home brew no export

[electrofelon]

Say you had an existing GT system where the inverters had no capability to do a no export function. Is there a simple off the shelf device that could do this? I am thinking all you would need is a CT and a simple circuit that PWMs a SSR to a dump load of come sort. The midnite classic charge contoller basically has that capability, but for DC sysems.

 

[ggunn]

Why do you want that? If the POCO requires no export then you have no choice, but I have heard people say that they just don't want to give kWh to the utility, in which case it is probably not worth spending any money to accomplish that. Don't stick it to yourself trying to stick it to the man.

 

[electrofelon]

Why do you want that? If the POCO requires no export then you have no choice, but I have heard people say that they just don't want to give kWh to the utility, in which case it is probably not worth spending any money to accomplish that. Don't stick it to yourself trying to stick it to the man.

Sort of just a thought experiment, but could be a practical matter for me. I am adding to my existing solar system and for a variety of reasons I do not want to update the interconnect agreement. They probably won't notice the extra output, but if it comes to it I may want to cap the export to a maximum value.

 

[ggunn]

... I may want to cap the export to a maximum value.

Real time (kW) or cumulative (kWh)?

 

[electrofelon]

Real time (kW) or cumulative (kWh)?

Probably limit KW to a max value

 

[ggunn]

Probably limit KW to a max value

If the inverter(s) is/are SolarEdge I believe you can use one of their metering devices, but for a general PV inverter I don't know of anything that would do it.