Government power blackouts and solar PV 23 August 2022 at 8:44AM in Green & ethical MoneySaving 25 replies 954 views

NoobSolar

www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/23/energy-use-is-a-decision-for-individuals-insist-no-10-and-truss-allies

If the government have intentional blackouts, will our solar pv work? Grid-tied solar is designed not to function during power cuts. Are 'planned' blackouts the same as power cuts?

EricMears

Unless you've got an 'island' function on your inverter,  a grid tied inverter will stop working when you've been disconnected from the grid and won't 'know' why the disconnection happened.

NoobSolar

Yes. But is a planned power outage the same as that? Is it being disconnected?

QrizB

NoobSolar said:

Yes. But is a planned power outage the same as that? Is it being disconnected?

Yes.

If the power goes off, it makes no difference to your inverter whether it's intentional or an accident.

You can simulate a blackout by switching the mains off at your consumer unit (make sure that no-one is eg. in an electric shower when you do this).

Screwdriva

A Powerwall or capable battery system will mitigate this scenario. The Powerwall actually predicts blackouts and fills itself up to 100%. 

As anti-battery as I am, the moment we experience more than one blackout, I'm signing myself up for an LG Chem battery! 

Chris_Type_R

I have been playing around with the idea of buying a generator 'just in case' - as I work from home and have to be able to support customers. It might be moot, as I also rely on working broadband.

I believe you can have your wiring changed in such a way that you can disconnect from grid and connect to a generator - which should in principle allow for solar to continue generating.

Magnitio

Chris_Type_R said:

I have been playing around with the idea of buying a generator 'just in case' - as I work from home and have to be able to support customers. It might be moot, as I also rely on working broadband.

I believe you can have your wiring changed in such a way that you can disconnect from grid and connect to a generator - which should in principle allow for solar to continue generating.

Do you have a laptop with a reasonable battery and the option of using your phone as a wifi hotspot? That would potentially keep you going for a few hours.

Reed_Richards

Screwdriva said:

A Powerwall or capable battery system will mitigate this scenario. 

A battery on its own will do absolutely nothing to mitigate this scenario (if you want to stay on the right side of the law/regs.).  You also need a means of isolating whatever is being powered by the battery from the mains; the same would apply to a generator supplying the backup power.  

gefnew

You could invest in a ups system to mitigate power outages, top it up with solar when you do not need it.
UPS Systems - UPS Battery Backup | Critical Power Supplies

QrizB

Chris_Type_R said

I have been playing around with the idea of buying a generator 'just in case' - as I work from home and have to be able to support customers.

I've got a generator; I've needed it twice (maybe thrice) in 16 years. I run it for an hour once a year just to reassure myself that it's going to work when I need it.

I believe you can have your wiring changed in such a way that you can disconnect from grid and connect to a generator - which should in principle allow for solar to continue generating.

You can; google "transfer switch".
Personally I've not yet felt the need, I run a (long) extension cable from the generator through an open window and into my house, then plug into that.

Don't be tempted to use a suicide cable, they're called that for a reason. (That's a US site and talks about 120V circuits but the principle's the same.)

Chris_Type_R

Magnitio said:

Chris_Type_R said:

I have been playing around with the idea of buying a generator 'just in case' - as I work from home and have to be able to support customers. It might be moot, as I also rely on working broadband.

I believe you can have your wiring changed in such a way that you can disconnect from grid and connect to a generator - which should in principle allow for solar to continue generating.

Do you have a laptop with a reasonable battery and the option of using your phone as a wifi hotspot? That would potentially keep you going for a few hours.

While I have a laptop, my main setup is a little more power hungry. I have UPSs on the broadband, network, servers and PC but these don't last a great deal of time. 

A generator as a backup makes sense financially as it's a few hundred pounds rather than the few thousand that a battery setup would cost in the current environment of battery shortages and in-demand installers.