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In Reply to: RE: Solar Power System Impact On Audio Quality Question posted by Vinyl Valet on December 03, 2016 at 06:27:59
These guys are giving you good advice. I live in AZ, an APS customer. I did my own grid tie system before Solar City was around. When they started in AZ I was curious on how they structured their leases and looked into it. Doing your own is better, was then and is now, but the numbers change year to year. The cost per watt now is about 1/3 of what it was when I did it and back then the payback was 6.5 years. Last time I looked at Solar City at about 8 years it significantly favors them.
If you have a pool you can do a standalone for that. I swapped out AC recirculating pump motor with DC, run it directly off of panels. Payback for that was 1.5 years and again, cost per watt is much less now.
Regarding electrical noise question, I haven't put a spectrum analyzer on it, but the inverters talk over the AC. And although I don't detect it on my audio equipment (which does include power conditioners), I have picked up a noise increase on other equipment. I think that at least some of it is the inverters, but it is just a guess.
Green stuff is an on-again off-again hobby of mine. You are welcome to contact me offline.
Follow Ups:
Fred, I'm not fully understanding grid tie systems. Are they typically battery-less (at the home)? If they ARE in fact battery-less then one shouldn't have to worry about the charge controller creating noise as there are no batteries being charged via DC. Is that correct? So the only concern might be noise from the inverter?? Thanks.
Yes, that is correct, no batteries, no charge controllers and it is probably over 95% of the systems you see on homes and businesses. When the grid is up, they supply to the grid and a separate meter records what they produce. When the grid goes down, they shutdown. At night the home or business relies on the grid. And the power companies buy back what is not used during sunlight and charge you for deficits and what the homes and businesses use at night and very cloudy days.
A lot of the inverters also report what they produce and send it across the grid to a local translator to the internet. That was what I was mentioning as some additional noise. I had forgotten about the fidelity of the synchronized sine waves they produce. I would assume the fidelity is mandated and documented.
I used Enphase micro-inverters, one per panel, converting 24 volts DC to 240 volts AC. They tend to be more efficient when part of the array is shaded and a bit less expensive in wiring. The leasing companies, I believe, tend to use larger system inverters with strings of panels in series converting higher DC voltages to 240 volts AC.
Thanks Fred. Your experience is very helpful. I may take you up on that offer.
Same but not to your extent. I have also been very interested in this stuff since the Whole Earth Catalog days many decades ago.
I really liked the story in the corner of the pages. A friend did too, tried worm farming.
Lol, dig. I was going to have a tilapia farm in my backyard. No complaints now but those were the days; endless hopes and dreams.
Have friends in Hawaii that did that, but are too attached to the fish to eat them.
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