Hobbyist Renewable Energy?
vossman77 writes “I was looking into renewable energy from a hobbyist perspective, maybe generating a few watts of solar or wind power, just to reduce my electric bill. But upon further review, I found out that I need a special grid tie AC inverter that shuts off when the grid turns off (for worker safety reasons) and makes the current in-phase with the grid. These two additional features over the cheap inverters sold at department store, makes the cost upwards of $2000, but support more watts than I need. While this is fine for large scale projects, it is out of range for a small scale hobbyist. A Google search came with some home brew hacks at best. So, are there any Slashdotters out there doing small scale renewable energy projects with grid tie systems? What are other options for the hobbyist to play around with renewable energy, other than charging a cell phone?”
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Original post by ScuttleMonkey
