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    Insteon and full solar off the grid?

    Hello,
    Does anyone have a home with solar panels, and use Insteon devices?

    I am strongly considering installing solar panels on my home, and I want to know if the power invertor used on solar panels will play nice with my 78+ Insteon products?

    If not, what other technology could I replace Insteon with, so I could still have a home powered mainly from solar panels?

    I do not want to give up my home automation hobby, just to go green.

    #2
    i would recommend asking/discussing this topic on the smarthome forum as well.
    Mark

    HS3 Pro 4.2.19.5
    Hardware: Insteon Serial PLM | AD2USB for Vista Alarm | HAI Omnistat2 | 1-Wire HA7E | RFXrec433 | Dahua Cameras | LiftMaster Internet Gateway | Tuya Smart Plugs
    Plugins: Insteon (mine) | Vista Alarm (mine) | Omnistat 3 | Ultra1Wire3 | RFXCOM | HS MyQ | BLRadar | BLDenon | Tuya | Jon00 Charting | Jon00 Links
    Platform: Windows Server 2022 Standard, i5-12600K/3.7GHz/10 core, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD

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      #3
      I run solar (40x 225w Panels) Sunpower inverter (Sunnyboy) and have had no issues with my insteon stuff... But I'm still grid tied.

      - Jim -
      My home is smarter than your honor roll student.

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        #4
        Thanks Jim,
        This is very good news to hear.
        I will still be grid tied as well.
        The solar company assured me there would not be a problem, but you know a sales person will say anything to make the sale!


        I will post back up after my solar install(if I do have it installed), to report how well my Insteon devices play together with my solar PV system.

        Michael
        Last edited by swanie2000; February 10, 2014, 11:42 AM.

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          #5
          Just an update:

          Happy to report I have had my solar PV array installed and running for the last few days, and I have not experienced ANYTHING weird or unexpected with ANY of my 75+ insteon devices.

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            #6
            Originally posted by swanie2000 View Post
            Just an update:

            Happy to report I have had my solar PV array installed and running for the last few days, and I have not experienced ANYTHING weird or unexpected with ANY of my 75+ insteon devices.
            I have no experience with inverters designed specifically for use with solar. However, the success with any carrier current automation device (i.e. Insteon, X10, UPB) is going to be how clean the wave form is from the inverter. If you are tied to the grid, the grid will "fill in the blanks" if the wave form from the inverter is not clean or has any sort of stair step characteristic . The true test would be to disconnect from the grid and see if the Insteon devices still work. Be aware that if the wave form from the inverter has any stair step pattern, you could experience Insteon failure with time. I had that happen with a 1750 watt inverter I used during power outages running strictly from batteries. It produces a pseudo sine wave. After about an hour, Insteon devices started to fail. If you know someone with an oscilloscope, they would be able to show you the wave form from the grid and compare it with the wave form from the inverter not connected to the grid.

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              #7
              I am not off the grid completely. I have an 11Kw inverter (Fronius IG Plus) feeding power from my solar panels to the grid. I use the grid as the battery backup. Any excess power I produce that my home is not using at that very moment, will be sent back to the grid.

              During a power failure, the inverter disconnects from the grid automatically, so as not to electrocute the the power company employees who may be working on their side of the connection.

              Power failures are rare in my area, so the added expense, and maintenance of a huge battery array didn't seem needed enough to out weigh the cost and space needed to have it.

              As for my insteon devices, now just about a month after my solar PV array was installed, I still haven't seen anything weird, or not functioning as normal.

              I do understand the stepped sine wave you described, and agree the normal AC power from the grid will easily smooth out the steps. I think this is the nature of the beast when it comes to power inverters.

              My only reason to post this information was to help others who may also be considering a solar array for their home, and who also have a house full of insteon devices.

              I was very concerned that the solar array & power inverter would have a negative effect on my previous investment of insteon devices. Further, the contractor who installed my system, had never seen insteon, and therfore did not give me a very warm and fuzzy feeling about it.

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                #8
                My $0.02 worth

                I do live totally off grid.
                One of the reasons I did not want to go with X10, or Insteon was because of the phantom power consumed by the devices. A lightswitch (when off) will still draw a couple of watts.
                (by the way- so do GFCI outlets- Thankfully, I'm not regulated by code, and do not use them!)
                The same is true for Zwave, but Zwave is VERY much lower power than the others. Perhaps it is due to the bluetooth type of radio transmitters used, so I did employ a few "non critical" zwave devices in my home that needed more immediate response than the ADIO-100 could provide.
                Since nothing that is wireless is 100% reliable, I simply ran over 7miles of wires just for automation needs (as I built my home). That's reliable enough for me...

                But to answer your question properly:
                An inverter - IF it is a GOOD QUALITY, PURE SINE and LOW T.H.D., will work with those power-line controlled devices either on or off grid.

                I still however do not suggest that technology because if you are on-grid because lightning and surges tend to take them out easily (or I may have just got off the worst grid power ever). And if you are off-grid and you use 20 light switches (at 2w ea) you will be throwing away about 40-50watts day and night non-stop forever. Gonna need an extra solar panel to compensate.

                And that brings me to a soap box "gripe" I have about a variety of appliances including many devices sold by homeseer as well as other companies. They rarely (like NEVER) give power ratings of anything except the load when dealing with automation. And even if you buy a ceiling fan, it rarely comes with "real" consumption information. (needing 12amp circuit is not real consumption information!)
                Simple things like what is the REAL power (watts) used by a T.V.? It is hardly ever listed and when listed, is rarely correct! (I have taken my Kill-a-watt to Walmart on many occasion)... And "Does that TV return to the last power state (on or off) after power is restored from an outage?", and oh yeah, lets not overlook "Does it forget the channels or reset the volume after an outage?" (to make a TV return to 'occupied state' when you return into a room, so you don't have to totally reprogram it each time! A lot more important than you think, if you see my point.)
                These things become important when you automate, and/or live off-grid.
                But no one else really cares. Especially the manufacturer or Walmart!

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