Quick question to the gallery. We just had our panels installed yesterday. The installation crew turned it on, showed us it worked, and then turned the whole thing off again. We have to wait for the city inspector, and we have to wait for our electric company to come out and "change out our meter to a different one". The install team said that has been taking up to a month around here. I see no reason to sit and let a month of solar go down the drain, so I figure I'll just walk out to the box, throw on the switches and turn them all back off when the inspector shows up. Anyone heard of this before? Or know why I need a new meter, and if turning on the system before I have it will cause any trouble?
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Turning on panels before inspection and meter change?
- Thread starter gibbon22
- Start date
thank you! exactly what I was looking for. PTO was not a familiar term to me to search.
jrweiss98020
Tessa's Tesla
Biggest practical problem is that your current meter may see outgoing current as tampering, and charge you double for it!
You definitely dont want to push any power to the grid before you have PTO (no significant amount of power, anyway). Not only could you get billed for energy you are sending to the grid as if you consumed it, if your current meter can not handle bi directional flow, you also run the risk of your utility noticing you are not behaving and delaying your PTO or even issuing a fine for sending power before you are supposed to.
Not "likely" but its possible.
So, since you dont want to send power to the utility, you could "test" your system by disconnecting from the grid (turning off your main breaker) simulating a power outage, and run that way if your home can run on your system without grid power for any length of time.
This being January and all, its likely you could do this during the day, if you chose to, then go out and turn your system off and re connect to the electrical grid. Quite a bit more work, but you could "play" with it that way, and the utility would only see a reduction in your usage.
As long as you dont send any power back to the utility, it would be somewhat hard to "get in trouble" especially after you pass the city permit, but again, you really want to make sure you are not sending anything back to the utility, and there is no way to do that without turning everything off.
Not "likely" but its possible.
So, since you dont want to send power to the utility, you could "test" your system by disconnecting from the grid (turning off your main breaker) simulating a power outage, and run that way if your home can run on your system without grid power for any length of time.
This being January and all, its likely you could do this during the day, if you chose to, then go out and turn your system off and re connect to the electrical grid. Quite a bit more work, but you could "play" with it that way, and the utility would only see a reduction in your usage.
As long as you dont send any power back to the utility, it would be somewhat hard to "get in trouble" especially after you pass the city permit, but again, you really want to make sure you are not sending anything back to the utility, and there is no way to do that without turning everything off.
I thought this type of thing would only work if gibbon22 had Powerwalls? If he was solar-only, won't de-activating the main breaker also turn off the PV?
And if gibbon22 had Powerwalls, I don't think he'd need to even flip off the main breaker unless his PW's were full. The PV energy would be stored and the PoCo would never see it anyway.
mspohr
Well-Known Member
It depends on the type of meter you have.
When I first had solar installed I had a really old meter which was happy to run backwards so I just turned on the solar and let it run. It was fun to watch it go backwards. Some newer meters will only run forwards and not backwards. The newest electronic meters can be bidirectional... or not.
Try to google the meter type and see if you can figure out what you have.
When I first had solar installed I had a really old meter which was happy to run backwards so I just turned on the solar and let it run. It was fun to watch it go backwards. Some newer meters will only run forwards and not backwards. The newest electronic meters can be bidirectional... or not.
Try to google the meter type and see if you can figure out what you have.
Yeah I made a mistake I chided someone else here on recently, in looking through a specific lens (in this case, looking through the powerwall lens). Thats what I get for surfing while I am waiting for patches to install on the server I am working on.
"The PV energy would be stored and PoCO would never see it" would depend on the size of the PV, how many powerwalls, and how full the powerwalls were, though, as well as what mode the powerwalls were put in.
Even if all that lined up, they would need to go flip the main breaker when the powerwalls got full, whenever that was (or close to full). That would be different times on different days depending on sun etc. It would be very hard to try to "time" that without turning the main breaker off (if there are powerwalls).
Since there is no mention of powerwalls, however, my entire first statement is null and void.
jrweiss98020
Tessa's Tesla
mspohr
Well-Known Member
Probably won't run backwards, then, but may not charge you for the electricity you feed to the grid.
mspohr
Well-Known Member
Hawaiian Electric takes an ‘install first, approve later’ approach to residential solar
Instead, the approval process, one which typically takes several weeks or months for each step to be completed, can now be handled after the system is built and turned on, substantially reducing the wait for many new solar customers.
Instead, the approval process, one which typically takes several weeks or months for each step to be completed, can now be handled after the system is built and turned on, substantially reducing the wait for many new solar customers.
As the solar industry matures, this makes a ton of sense. It is similar to when, for example, we got a new furnace. We could turn it on and use it immediately - we just needed an inspection within a certain amount of time. Solar, by contrast, required a long wait on the utility end, even after we passed the safety inspection.
I could see restricting the program to contractors with appropriate credentials, but it is a good way to at least keep the regulations from interfering with using the product. Next step is to really streamline the whole permitting and approval process, but at least it would be nice to not have the process stand in the way of using the system.
Given the current situation, I do agree with others that for OP leaving the system off is the right thing to do to avoid possible problems with PTO and/or unexpected charges in the meantime. I suppose it would be possible to run if you can be confident that your home load will exceed your solar (for example, by charging an EV) but that probably won't apply in most situations. At least it is still a low-production time of year.
mspohr
Well-Known Member
SolarAPP
NREL has launched a collaborative effort with key code officials, authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs), and the solar industry to develop an instant online solar permitting platform for code compliant residential systems.
SolarAPP (Solar Automated Permit Processing) will:
Provide a flexible, web-based PV-permitting tool for residential systems at no-cost to AHJs.
Enable standardization of instant permitting processes.
Evaluate applications for safety and code compliance.
Offer opportunities to incorporate energy storage and expand to other market segments.
I've read about that and hope it picks up steam, but for now it doesn't seem like a ton of AHJs are jumping on board. I feel like at least where I am, it may require legislation to force counties, and particularly utilities, to participate.
I guess I was lucky. I had no idea one should not have turned on before PTO. I ran for a couple of months. I would see my meter go backwards, but of course, never got any credit. This meant my solar was great then my house usage, which makes sense in June ish months. But in hindsight, it was risk but everything came out okay.
mspohr
Well-Known Member
If your meter ran backwards, it should have given you credit (unless the counters didn't turn backwards).
Nope, until one has PTO, etc, they did not change my account to a TOU account so I gave them lots of free energy for a few months. And I could watch the meter go backwards, but it did not have the direction info like does now was everything was approved and turned on.
I’d say it depends on where you live related to inspections and utility provider.
My Tesla certified installer left my PV system + Powerwall on after installation which was obviously before any PTO or County inspection approval. I specifically asked if that was ok and they said they haven’t had any issues with my utility provider with activating the system.
I’m not sure I even have approval yet but my net meter was installed at some point, no one even notified me, and I’ve been pumping out solar production since November.
No billing issues either
flip the switch.
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