No matter how badly you may want to export limit your solar system, it can only be done in locations where it’s permitted. Your dedicated meter will inform the inverter, and it will immediately reduce the power, so it doesn’t exceed 5 kilowatts 1. But if you suddenly switch off everything, there is more surplus solar power than you’re allowed to export. You’re using a total of four kilowatts to cook your lunch, so your home is exporting 4 kilowatts, which is below the limit. It is delivering 8 kilowatts of solar power. Here’s the ‘Fronius Smart Meter’ that you need if you want to export limit a Fronius inverter – it will add about $500 to the cost of the system:Īn example of how export limiting works - You have an inverter that’s exported limited to 5 kilowatts. This extra meter adds to the cost of a solar system. So the solar inverter has to have its own energy meter installed in your switchboard – one that talks to the inverter to tell it when power sent into the grid reaches the export limit.
Unfortunately, the meter companies and inverter manufacturers can’t get their shit together, and the utility meters refuse to talk to the inverters.
The ideal way to measure the power flow in and out of your house would be to ask your existing electricity meter. When an inverter is export limited, it has to know how much solar energy is being sent into the grid so it can immediately reduce output if it’s about to go over the limit.
I know in the movie the Bad was worse than the Ugly, but that’s not the way I’m doing it. In this article, I’ll give a broad outline of how export limiting works and why it can be a good idea.
In this case, export limiting an inverter to zero can allow the installation of a solar system that helps meet daytime electricity consumption, but it won’t receive any feed-in tariff at all. The Ugly: Homes can be prohibited from exporting any power to the grid at all.
In this situation exporting limiting can enable the household to install a solar system large enough to meet most of their electricity use during the day, while still enabling them to export a considerable amount to the grid.