[stevehull]

Memphis,

I too have seen the articles, but a lot of people want to make this difficult. It is not hard to test your meter.

It is hard to understand, why people make a big deal of this. Perhaps it is just the few outliers that report problems where the 95% where it works fine simply don't report a problem - as there are no problems (or very few).

If the meter does not operate correctly, your utility is REQUIRED to put in one that will make distributed generation work. And at no charge to you.

But they will then want to inspect the system, etc.

I see the Enphase M215 now at ~ $105 each (see renvu.com). I don't know the size of your panels. Sometimes hooking up a couple small ones (100 watt panels) in parallel works to get the total wattage up to 200 watts or so. Then one M215 can easily work for that pair. Some (many) panels have blocking diodes that allow this to work.

Here is one solution. Buy one M215 microinverter. They are on eBay used as people are swapping them out for the M250 or S280. But do not pay more than $105 as you can get a new one with the 25 year full, non prorated guarantee for that. I see a lot of them on eBay for $99. Not worth it as $5 more gets you a new one.

I can help you wire up the connector so you don't have to buy the Enphase trunk cable. It is just a four conductor system (two 120 legs, a neutral and a ground). You just cut off their connector and wire nut it up.

I don't have any spare M215's around, but I think pinball does. See if you can "rent it" from him. But you will need to buy a trunk connector ($9) to test as he won't want you cutting his connector off!


Steve