Hello esteemed Wrenches;
I have been absolutely swamped with inquiries about small, non-UL listed
(or "UL listing pending") direct PV grid-tie inverters in the last few
weeks. It appears they are arriving in a flood from China and being sold
on Ebay, and by other online retailers. They are also being incorporated
into home solar products, such as window coverings that have PV cells on
the outside, portable PV systems for renters to reduce their bills, etc.
The common theme here is that these devices "plug into any wall outlet
and reduce your utility bill."
My questions for the group are;
~ Can any energy-generating device, even if it *was* UL 1741 listed,
comply with the NEC if it plugs into a wall outlet instead of being
hard-wired to the breaker panel? For example, a homeowner wiring a
120VAC plug onto an Enphase and running the cord in through the window.
~ An argument raised by one distributer of these inverters was, "Well,
here in (minnesota) the customer owns all the wiring in their house up
to the utility feed. So they can plug in anything they want into the
house outlets, whether UL listed or not, as long as they don't have a
net metering agreement with the utility...because this inverter does not
sell electricity to the utility, it only compensates for house usage."
Doesn't 1741 still apply here?
~ What about latching meters? I understand that some types of utility
meter will count all generation from the house circuits as electricity
used.
~ Does this stuff scare you folks as badly as it scares me? Sounds like
the double-male 120VAC plugs from Y2K.
I sure would appreciate some clarification on UL 1741 from the group,
though....specifically regarding plugging generation equipment of any
sort into a wall outlet.
--
Dan Fink
Executive Director;
Buckville Energy Consulting
Buckville Publications LLC
NABCEP / IREC / ISPQ accredited Continuing Education Providers
http://www.buckville.com/
i...@buckville.com
970.672.4342 (voicemail)
970.373.1311 (fax)
_______________________________________________
List sponsored by Home Power magazine
List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org
Options & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
List rules & etiquette:
www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
Check out participant bios:
www.members.re-wrenches.org
