In view of the poor souls that have been cut off from the grid now for 6 days, I am curious, If there is a power cut, having isolated the installation from the grid would it be possible to charge an A.C. coupled inverter battery from solar PV via the permanently live side of the inverter . I am aware my PV inverter needs to see "mains" to work, would the Givenergy inverter be able to provide this and would this enable charging of the battery during this scenario?
Unfortunately not on the AC coupled due to sinewave's that are generated, whereas our AC coupled inverter puts out a pure sinewave solar inverters typically put out a modified sinewave, when the grid is online the grid will level out the string inverters sinewave however ours will have no control over this and therefore can cause damage to the equipment, what you're after can only be done from our hybrid inverter.
Adam-Reynolds
Thanks Adam that's a great explanation.
Is there a way to charge the battery using a generator? Disconnecting the system from the Mains
I've not had the emergency supply connected up on my GE hybrid so have some questions?
If I were to go down the route of getting it connected, would GE need to commission / activate the output or is it purley on when there is a load connected.
Does the emergency supply output activate automatically if grid power goes down or do I need to go up to the battery and push the power button on?
Assuming the worst if I'm off grid for a day or two, will the inverter still charge the battery if there is solar available?
Not something I was overly concerned about planning for at time of install; having a full circuit put in and the added expense but given recent weather it gives me pause for thought.
Nothing we need to commission here.
It activates automatically, there is a changeover switch within the inverter itself that will automatically cut ties with the grid and only supply power to the emergency circuits.
Yes battery will still charge from excess solar
There is no generator feed currently on the domestic systems sorry to say.
Believe its enabled from factory & is always live (even now) as the method to get it running is to install a separate DB/Socket with the circuits you want to keep running in BUT some things to note:
Whatever EPS circuits you choose are fed from the EPS side 24/7 both when in normal operation or in grid loss.
EPS Capacity is limited so you wont be firing up ovens or kettles
It's Auto - No need to press anything
The Inverter creates it's own Neutral/Earth bond but you still need an Earth Rod installing as you can't rely on your suppliers earth integrity in cases of power outage (i.e tree falling severing the earth back to local Tx)
EPS & UPS are not one and the same:
It's not a Powerwall style instant changeover - 5sec delay between loss of load and restoration (similarly from memory it's about that again as it resyncs with the grid) - If you have sensitive PCs you need to keep going you will need a UPS still.
You need to make the EPS circuits abundantly clear to people working on electrics in your house - someone flipping the main supply off & testing locally may way see everything dead should they test in this 5 second window before the EPS kicks in or just not notice the EPS circuits are even a thing if the DB is someplace else/poorly labelled. (Yes they should check everything dead anyway before the start grabbing stuff but the usual "get what you pay for / times money/DIY brigade still exist...)
More details here
I don't have any cabling connected up to the EPC output on my AC inverter; I'm assuming though I could ask an electrician to install a simple circuit to a couple of sockets, for use as a supply point in the event of a power failure? Is it simple to add - with no further configuration of AC inverter required?
I understand that this simple circuit would need it's own earth?
GrahamRead It would still need earthing correct, as the earthing in the UK is typically done from the neutral cable on the grid, which in the event of a power cut will not be accessible.