Equipment for measuring the flow of current

[drew1000]

Does anyone know of any equipment that could be installed on my dad's PV system that would close a switch (or operate a relay) when generating and feeding back to the grid and drops the switch/relay out if it is not generating enough to feed back to grid. Thanks in advance

 

[prest]

why do you need to do that?

 

[BruceB]

Some SMA inverters have this function built-in or available as an add-on.
http://files.sma.de/dl/5692/ZusatzFunktNG-TEN105011.pdf
Regards
Bruce

 

[drew1000]

If I could set this up I would be able to use what is being generated during the day to say heat my water but if I was not generating enough it would trip out and stop me from usingmy normal supply therefore keeping cost to a minimum and only heating the water when generating. Hope that makes sense

 

[edexlab]

Have a look at the central heating section on this forum as there are several different ideas for using the immersion as a dump load utilising Pv

 

[TonyL]

I am looking at the same use. But I tend towards the school of thought that says I only use £100 of gas to heat my water pa and therefore making this pay is difficult.

Cool Power Products make a device called EMMA. It costs c.£2k installed and is therefore unlikely to payback in less than a decade or more.

SMA are launching Sunny Home Manager in 2012 which will control sockets over Blutooth