Member-only story
Why there is no safe way to ensure zero grid export with a Hybrid Inverter before the Net Meter Install
I am going to be in a situation soon where my solar electrical inspection is over, but I cannot sell to the grid before my meter is changed to one which supports net metering. There would be many weeks of delay before that would be supported. However, I do have a hybrid inverter the Sol Ark 15k, and I wanted to see if there is anyway to 100% ensure that no power can be sold to the grid.
I knew there is a grid sell checkbox under the limiter settings, but I wanted to be sure it had no caveats. Unfortunately, it does. So, here is the results of a long discussion with the very knowledgeable Sol Ark support folks.
The Basic Settings
Uncheck Grid sell (no brainer)
Under the Other settings in the limiter, ensure that Zero export power is set to 20W (the default) or higher. This ensures that the inverter is always pulling from the grid, to ensure that the chances of exporting power is very unlikely.
Even with these settings, the inverter may still export power to the grid — this is not a bug. Hence, this article.
