Enphase Generator Injector
- Thread starter CrazyRabbit
- Start date
what's the appeal aside from not having to run the generator continuously while the grid is down?
exactly... add power to your batteries as you see necessary. add a few gallons of gas, start gen let it run out of fuel. hopefully you will be able to use with 120v or 240v gen.
It could be quite useful if you aren't producing enough electricity in a prolonged outage. We had fully snowbound panels for 5 days until yesterday-without the production our 3 PWs would be dead in a day or two. Luckily we had full grid power the whole time.
Oceanwolf
Oceanwolf
I would like to use my Powerwall at night and don’t worry about cloudy days during PSPS
My 7500w generator uses nearly as much fuel at low power as it does at high power. It wasn't doing much during much of the time it was running. And it is noisy.
It would be nice to be able to run the generator during the day and charge up the Powerwalls at the same time if there isn't much solar production. And have some peace and quiet at night.
It would be nice to be able to run the generator during the day and charge up the Powerwalls at the same time if there isn't much solar production. And have some peace and quiet at night.
From what I’ve been reading about what electronics require, the generator’s Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) rating will probably have to be 5% or less. Conventional portable generators are typically rated “less than 23%”. Inverter generators are closer to the 5% value. But the question is whether that’s close enough for Powerwall use. Maybe some additional UL standards will be needed first. Right now the THD ratings seem to rely entirely on manufacturers’ statements. And there may be technical factors other than THD that enter into Tesla’s slow walking this so far.
Now that Tesla is producing their own grid tied inverter, they should make a version purely for generator injection. They should rectify the AC input and inject the power through the grid tied inverter, with programmable loading so that you can optimize the generator usage. Generator auto-start and shutdown based on SOC levels would be required too.
I agree that all of this THD data is almost completely dependent on what the manufacturers state, and I often wonder how reliable it is. Many inverter generators are said to be under 5%THD, at least the ones that I have looked at, and many automatic voltage regulated generators also make it under 5%, but the devil is in the details, and without a standard, who knows? You need a spectrum analyzer to be able to determine THD, and the distortion can change as load shifts.
If the THD is a major issue, running the power over an autotransformer or through some filter circuits would help.
I suspect, but don't know, that the lack of frequency stability in most non-inverter generators may also be an issue, since the powerwalls are used to communicating with solar inverters via frequency shifts.
I look forward to getting a mechanism to incorporate a generator.
All the best,
BG
So that you can run it at a more efficient operating point (energy out vs. fuel consumption) and so that you can have peace and quiet at night.
My wife goes to bed before me. I like to stay up and catch up on some TV shows. She can't sleep with the generator running.
And then I need to get up before her to start the generator for water (I'm on a well) and lights.
I wouldn't have to do this if my Powerwalls were charged.
That's pretty much it. Oh, that and the ability to be powered while clouds, or smoke impair solar recharging of powerwalls.
Just trying to keep going in the face of adverse events...
All the best,
BG
pdx_m3s
Active Member
If the power goes out in the winter anywhere north of California, PWs aren’t much good.
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