In article ,
Peter wrote:

I was wondering if anyone has experience interference from Solar Power
Inverters.

I'm currently access various inverters and noticed that the Kaco
Powador-4202 uses a high frequency isolation transformer, so I'm
particularly interested in experience with this model, but also keen to hear
general experience with these domestic solar power systems.

I, and one of my friends, did have problems with a solar "charge
controller", which I use with a small solar panel to trickle-charge /
float an AGM battery.

It's apparently based on a buck-mode switching voltage regulator,
down-regulating the voltage from a panel (nominal 18 volts
open-circuit) to the lower voltage and higher current needed to charge
a lead-acid battery properly. When my friend first installed one, his
comment was "Holy QRM, Batman!". The switching noise was sufficient
to wipe out reception on his HF radio transceiver nearby.

My guess at the time was that most of the RF was being radiated out of
the solar panel and the 15-20' of wire running to it. I suggested
buying a standard AC power-line filter module (the sort made by Corcom
and many others) or two, placing one on the solar-panel side of the
charge controller and the other on the battery-being-charged side.
These modules can choke/filter out both common-mode and differential
noise.

This completely eliminate the QRM problem. Apparently the amount of
RF noise radiated directly by the controller itself is negligible...
the switching noise is only a problem if it's fed into wires long
enough to act as antennas.

EMI filters of this sort aren't hard to come by on the surplus market,
and are also available new. You might want to consider spec'ing a
filter of this sort as part of any solar-charger or solar-inverter
system you have installed. RFI/EMI levels which are low enough to
meet legal requirements, may still be high enough to interfere with
some sensitive communications... extra filtering may save you from this.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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