solar power PV grid tie system. anyone had expierence with utility billing inconsistency

 hi, i am considering a grid tie solar PV system for my home, i think a
1KW system will be fine for me, but i wonder how many people out there
have done this, and of those people my question is this, has the
utility knocked on your door after some period after install wanting
to know why your billed electricity consumption has gone down alot
each month in the last however may months? the reason i ask this is i
want to know how likely the utility companys are to take action
against someone whth a grid tie system...i have talked with 6 people
of our utility and none of them say that customers can connect grid
tie systems in, most did not know what a grid tie system was. several
cited safety concerns for lineman workers if power were to fail
(current production grid tie systems by xantrex prevent islanding, but
the utility people didnot care) i know if i pay the big cash upfront
for this system, i would like to know my chances of having the utility
say i have to disconnect the system.
i dont like the thought of continuing to support fossil fuel and oil
dependancy, i want to do my part to make america less dependent on
foreign oil sources. please let me know what your expierence is with
utilitys.

thanks,
jack

  Hi john;



Lots. Well lots is a relative term. But there are quite a few.
Read about many in the Home Power" magazine. See:
http://www.homepower.com


That scenario can happen if you did it without telling them.
That method has been referred to as going "Guerilla".
http://windturbine.ca/guerilla.html
Or a search:
http://www.google.com/search?&q=+"guerilla+power"&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?&q=+"guerilla+solar"&btnG=Search


And they can shut you down if you haven't followed the rules.


They were uninformed. Federal law requires the grid companies
to allow intertie connections. If the rules are followed.


Again, they were uninformed. The Xantrex inverter, and
others, pass pas the IEEE specified requirements.


They won't if you follow the rules.

They may if you go Guerilla.

It's up to you which way you go.


    Home of the $35 Solar Tracker      Receiver
   http://www.redrok.com/electron.htm#led3X  [*]
  Powered by             \  \     \        //|
 Thermonuclear   Solar Energy from the Sun / |
Energy (the SUN)           \  \     \  /  /  |
Red Rock Energy             \  \     /   /   |
Duane C. Johnson   Designer  \  \  /  \ /    |
1825 Florence St  Heliostat,Control,& Mounts |
White Bear Lake, Minnesota    === \   / \    |
USA      55110-3364                ===   \   |
(651)426-4766        use Courier New Font \  |
redrok@redrok.com     (my email: address)  \ |
http://www.redrok.com   (Web site)          ===

 On Wed, 05 Nov 2003 06:12:11 -0600, "Duane C. Johnson"


Yes, and for the small, less than 10KW grid tie systems, even if the
anti-islanding were not perfect, the inverters would more than likely
be shorted out from the loaded grid and stop producing.  As it is now,
they have about 2 seconds or so  in which to disconnect from grid.

bob

 
Its 50 milliseconds out of range voltage and/or frequency , single cycle for
substantial over-voltage conditions (16.66ms)

UL-1741 specifies this , which is what all US based grid-tie inverters are
designed/tested too

 On Thu, 06 Nov 2003 02:49:15 GMT, "Solar Guppy"


Is that UL1741 possibly the draft of the new version ???
 The one I'm looking at now, January 17,2001 says 2 seconds if the
voltage falls between  .5 and .88 of Vnormal, and 1.1  to 1.37 of
Vnormal (at rated frequency))
 
OR

 100 milliseconds if the voltage falls to less than 1/2 of
the normal voltage or  the frequency goes below rated F - .7 Hz,
or greater than .5 Hz above rated frequency  (so between 59.3Hz and
60.5 Hz)

 Either way, it's still pretty fast response to drop in grid.   :-)

bob