Interference From Neighbor's Solar Panels

[Keith7WA]

Stusviews, the contract is between our neighbor and the local solar company who installed the system. It's still under warranty. The owner of the company will of course pay the technician for his work servicing said warranty - so all is good.

[stusviews]

Thanks for the update. I've been on both sides of labor ;)

[Teken]

Please do keep us all updated as this is really interesting to say the least. I can't honestly say I have witnessed RF interference from very many electronics over the last five years.

About 25 years ago all bets were off because the testing and limits were not so stringent etc. With respect to the foiled line box it does not need to be grounded. The over all intent of the box is to redirect the RF signal where it is basically captured and surrounded by the box.

Since they are pulling it out this is something you need to test quickly before its gone.

[Keith7WA]

Will do Teken and thank you for the info about the foil lined box. (My Googling of boxes lined with foil and EMF led to some hilarious conspiracy sites!).
It'll be a little while before I can do the experiment as my neighbor had a sudden death in the family on Sunday and the last thing I want to bother him with right now is this issue. But in due time I will give it a try -- and before they swap out the unit.

[Teken]

Very sorry to hear this please extend our best to your neighbor our thoughts are with them.

[Keith7WA]

Thank you Teken.

[Steveo369]

Keith7WA: I'd really like to know how this turned out and if a solution (or alternate issue) was found.

I have about 20 Insteon Devices, and solar panels installed in/on my new home. I have noticed that I have some communication issues with my IOLink devices which are powerline only. My other 15 or so dualband devices are all rock solid. It appears that my issues may be slightly different than yours, in that you reported issues with your RF devices.

The comm problems for my IOLinks appear to happen intermittently, but almost always happen more often during the daytime. I suspect that it's the solar panel inverter not delivering a 'clean' signal, that it causes powerline communication issues which the dual band device network can handle with redundancy. I haven't fully isolated it yet, but looking for other data points.

I am also in Washington (Bellingham) and using a Solectria inverter unit, which is made in WA. Curious if this is the same manufacturer that your neighbors' system is.

I'm using two IOLinks to control two garage doors on the same circuit. A 2477S is line-of-sight at ~20 feet from the units, and multiple dual band units are on the same half of the panel as the IOLinks. I have even tried installing a range extender directly into the plug in one of the IOLinks.

Ideally, insteon would simply add dual-band capability to the IOLink for ultimate redundancy and reliability.

[stusviews]

Plugging a dual-band device into the I/O Linc effectively makes the I/O Linc a dual-band device. If that didn't help, then there is line noise that needs to be filtered. RF communication can't overcome all power line difficulties. What else is on that particular circuit?

[AnnistonT]

You can use a solar panel to heat water, and you can generate electricity, but you can't plug it into a wall socket. The most effective way to save on your energy bill is by heating water. Solar panels that produce electricity, don't store it. They produce it for that particular time, and if you're not there to use it, it's gone. Furthermore, the electricity isn't always regular, it may have peaks and shortages. The best way to tap into that, would be to sell the electricity you produce to the grid, and then buy it back when you use it.

[Waldifrid]

At 8hrs an afternoon, 3 200 watt panels to cost the battery might suffice.Its no longer elementary to appreciate relating to the batteries without specific plenty on your place. (i.e what's on your place, television, ac condenser, etc) yet as a ballpark a 12 volt 450 amp hour battery economic enterprise with a a million,000 watt inverter "ought to" do the trick. in spite of the incontrovertible fact that my answer become extraordinarily technical you need to call around and refer to a pair experts. inverterreview.com

[Scotophor]

We see that the production loss on solar PV systems is often attributable to the poor performance of inverters. Defective inverters can lead to significant production losses. Whilst the modules are responsible for generating electricity, the inverters are responsible for converting and feeding the power to the grid.