5 Jaw Meter?

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jaggedben

Senior Member
Location
Northern California
Occupation
Solar and Energy Storage Installer
Now I've read the article. (Had to eat dinner first!)

Thanks a lot for that link. Explains it all really simply. The fact that you are measuring the same hot leg in two different places is a really important piece of info that has been missing in this discussion.

Hope the OP comes back and looks at it if he doesn't already know how it's supposed to be wired.
 
Little Bill

Little Bill

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Tennessee NEC:2017
Occupation
Semi-Retired Electrician
Hv&Lv said:
Finally! After going through all the files on my puter, the mags laying around, then googling for anything to help, I found the perfect article on the good ole web... Look at page 22 :) We have one installation with battery backup on our system and had to learn some things the hard way...
http://solar2solar.com/resources/SOLAR PRO MAGAZZINNE/SolarPro1_1[1].pdf
Click to expand...

jaggedben said:
The forum is cutting off the end of the link for some reason. Just copy and paste the whole think into your browser:

http://solar2solar.com/resources/SOLAR PRO MAGAZZINNE/SolarPro1_1[1].pdf

Worked for me, but I haven't read it yet. :happyyes:
Click to expand...

jaggedben said:
Now I've read the article. (Had to eat dinner first!)

Thanks a lot for that link. Explains it all really simply. The fact that you are measuring the same hot leg in two different places is a really important piece of info that has been missing in this discussion.

Hope the OP comes back and looks at it if he doesn't already know how it's supposed to be wired.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I tried pasting the whole link but it didn't work. Then I copied your corrected link and pasted it and that worked.
The page is actually 24, or that's what it shows on my PDF reader anyway.
Interesting article. I've been asked to help with a PV install this fall and as I said in another post, I know very little about it.:blink:
Guess it's time I dove in and try to learn what I can.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
jaggedben said:
REC stands for Renewable Energy Credit. In some states (e.g. Oregon, where the OP is from), government incentives for installing solar include direct payments to the system owner for energy produced by the system. This total is different from the net-metering total so a separate meter is required, which answers your other question and comments.
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Should have known it was government related. Not going to say anymore in this area of discussion.


jaggedben said:
As for the 5 jaw meter...

Hv&Lv I don't really get what you mean by current going in two different directions. Maybe a diagram would help. I do get that the 5 jaw meter has something to do with the fact that most hybrid systems use 120V inverters, so there is unbalanced current on the hot legs, and they require independent measuring. So if one installs a 240V system, would a 5 jaw meter still be required?

Of course it would surely help me if I really understood how solar inverters handle unbalanced current, but that was another whole thread.
Click to expand...

Link to article helped a lot to understand why it needs to work that way, again I will not comment on REC's.
 
N

NorthwestPV

Member
Location
Oregon, US
I read the article. We are using an outback Radian Inverter. This has an AC input and a seperate AC output that are both 240V. It apperars the article is saying we need two Watt Hour, 5-jaw meters. Am I correct? I was wondering where to put the meter originally because the Radian has 6 different opperating modes. With 2 meters I could get both output and Input. I just hope the POCO doesnt have a problem with 2 meters. It is a FIT (Feed In Tarrif) where the POCO pays the customer for the power produced.
 
H

Hv&Lv

Senior Member
Location
-
Occupation
Engineer/Technician
NorthwestPV said:
I read the article. We are using an outback Radian Inverter. This has an AC input and a seperate AC output that are both 240V. It apperars the article is saying we need two Watt Hour, 5-jaw meters. Am I correct? I was wondering where to put the meter originally because the Radian has 6 different opperating modes. With 2 meters I could get both output and Input. I just hope the POCO doesnt have a problem with 2 meters. It is a FIT (Feed In Tarrif) where the POCO pays the customer for the power produced.
Click to expand...

It is almost imossible to know if I am helping or hurting your efforts from so far away. I realize this isn't what you have, but it is a good drawing that may or may not help.

http://www.midnitesolar.com/pdfs/Dual_OutBack_grid_tie_with_dual_meters2.pdf
BTW, have you talked to anyone at the POCO? It may pay to get them involved early.
 
N

NorthwestPV

Member
Location
Oregon, US
Wow, that system is VERY similar to what we are installing. The only difference is we are using the Radian and flexmax80's instead of 60's. We are even using the same combiner with 10 strings of 3.
 
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