PV Gap

Shirley Said:

How to build a power inverter?

We Answered:

Hi,

I also have the desire to buy solar panels and connect them to the grid through a proper inverter, and I would like to build my own (and I can even design my own circuits and it would be a lot of fun to do).

But, here's the caveat. Your local utility company will not allow you to do this. They will abolutely require that the inverter equipment be certified as safe by the Underwriter's Laboratory (UL) or by an agency that could give the equipment a CE rating (in the European Union). Furthermore, the utility company will require that you have everything installed by a licensed electician. Without these 2 basic requirments being met they don't want your (or my) homemade stuff on the grid. There are even other requirements (as you mentioned), but those 2 basic requirements just cannot be met by you, or me.

OK, so that's not good, but then I thought to have 2 separate systems in my house. 1 set of outlets on the grid, and a separate set of outlets for the solar panels (and wind generator in your case). But there is a problem with that. My home-owners insurance will not cover me in case of a fire. If my solar system even remotely causes a fire, I am out-of-luck and out of a home.

What is the solution? I don't know. I still have a notion to get a small number of solar panels and build an small independant system for powering a few items around the house, running (large wire gauge) extension cords.

Sorry to put a damper on your ideas (which IMO are great ideas), but these are the hard facts that I have discovered.

One thing you didn't mention. Any system like you want to design should also have batteries that get charged during the day so you can still be off the grid at night. We're talking about a dozen car batteries -- the deep cycle marine type battery. The inverter would also automatically switch between the solar/wind and the battery, and would automatically charge the batteries when necessary.

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