltage will fall out of their range and they'll shut down.

That depends on how much of the grid they are supporting. If the primary side of a pole pig or pad mount trips, I could support my neighbors at noon. If any of the six houses that share that transformer were making solar, we might be able to confuse the heck out of each other by thinking the other is the "grid". First hiccup and the house of cards collapses, but just saying.

Which might be fine with the other four on account of no one likes to be without electricity ...