Discuss Voltage Optimisation Unit in the Solar PV Forum | Solar Panels Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Welcome to ElectriciansForums.net - The American Electrical Advice Forum
Head straight to the main forums to chat by click here:   American Electrical Advice Forum

There are different makes on the market, some are far better than others for various reasons.

In the past these have been debated at length, the long and the short of it is all the "experts" are convinced that they can not work, but those that have had a certain make installed have seen a genuine saving.

Of course all of this depends on their normal incoming voltage, if it is low it is a pointless exercise, you also have to make sure you wire it in correctly if PV is installed.
 
tried them and ended up having to take one out from one customers as I discovered the flaws with them - though we've still got one running at our house.

Basically all the whole house units are fixed voltage reduction units, so for example the Apex unit is fixed at 18V reduction, and it then switches to bypass if the voltage output drops below something like 214V output / 232V input.

Unluckily, in this situation it turned out that northern powergrid had unilaterally decided to turn the entire regional grid down by 6V between our survey and the installation of the VO unit, and it was at the end of a long line, so while it was up around 250V at peak, around 5-8pm it was hovering around 232V so the unit spent the entire period rapidly cutting in and out, and causing regular 18V swings in the household voltage.

I checked every other unit on the market out after this, and while some of them do give you the option to have different set voltage reduction points eg 12V or even as low as 5V - really what's the point if it's only going to be that low a reduction.

tbf to the Vphase unit I think that is supposed to actually stabilise the voltage around 220V, however it only does 8amps continuous, 20 amps peak, so can only be used for a small proportion of the circuits.

Actually, we have got one unit in at a place with a swimming pool, and generally very high bills, and I think that's working ok, though we've done a load of work there so it's hard to tell what impact it's having.

So my verdict would be that for domestic they're probably only worthwhile in a relatively low proportion of cases with particularly high energy users and relatively stable high voltages. Northern Powergrid reducing the grid voltage by 6V probably reduces the need for them a lot as well, and makes it seems a bit unwise to be putting them in elsewhere as they might follow suit, which could then lead to problems down the line.

we have a unit sitting in our warehouse if you want to take a functioning but slightly used unit for a test, I'd be open to an offer on it.
 
Gavin, did you try the Voltis?

think they're the ones that give you options on the voltage reduction, but it's still fixed at that point, and I doubt it's worthwhile if you're only reducing the voltage by 12V.

I had a long chat with the tech departments from all the major suppliers before concluding that while it's possible to do it properly, none of the units on the market did it, and they're all basically compromising effectiveness in the race to undercut each other / not price themselves out of the market. So basically there's nothing on the market that actually optimises the voltage to 220V for domestic whole house systems - you can get it for commercial, but at a hefty price, or for a small proportion of the domestic circuits, but not a whole house unit - they're all just basic fixed voltage reduction units.

Bit disappointing tbh.
 
I had one installed on a friends GSHP and garage( all on one phase), house is on another and stable block/workshop on the other.
We discussed how it worked, and looked at energy useage which is why we went for the Heatpump phase, Voltage drops from 245+ down to 220v, after 18 months we believe savings are being made, but difficult to quantify due to the long winter.
However it has to improve the longevity of the HP by running at the voltage it was designed for.
This was my test case for them, and the customer is happy, sadly I am taking a back seat in this industry for a while.
 
Jason121,
You stated that it would go in a kitchen unit,
All three units we have used some are easier to install than others my opinion they can do a job as stated above checks have to be made.
However a draw back for you in this application is available space none of the units are small.
wiggly
 

Reply to Voltage Optimisation Unit in the Solar PV Forum | Solar Panels Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc
This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by Untold Media. Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock