PMM (Pico Mains Monitor)

Author	Message
CaptainBoing Guru Joined: 07/09/2016 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 1731	Posted: 11:53am 15 Sep 2021         Volhout said   In my neighborhood solar panels are popping up like fungus... the input overvoltage protector (MOV) was blown. this is quite a problem in UK. Because "no voltage drop no current flow" people with panels on a feed-in tariff have to be generating at a higher voltage to push back into the grid so they do anything other than cover drop-outs in high demand periods (they naturally want to be earning as much as possible). So person A notices their payments have dropped because their energy feed-in has dropped, so they call the "solar man" he comes round and tweaks their kit up a volt or two. Now person B has the same problem and so-on throughout the community. I have seen mains voltage at almost 260V (UK nominal is 240) in some areas because of this and it isn't going to get better any time soon. Of course this endless tweaking shouldn't happen but how do you explain the complex problem to people that know only that they want to earn the amazing amounts the sales guy promised and  nothing about kirchoff, ohm et al . Edited 2021-09-15 22:03 by CaptainBoing