I turned them off before the recent inclement weather as advised by our local council.
I meant to do it last week, but I kept forgetting.
I turned the DC and the AC back on in the reverse of the order suggested for turning them off.
I watched the panels from across the road for a bit, to watch for anything obviously amiss. (I assume sparks, smoke and fire to be the obvious problems to watch for). We didn’t and up getting hit by the terrible weather event, so I wasn’t too worried.
The panels seemed to come up ok.
Why does the council recommend turning them off?
We had a category 2 cyclone approaching.
I only described it as inclement weather, so as not to become “exciting men’s club”…
I thought it was about if there are fallen powerlines they can turn off the mains, but they can’t turn off the solar panels feeding wires potentially causing an electrical hazard?
Happy to wait for an expert opinion.
Nope, basically all solar inverters will switch off if the grid goes down. They need the 50hz signal to synchronise. Even with a battery, unless you buy the separate box, your battery will switch off without the grid.
There are hybrid inverters that support dark start (no grid) but yes, as you mentioned, they only do this when they have internally dropped the grid feed, to prevent such a back feed event.
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Perhaps the worry is that if wind rips things up, you’ve potentially got live electrical wires exposed?
Yeah, but that isn’t prevented by turning the inverter off. 🤷
Among other things, yes…
I never turn off my solar panels, not even during a storm. What would the advantage be?
If cyclone winds lift the panels and damage them, when the sun comes out it can increase the chances of a fire, or some such.
This is some next level paranoia
If it’s advisory, how legally binding is it, as in what would happen to you in the case they determined you had the panels activated?
Jokes on you they were already on
