Grid tie inverter with power outage capability

If you are always producing less than total consumption you would get the benefit in reduced power through the meter, correct? In that case you are getting the full rate per killowatthour you pay the power company discounted for any power you produce yourself.

Jim

Are we talking about a grid tie RV system? (10 kW is a bit large)

May not get net metering unless it is an old mechanical meter. Many of the new digital meters do not differentiate the direction of power. I understand for a home solar grid tie system the electric company has to upgrade the digital meter. Not really going to happen at an RV park rental but would work on the old dial type that you could make spin backward.

Chris Bryant wrote:
The grid tie system I have been looking at is this 10kw system- a complete system with the inverters integral to the solar panels. at just under $20k for everything including hardware it's looking better.
Our peak energy use has only been a bit over 12kw- this is residence and shop.
I do not believe this system I am looking at will work sans utility power though.

Chris, how much does your power company pay for a residential grid tie? At the time we looked into it, our company (Niagara Mohawk, now National Grid) was paying about 1.75 cents/KWH. The numbers just didn't work for us. Hopefully, you would fair better...

The grid tie system I have been looking at is this 10kw system- a complete system with the inverters integral to the solar panels. at just under $20k for everything including hardware it's looking better.
Our peak energy use has only been a bit over 12kw- this is residence and shop.
I do not believe this system I am looking at will work sans utility power though.

We looked into grid tying our residential hydroelectric generation system years ago at a former home. The costs to install the equipment needed versus the low rate that the power company would pay us made it economically unfeasible. Our payback time would have been about 75 years. Instead, we "made do" with the 70% savings on our electric costs that gave us about a 4 year payback on the entire hydro system.

A utility company VP once quipped to an audience...

"No way in hell are we going to allow home generation systems that will put utility power off-line for extended periods of time and buy excess energy at the convenience of the system operator"