"Hot" roof

[hbiss]

Betcha the developer got a great deal on the land, just like that home builder did under the transmission lines.

-Hal

 

[Joe.B]

Maybe they should try to get some free power...

 

[Joe.B]

 

[ggunn]

I get that with conservation of energy that the "stealer's" gain is the power company's loss, but is it enough of a loss for the POCO to notice or even care?

 

[Joe.B]

I get that with conservation of energy that the "stealer's" gain is the power company's loss, but is it enough of a loss for the POCO to notice or even care?

No, it's a ridiculously low amount of power. He was getting high voltage (500V I think?) but barely .5mA. At the end of the second video he read a comment from someone else that was interesting, using the trickle charge to supplement PV. But nothing POCO ever care about.

 

[augie47]

A TVA employee advised the owner not to ground the roof as "it could cause arcing and a fire".
Poor advise IMO but that's the route they are going.

 

[kwired]

A TVA employee advised the owner not to ground the roof as "it could cause arcing and a fire".
Poor advise IMO but that's the route they are going.

ground it and then see what kind of current is drawn, bet it is in the mA range, plus voltage likely drops pretty severely making actual power drawn even lower than what it initially may seem to be. This metal roof is nothing more than a single plate of a rather crude capacitor.