possible dump load

[Brian McGowan]

Since the indroduction of the "inverter/panel" Enphase grid tie inverter I have thought something like that would make a good dump load. They require 22 volts to start and I have a 12 volt battery system now so they won't work but I just found this.

http://cgi.ebay.com/400W-GRID-POWER-MICRO-GRID-TIE-INVERTER-SOLAR-WIND-/190460939584?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c585b4d40

This would be a good size load for my system. I was wondering what anyone else thought about this. Any opinions are apreciated.
Brian

[Dave Turpin]

It seems to me that a battery backup system with a grid-tie inverter as a dumpload is essentially the same thing as a grid tie inverter with battery backup.

You will still need some sort of dump in the case where the batteries are fully charged and the output of the production system exceeds the rating of the inverter, however.

[Brian McGowan]

Well we are going to find out. I have one coming and I will keep you posted.
I have 350W of panel and a 12 volt wind turbine and the most I have ever seen that put out is about 20 amps. One of the things I am going to do is make a better dump load controller that can bring loads online to absorb what needs to be dumped and sense when there is no longer a demand from a load and switch another load on to take it's place.
This inverter will not operate if the grid is down so I need to make sure that another load is switched on to take it's place if I am generating and the batteries are full and the grid goes down.
I will keep you all posted.
Brian