But the inverter can still send power to the non-essentials, and does. This can be seen when the pool pump is running and it’s a sunny day. Once the battery is charged, the inverter draws enough PV to keep the pump + any other load going.
Missing from this diagram is the connection from the Grid to the AC In of the inverter.
AND
This assumes all loads are essential but you could have non-essentials from the grid to house directly.
Yes. The inverter input is still connected to the grid. That means that it can still export and can still power everything from the battery and PV up to the CT (if grid is present). So everything is on non-essentials. It’s simply the backup output that is bypassed.
If you don’t have that switch, and the inverter fails, everything on essentials will be dead until you replace the inverter. This switch allows you to bypass the inverter for the essentials, switching everything to the non-essential side.
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I did the repeat test. The system just keeps on servicing the essential loads, and the non-essentials are unaffected. There being no load shedding scheduled for us this weekend I turned off the municipal breaker. Everything turned off (except the inverter, although it wasn’t doing anything useful).
Sunday morning is meter reading time in my house. Some would say this is the high point of my week (it’s not just readings, you understand, but entering them into a spreadsheet and tracking trends. Fascinating stuff).
Initially I thought those 4 days running in the by-pass mode had cost me dearly in pre-paid electricity, but it turned out there was an incorrect formula in one row of the spreadsheet. So usage from the grid is boringly normal.
To be clear, that is exactly what is expected to happen. If the grid is present, you only need the inverter input connected (along with the CT) and it will service your loads up to its capacity.
There should be a 2P breaker to the inverter and one from the inverter. To isolate the inverter, you have to turn both of those off.
Yes. There’s one on the input side and one on the output side.
Thanks all for your contributions here: They have provided both enlightenment and reassurance.
And stupid me. It was all there in the line drawing that nice engineer type person prepared for my registration with the COJ.
All I had to do was look at the drawing and put my thinking cap on
https://energytalk.co.za/uploads/short-url/6tpb5mivuPBIkcSpEsorEopcwKz.pdf
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