vossman77 writes "I was looking into renewable energy from a hobbyist perspective, maybe generating a few watts of solar or wind power, just to reduce my electric bill. But upon further review, I found out that I need a special grid tie AC inverter that shuts off when the grid turns off (for worker safety reasons) and makes the current in-phase with the grid. These two additional features over the cheap inverters sold at department store, makes the cost upwards of $2000, but support more watts than I need. While this is fine for large scale projects, it is out of range for a small scale hobbyist. A Google search came with some home brew hacks at best. So, are there any slashdotters out doing small scale renewable energy projects with grid tie systems? What are other options for the hobbyist to play around with renewable energy, other than charging a cell phone?"
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Chances are you will not be generating enough to sell back to your power company after powering your house. Using grid tie is a way to eliminate the need for on-site storage. Use batteries to store the energy locally.
As your generation capacity grows you can work on feeding more of the house through an inverter that has the option to switch to mains.
If you actually get to the point where you are generating enough power that you can sell it, then the 2K$ won't seem like a bad idea, specially after you ca
That is soooo right. Connecting to the grid without an approved tie-in could kill someone and ruin your life. Hardly what a hobbyist wants. Whatever you generate yourself displaces power you would have bought. This is the same as paying yourself the retail price, while the electric company will only pay you the wholesale price.
Don't Tie To Grid (Score:2, Informative)
As your generation capacity grows you can work on feeding more of the house through an inverter that has the option to switch to mains.
If you actually get to the point where you are generating enough power that you can sell it, then the 2K$ won't seem like a bad idea, specially after you ca
Re: (Score:1)