Balcony solar PV

[nowty]

On one of my paragliding trips abroad but around the time just post 911, I got pulled up in an airport on having a variometer (measures altitude and rate of climb), a GPS and a radio transceiver.

They had a fit but we had a compromise, I could keep the GPS but the Variometer and the radio transceiver had to go into a special sealed envelope and given to the air crew. It was handed back to me on landing.

Another guy in our group but coming from a different airport had his variometer confiscated until he returned home. Luckily someone had a spare one for him to borrow.

Just thinking about your MC4's, might have got tricky if they didn't quite hear the "M".

[Joeboy]

On one of my paragliding trips abroad but around the time just post 911, I got pulled up in an airport on having a variometer (measures altitude and rate of climb), a GPS and a radio transceiver.

They had a fit but we had a compromise, I could keep the GPS but the Variometer and the radio transceiver had to go into a special sealed envelope and given to the air crew. It was handed back to me on landing.

Another guy in our group but coming from a different airport had his variometer confiscated until he returned home. Luckily someone had a spare one for him to borrow.

Just thinking about your MC4's, might have got tricky if they didn't quite hear the "M".

Imagine!

I went into teaching mode. His eyes glazed over and we were good to go!

[richbee]

Airport security is very strange, but sadly very important. Many years ago, before 9-11 and all that paranoia, we went on an extended camping trip to Turkey, I had a stove that ran on unleaded petrol and a half litre storage bottle for extra fuel. They let me board with the stove containing about a third of a litre, but not the refill bottle???

Desp

Yes it is very odd - I bought a full set of metal boules in Munich airport many years ago (but post 9-11), after checking in my luggage, and then panicked that I was taking heavy metal potential weapons with me - but they just waved them through the scanner and were completely unbothered

[Joeboy]

Strangely, after going absolutely radge at me in May for daring to buy a couple of panels for the back deck while she was in Scotland. I'm pretty damn sure we discussed and agreed it but who knows? SWMBO has in this trip become massively onside with the idea. Hopefully get them fitted soon without excessive sweat, blood & of course tears. Might begin Saturday?

The beauty of all this is that I recognise the stress bucket being overflowed. No time for evaporated water to reduce the load over time. Just constantly full and overflowing.

I did feel it a few years back but that was workload, SWMBO's has been associated suicide and natural death. BANG, BANG, BANG over 18 months.

Fair warning Stress has to be dealt with.

[Joeboy]

So, the IQ7 Enphase micro.

Tested it at home in April.
Tested it May out here with my cousin
Tested it this afternoon on a single panel

Me testing it today (you know where this is going)
tl

Wallhung the first panel, tagged it back to the beam mounted micro.. Nada, nieto, nae lights. The micro has s**t itself!

Checked AC cable, all good. I'll get a hold of a multimeter and bell the lead through but I'm pretty sure it's an internal death.

On the upside, first panel up and looks smashing!,



I'll buy a small Hoymiles from Germany. See how small they go. My own fault for buying unknown used.

[Joeboy]

Got a multimeter, found one mc4 I hadn't pushed all the way in. Micro is lit up, three green flashes for DC present and now consistent flashing red every few seconds which indicates grid not within parameters.

Only have 17Vdc off a single panel at this time of night and reading is bang on 220Vac at a wall socket.

I can see a Hoymiles hms 400 making its way out here and the IQ heading back to base for tests on uk grid.

We'll see what tomorrow brings!

[Joeboy]

Tomorrow is here. Grid voltage is stable and well within spec.



6 green flashes when DC connected, a pause then flashing red light indicates AC not within spec.

No way to reset this unit without access to gateway or similar. Checked grid voltage this morning and there is small variation in reading but to be expected.

I can only surmise that the unit has failed or reset itself to factory. Either way it's pumped for use out here.

I'll mount the second panel today in series,, check voltage, make good the wall where I knocked through and stand by for Oct for a HMS350 1T test.

[Joeboy]

A few cables to hide tomorrow and that's the job done (apart from a working micro). These panels sit at 12V indoors 17V with reflected sunlight from the balcony tiles and I expect to see 40V+ in series later today when the sun gets around.







Mildly irked that it's all in place yet not working. I guess that's the risk when we play these games... Nope.that didn't work, still irked!.

Edit- Ordered a Hoymiles HMS350 1T from Germany. Should be plug & play. Can also log into my Hoymiles account here in Turkey so will hopefully get some sort of monitoring in place too. Field wire plug on order too.

[Joeboy]

In from Germany.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2024/07/19/ ... -mw-in-h1/

[AE-NMidlands]

In from Germany.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2024/07/19/ ... -mw-in-h1/

Good for them. I wonder if we are over-protective (e.g. no live plugs) or our networks are just more fragile/ underinvested than theirs?
I imagine the inverter for balcony pv could easily be made to not export if there was no mains voltage - i.e. the output not plugged in.