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danesol

Just wondered what you guys feelings were on fitting one of these units to control grid voltage down to a constant 220v at the consumer unit was, I know we have discussed similar before, but thought it may be time to relook at these units ??

I haven't got high grid voltages to contend with myself, but wondered what would be the effect of having one of these fitted with an installed PV system were grid voltage were 250v plus ??

Is it also more advantageous with lower grid voltages ??

Voltage Optimisation For Your Home - VO4HOME
 
My understanding from manufacturers specs on the voltage optimisation units they have to be fitted after the PV so the PV inverter still sees grid voltage regardless of the installation of the optimiser.
 
check the specs, as unfortunately there aren't any whole house VO units on the market that actually regulate the voltage to 220V, they're all just fixed ratio units that drop the voltage by eg 18V.

Be very careful to measure the voltage at peak consumption time eg 6.30pm as well as mid afternoon to get the high and low voltage points, as we got stung with one that was quite a high reading, but dropped down to hover around the 232V mark at tea time, which is the point at which the APEX unit trips in and out of bypass, so they were getting 18V surges every few minutes, which ain't good.
 
check the specs, as unfortunately there aren't any whole house VO units on the market that actually regulate the voltage to 220V, they're all just fixed ratio units that drop the voltage by eg 18V.

I have never investigated in detail or fitted one, but that surprises me. Makes them even less worthwhile that I thought before!
 
yes, I was a little surprised, and was talking to a manufacturer about sorting it out, but they seem to have gone cold on the idea.
 
This is another product I keep coming up against as the bigger PV companies bundle it in with pv and use projected 15%+ savings to inflate the SAP2009 figures, reduce payback time and justify their £9500 cost for a 4kwp system. Some companies charge as much as £950. Others use it as a supposed freebie to close the deal.

As a small company we have stayed away mainly because of the threads in this forum, the fact that WHICH called it one of the five biggest wastes of money in renewables...and the article in Nov Solar Trade Magazine entitled "Voltage Optimisation - Domestic Customers Beware"...

I've also tried to wade my way through the paper on the Carbon Trust:

http://www.carbontrust.com/media/77191/ctg045.pdf

...but thats written for a higher pay grade than me....

However my way of thinking as a relative layman is that domestic items like kettles, laptops, white goods.....will use what they need and that domestically the only real savings will come from lighting. The report seems to say that most low power items are designed for world markets and and such voltage optimization will have no effect...

However...it does seem to be another of these products that has the magic Green Deal approval.....
 
This is another product I keep coming up against as the bigger PV companies bundle it in with pv and use projected 15%+ savings to inflate the SAP2009 figures, reduce payback time and justify their £9500 cost for a 4kwp system. Some companies charge as much as £950. Others use it as a supposed freebie to close the deal.

As a small company we have stayed away mainly because of the threads in this forum, the fact that WHICH called it one of the five biggest wastes of money in renewables...and the article in Nov Solar Trade Magazine entitled "Voltage Optimisation - Domestic Customers Beware"...

I've also tried to wade my way through the paper on the Carbon Trust:

http://www.carbontrust.com/media/77191/ctg045.pdf

...but thats written for a higher pay grade than me....

However my way of thinking as a relative layman is that domestic items like kettles, laptops, white goods.....will use what they need and that domestically the only real savings will come from lighting. The report seems to say that most low power items are designed for world markets and and such voltage optimization will have no effect...

However...it does seem to be another of these products that has the magic Green Deal approval.....

What about GSHP ?
 
check the specs, as unfortunately there aren't any whole house VO units on the market that actually regulate the voltage to 220V, they're all just fixed ratio units that drop the voltage by eg 18V.

Be very careful to measure the voltage at peak consumption time eg 6.30pm as well as mid afternoon to get the high and low voltage points, as we got stung with one that was quite a high reading, but dropped down to hover around the 232V mark at tea time, which is the point at which the APEX unit trips in and out of bypass, so they were getting 18V surges every few minutes, which ain't good.


Damm............. I can see that now in their install guide and just goes to show you have to either read the small print or in this case the install guide ( I cheated and asked the experts - lol ) - Thanks !!! ;

""10. Carry out a check of voltage at the furthest point from the consumer unit and ensure that it is as close as possible to 220Volts. Should the voltage require adjustment, turn off the supply to the VO4HOME® unit and make the adjustment by moving the link wire between terminal 2 and the tapping terminal. The Voltage reduction can be set to either, 12, 18 or 25Volts reduction. Refit the cover, turn on the supply and test again. Once the Voltage is set, carry out a functional test of all Electrical items to ensure that ""

 
We will see a lot more installations they will pushed hard in the Green deal for £99 had the leaflet through the door already
 

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