residential solar panels
Displaying 1-2 of 2
| Aug 16th 2023, 17:27 | |
KL2JHTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
I’m looking at having solar panels install on the roof of my house. I’ve heard that some installations can cause a lot of HF noise. What should I be asking the installer to prevent RFI problems? |
| Oct 13th 2023, 12:28 | |
KL2JHTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
This is a follow up to my question and my experience with solar panel installation. There are two companies that install solar in my city, Anchorage, Alaska. I interviewed both companies and neither was familiar with RFI from solar cell inverters. One company kind of ignored the possible problem and the other company, Arctic Solar, wanted to work with me about RFI. Arctic Solar uses Enphase products. I searched their website and there was information about RFI. There had detailed instruction on using toroids and ferrites. Arctic Solar agreed to install toroids. The final design was nine 400 kW panels. Each panel has an inverter. From the panel, the AC power is sent to a device that sends power to the house with any excess power sent into the power company lines. There is no battery backup. After the system was powered up, I tested my radios. I first check my AM/FM radio that I use wake me up. The signal was clean and I could hear no RFI. I turned on my old TV with a digital converter connected to an antenna. All channels looked good. Next I want through the amateur bands from 6 m to 80 m. I have 4 different antennas, a 6 m dipole 5 feet from the solar panels at the closest, a 40 m dipole 15 feet from the panels at the closest, an end fed with a 70 feet plus antenna connected to a tuner 25 foot from the panels, and a 6 m/10 m dual dipole that is 50 feet from the panels. There is obvious waves of interference on the 6 m dipole but I could use 6 m on the other three antennas with no RFI. The rest of the bands look good on the other antennas. I’m happy with the result and that the installer wanted to work with me. |
Displaying 1-2 of 2
