Electrician to connect to meter and certify

SkyPower

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Has anyone had any success with electricians connecting 'self installed' hybrid inverters to the home?
I already have a grid-tie system with two Sungrow inverters coupled to a (total) 8KW array. They are installed on the outside garage wall. The hybrid inverter is installed on the other side of the wall(not weather proof). I've built a 48V 30kwh battery bank to connect to the hybrid inverter.

I had an electrician come round today to quote to have it connected but he asked who installed it (me) and he said "no way". Although the install may meet regulations, unless the installer is licensed there is little to nochance of having it connected and certified. I would require a solar/battery installer to install the whole system.
Has anyone else had these troubles and if so, how did you get around them?

I'm based in Melbourne, Australia.

Thanks in advance.

James
 
Yes. Mine only approves my work kind of :) Many say no and I understand them. They dont want to have the liabillity when you did it.

Many doesnt even have certification to do DC installs
 
Here in Southern OR, USA - a city permit is required and the homeowner has the right to do work on their home as long as its inspected. Because of this - I personally went downtown and got the permits / plans approved etc.This is how I bypassed (legally/legit) the state requirements that a 'solar certificate installer' is required ... not just an electrician and handyman. I had help but *I* did the work myself in fact. The city permit required I have an electrician listed and I hired him to do some of the initial work / advise on my own wiring - however I was personally the 'installer'... and responsible to deal with inspector etc. Since I was off-grid, the inspection was quite lite - just concerned with proper wire/conduit etc. The roof permit (inspector) was much more suspicious than the electrical inspector.

Subsequently, there is the idea that a homeowner can expand things as long as there is nochange in infrastructure... for example, I can add additional outlets around the house that extend existing circuits. I used this as the basis to expand my system.

Batteries (for off-grid) were completely outside any permits or interest on the inspector's part - whichsurprised me! He just ignored the battery bank completely.

I made sure the neighbors were consulted/ok/in the loop - so no complaints to the city to cause any clouds. This was in 2018.

Not sure if any of this helps - but its how I got things done.
 
Yes most Australian installers don't want to touch any DIY in case it risks their certifications & the solar CEC endorsed ones are even more so, protective of their industry, etc.

If you can find one to "bring up to standard" & certifiy then you'd have to say that's the job up front.

It's only actually the mains side that's it's needed for, the CEC part stuff are "guidelines" not rules in law like Aust standards.

I chose not to grid connect to dodge this. My system is a "solar charged UPS" & connected to the house mains by a sparky as such.
 
The funny thing with UPS is that the connection to the grid is exactly the same - physically as a hybrid.

The only real difference is the loads are connected to the output of the inverter only, where as most hybrid systems would have the loads on the input side.

The only difference is damn setting in the inverter. IMHO the location of the loads should be irrelevant.
 
The difference is that an UPS in most cases is or should be installed by extension cord and it cant feed to grid. A hybrid system is installed by static connector and can feed back. Thats what differs in rules in for instance Sweden.

If you buy a UPS that is mounted hard then you cant do it your self any more.
 
Trust me Daromer - Australian rules will be very very different to many other countries.

We are over governed by idiots.
 
I know that but what i wanna dig into is that the fact that the unit is for permanent installation + that its grid-tie labeled. You cant turn of the grid-tie function to 100% in those units since they are software based. As long as you have grid as input it will go both ways though very little. And therefore they cant be made legal in any country i know of. Not even in Sweden are they allowed due to this.
 
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