this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2024
113 points (99.1% liked)
Solarpunk technology
2310 readers
148 users here now
Technology for a Solar-Punk future.
Airships and hydroponic farms...
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
For current to flow out of your house the voltage inside the house has to be slightly higher than outside. Not by much, but a little. So the inverter has a higher output voltage than line voltage by design. If everyone does this and some of the power has nowhere to go, then the average voltage goes up measurably.
This wouldn't be a problem if the grid had been designed to be able to bring power out of residential areas, but my casual understanding is that this doesn't work very well with existing infrastructure, so with a bunch of extra power that has a hard time getting out the voltage keeps climbing until some inverters hit their safety shutoff.
Ah ye that makes sense! The grid is pushing 230v in, so to get power out you push harder back, so for example 240v. Thanks!
I know inverters have a safety feature to shutdown if the input voltage is not in range so it doesnt push power on a open net etc. Have had people tell me that inverters doing that was a problem, but discovered they shutdown if the input isnt right!