How to lower your power bill with a ZERO EXPORT METER? A legal "hack" to save money on your bill!

[@dennismyles8450]

Great job explaining grid tie inverters. 👍🏽

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

Thanks! 👍

[@Scaliad]

Not really like traditional grid-tie inverters that push all the power they make to the grid. These actually limit the inverters to producing only the amount of power being used, supplemented by the grid if their production is less than being used.

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

Yeah they are quite smart ..

[@Scaliad]

My main 9kw system is grid tied. I have a second 1.2kw off-grid system to pump water. I am using one of these 240v units in Battery Constant Power mode to send excess power, not going to the battery set, to the grid. If someone has a smallish off-grid system, but with grid and net metering available, these could be used to export their excess power to the grid if economical...

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

@@Scaliad the tech its keep getting better and better , now they have the ones i use in 48 volt, but i wont waste my 750 i paid for these to get the 48 volt , if they start blowing up than for sure ill upgrade

[@Ulbre]

Thanks so much for doing this video. You not only answered my questions but also explained it so well.

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

Keep them coming

[@pr5991]

In Australia, second hand solar panels are free or very cheap, you can hook up many to get independence. Now I have panels on my garden shed, I made bike shade using solar panels, as long as you have land, you can get free panels and run small systems all around your house using these inverters using export limiter or without these. These inverters can be set up four ways, solar only, solar with limiter, battery only, battery with limiter. With wifi connections you can can monitor these or change parameters as per your needs. Only problem is that these take low voltage so you need to parallel the panels and use thicker wires. Great video in explaining to everyone.

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

Yeah in a couple of years you'll have to pay to get rid of the solar panels. Right now you have to pay to get them

[@SureNuf]

This is an excellent video and explains everything in a way that is very educational. My question is if people selling electricity are only getting a fractional part of what "it is worth" why are so many farms being created? Is it sliding scale for larger producers? I don't have solar currently (in a condo) but appreciate the information in this video for the future.

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

Those solar farms were maybe pet projects for people that did the math when certain rates applied and during the construction process time passes by and then you end up with a much lower rate once the project is finished. But now you have to go forward because you already invested the money so the farm is there. The eyes are seeing it and therefore it looks profitable but a lot of these people are not profitable

[@BasedOcra-extended]

Thank you for all the research you are sharing with us, I've been looking into this myself for a good while. I wonder why you didn't use the 2000W GTIL2, is it because of the lack of the export meter? If so it seems this is the only model I can find with one.

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

@@BasedOcra-extended I didn't use the 2000 w model because there is no access between the meter and my panel to put the probes on the lines so the meter can read the power usage. I have a very unique setup where the meter is right next to the panel and the wires are hidden behind hind. So without access to the main line it comes in. This system is the only one that works because this one reads behind the breakers that literally reads every line that goes into your house,

[@nanjetyje9447]

Can you please make a video on how lo link the ct on all three inverter

[@ameoba32]

can you explain about split phase? how inverters are connected, to L1 or L2 or L1 and L2 (240V). Would this still work if inverter is connected to L1+L2 (240) but load is on L1 or L2?

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

Yes, I'll cover that on my next video. Thank you very much for the question

[@ameoba32]

@@VegasRoManiacReviews Great :) Thank you very much. You channel is very practical, thats why I love it.

[@NatsolEnergy]

Split phase is single phase and it requires 3 cable connections as follows. L1, L2 and Neutral. Your 240 V loads will connect to L1 and L2 only. For your 120 volt loads they are connected to the Neutral cable and either of the L1 or L2 cable, not both. You should try to distribute your 120 loads as evenly as possible on your L1 - N and L2 - N to balance your system. If you have a total of 10 loads which uses 120 volts then you would try to get 5 of those loads to connect to the L1-N wires and the other 5 to the L2-N wires.

[@adamosity7127]

There needs to be a change in mindset around solar power. You do not have to power your whole house. Let the grid power your large appliances. I use solar for lights, electronics and a second smaller fridge. ROI for a smaller system comes much sooner when you gauge system based to what your lowest energy bill consumption is. I spent $9K doing it myself to save $150 to $200 a month on my electric bill.

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

@@adamosity7127 initially I started small with two micro grita inverters 250 w each. They were only hooked up to solar panels just to cover my daily usage and my base loads and then I started to build from there and then solar when you do it yourself. It's also a toy so I keep building and building and building. And I got to this point where I am today where of course the ROI. It's a lot slower but then it's something that I play with everyday + that's why I made it bigger. But yes, you are right. Sometimes smaller is better for roi

[@adamosity7127]

@@VegasRoManiacReviews I started with a double conversion UPS and some car batteries. It just grew to solar when I had coin to spare.

[@gonzalez7805]

Interesting

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

Glad you found it that way

[@rjmunro]

Where are you? Which country / state /region? Different places have massively different rules and rates for exports.

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

@@rjmunro Nevada , and yes the rules are different but they all migrate in the same direction where the power company will not want to buy power from you anymore because it's not profitable for them, where I live they have a 5-year reduction plan where they keep paying less and less and less until they get to one penny per kilowatt

[@rjmunro]

@VegasRoManiacReviews I can imagine that somewhere like Nevada the power company don't need more power when it's sunny, so it makes no sense for them to pay for it. I'm surprised that you have to pay them a monthly rate just to not be mischarged for power flowing backwards through the meter, though. It seems like installing a meter that only measures one way would be a win for them compared to you curtailing your inverters.

[@skyl4rk]

Thanks. Can you run the inverters with no batteries? Just solar panel - charge controller - inverter to house? What happens if the batteries get low, is there a low voltage disconnect?

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

Yes, these inverters you can run in directly from solar panels. You don't even need a charge controller, but they don't have a limiter function, also, if you run them on battery and the batteries run low, you could set them up to disconnect at 24 volts if you run a 24-volt system

[@timcat1004]

They are not c-clamps. They are called a CT. (circuit transformer)

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

@@timcat1004 I know .. I corrected myself later on in The video but once I recorded the video I just posted it because I'm sure that people that needed to understand will understand what I mean

[@NatsolEnergy]

@@VegasRoManiacReviews Actually it is a Current Transformer and not a circuit transformer. You could called it a clamp as it monitors and will block current thus clamping the current to a certain level or block it completely. This is what prevents grid feed-in when you set your software to zero Grid Feed. It can also be used to block current from flowing to targeted branch circuits as well.

[@TheFeaz]

This video seems like a real mashup of good and bad information... First, the GOOD... It looks to me like everything you have done here is safe and legal. I don't know what the capacity of your solar array is, but I assume that you have sized everything to match the production capacity of your array with the output capacity of your inverters. I also assume you permitted stuff the way you're supposed to and... it certainly APPEARS that you have a two-way meter (based on the fact that it appears to detect whether you're taking power in or sending power out)... so it would seem that you have a net-metering type of setup. Now for the BAD... While I can't speak for every power company out there, MOST (but perhaps not all) offer what is called "net metering". The whole concept that you "sell" power back to the power company is a little misleading. In net metering, you consume power as you normally would, and whatever your solar system is producing (say 20KW) at any given time, will go to your home FIRST. Anything that you produce over what you use (say you're producing 20KW but only using 5KW at the moment, hence an overage of 15KW), goes out to the power company. Conversely, if you are using more than you're producing, the excess comes in FROM the power company. Net metering works kind of like rollover minutes on a call plan. Whatever your over-produce is counted and taken out from what you over-consume. In the end, you pay for the "net" balance of KWH you consume (hence the term "net metering"). Your usage versus consumption will vary, obviously, over the course of a day-- There will be times, like midday on a sunny winter day, when you may produce a lot of power, but use almost none; at night though, you will produce some and consume it from the power company. If, at the end of the month, you have produced more than you consume, that amount is banked (hence the rollover minutes analogy) and serves as a credit that you draw against in future months when you consume more than you produce (like in the summer). This whole notion of "selling" power back to the utility only comes into play if, over the course of an entire year, you net produce more than you consume. Just like rollover r minutes on a cell plan only carry over for so long, so too do the credits for power you return tot the power company. If, after a year you have produced more than you've consumed, you'll receive a financial credit for the COST (not the retail value) of those KWH. And that's perfectly reasonable and makes perfect sense. The power company gives you a like-kind exchange (e.g. retail credit to bank and a retail charge to consume), but why should they pay you the retail value for power you produce that is above your total consumption? After all, they can produce that power themselves for much less money. You're lucky they give you anything at all for it! If you are consistently "selling" power back to the power company above your consumption, then you have over-sized your system. That would be a very dumb thing to do, considering that the cost to you per KWH produced for a solar system is quite high compared for the cost per KWH that the power company uses to produce those same KWH at scale. It would take decades to pay that back, which is why you typically size a solar system to just a little under your anticipated annual usage, so that you come as close as possible to breaking even without going over in terms of production. You don't install one of these things to turn a profit and go into competition against the power company, who produces gigawatts of power at scale.

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

@@TheFeaz That's not how net metering works here where I live, for the excess power, did you produce you only get paid about a cent. So if in a month you consume 1,000 w and you produce 1500 w then you don't pay for any electricity and you get paid for the surplus of 500 w at a rate of about $0.01. also you have that maintenance fee for the meter. So basically at the end of the month 10. You have to pay $18.50 for the meter and you get back $5 for the 500 w that you sold them. So you still a net negative of $12.50.

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

@@TheFeaz My meter is not a two-way meter so if I let my inverters push power into the network the meter still counts forward. Maybe the meter has a capability but they just don't want to enable it, so where I live. If you want to sign up for a net metering service they have to come over and install a secondary meter. It's mandatory. Every solar company that installs solar does it. Also the meter not smart enough to distinguish between the legs for line one and line two. So being a split phase let's say if I produce 1,000 w on one line and consume only 200 but produce only 500 w on the other line and consume $1,000. Even though I'm pushing power in the network on line one, it's still doesn't count against me so it's a raise to net zero. The meter only cares if there is positive or negative flow regardless in which direction power goes through the lines.

[@applanateearth586]

Dont stick your fingers in a live panel, or you'll be sucking out electricity!

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

That is actually really, really good advice

[@orangekilla3374]

Sucks the democrats made electricity so expensive

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

Democrats and Republicans don't sell electricity as far as I know, but big corporations do all for profits. So if you want to be mad at somebody and be mad at the big corporations

[@orangekilla3374]

@@VegasRoManiacReviewsthen why is electricity 30 cents per kilowatt in blue California while here in red Arizona it’s only 12 cents per kWh

[@HowtofixitwithChris]

@@orangekilla3374 Because California is rich, and the power company can ask for that price, why people in California make 100k a year and homes are 1million and up and in Arizona they make 40k a year and homes are 300k? It would be nice to buy the power at COST to produce + 5%, but that's socialism, there are no profits.

[@NatsolEnergy]

Nope, people did, Greedy people to be precise and those greedy people makes up all factions of political parties. Don't be fooled they all play for the same house, their own.

[@VegasRoManiacReviews]

That's why I always say vote with your money, if you got to pick up with one of these companies boycott their products, if you hate gas prices. Buy a small car that will show them