Home Energy - Generator Intertie?

[ravetildon]

I was wondering if anyone knew of a product that could intertie a generator to the utility grid? This is a solar energy project w/out the solar or batteries...<p>I doubt there is a ready made one, so maybe one of you could direct me how to make this?<p>There are a lot of ready made solar energy utility inverters on the market, but none that i've found will tie to the grid. they only allow solar energy to go back to the grid. I'm guessing I only need an an ac to ac converter that can match the sine waves (not exacly sure)… I don't need any of the things that turn off my power form going back to the grid in case the power goes off.<p>Any help you could lend in finding this product or designing would be greatly appreciated!<p>Please email me back at the address below if at all possible.<p>Craig Mullins
[email protected]

[russlk]

If you are planning on generating electric power and putting on the 60 Hz grid, I think you need permission from the Utilities Commission to do that. How are you generating AC power from solar energy? The usual method is DC to AC inverter, in which case synchronization to the grid would be easy.

[ampedtech]

check out a mag called "home power"
http://www.homepower.com/

[unknown_entity]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by ravetildon:
I don't need any of the things that turn off my power form going back to the grid in case the power goes off.<p><hr></blockquote><p>Oh yeah sure you might not need it but the poor lineman that has to work on the high tension lines thinking that there dead might be in for a suprise. I know a guy who works at edison and those type of things do happen.<p>Besides why would you want to give the utility company power if you're not getting it free from solar anyway. I think in setups where excess power is put back into the grid incoming and outgoing power are metered seperatly.

[josmith]

If you overdrive a synchronous it will try to push power back the grid. Your house will use your generated power first and take power from the grid to make up the difference. This method is safe because the motor uses the grid to excite itself and will stop generating if the grid goes out. For the same reason it cannot be used for backup in a power failure.

[keymaker]

I heard that in some places, The utility has to BUY power from YOU at the same rate they charge... Is there any truth in that?

[HomeBrew]

The trend now is to use solar power to return power to the grid. Many people use this to make their meters run backward during the day when there at work and use little electricity. Most el-co's don't know about this so it could be a problem unless you use a auto-disconnect when the grid goes down. And yes, in some states the grid does buy excess power from the customer.

[bodgy]

During the olympics the in Sydney part of the cost of power was offset by selling excess energy created by solar power back to the grid.<p>regrettably this being Australia you have to pay an awful lot of money to gain access to the grid in this way (well here in Queensland you do) after that it will take 25 years to get a return on the investment of equipment plus fee. Unless your in the bush in which case you get a grant.<p>bodgy