VO4Home set reduction v Vphase's solution

[yorkshiremike]

The VPhase will only regulate up to 20A, in fact it will only handle just over 3kW (about 15A) continuously, because above this load it goes into thermal bypass after a few minutes. Practically, this means that you have to split the CU so that it isn't supplying an immersion, electric cooker, electric shower etc (or the PV for that matter), on mine, if I switch almost anything else on with the kettle (toaster, microwave, washing machine etc) it goes into bypass. It can be a nice solution if you're replacing the main CU, but we haven't come across an installation yet (as an adjunct to fitting PV) where the electricians' found it straight forward to fit - and several where it was impossible. Consequently, if we're fitting VO, we're now fitting Voltis for home units as provided the PV is on separate tails/mini CU, it's just a case of inserting the Voltis in the tails before the main CU.

 

[Worcester]

Also a bit scary when someone's first post is high praise for a particular item, when they've never previously entered into the discussion. With the knowledge they appear to show, and what they have specifically missed out - e.g., proof of savings one can only be sceptical of who their employer is and what their motive is.

As I get older I get more cynical

 

[sedgy34]

ive put in a voltis unit at my house its switching to 220v suppossed to be 17% saving a year no problems as yet

 

[SolarRoofSols]

Has anyone looked into the APEX VO unit? We met with the rep after seeing vPhase and others at various shows and liked the APEX as you didn't have to split the CU. Not installed one yet - any thoughts?? Apex Energy UK - Voltage Optimisation For The Home

 

[RJMarshall]

Haha, nothing like a good old fashioned skeptic Worcester ;-). Sorry, I am not generally one to use forums and just came across this after doing a bit more post installation research hence no introduction and in with both feet! I can only go by what I have experienced and that is that the Vphase came out on top in my comparisons. I did a fair bit of umming and arring before deciding which to go for. They all have their pros and cons and it seems the lower capicity of the VPhase is it's main downfall but shouldn't be a problem in the majority of homes. The reason I decided against the Voltis was the fact that it doesn't optimise below 300W and the fact that it and the V04 home are essentially just step down transformers and also cost (and weigh) a fair bit more. It is true that the Vphase can't be installed straight from the meter but why would you want to try and optimise a heating element? My son installed our Vphase (He's the electrician) and found no problem in splitting the board.

 

[brman]

Haha, nothing like a good old fashioned skeptic Worcester ;-). Sorry, I am not generally one to use forums and just came across this after doing a bit more post installation research hence no introduction and in with both feet! I can only go by what I have experienced and that is that the Vphase came out on top in my comparisons. I did a fair bit of umming and arring before deciding which to go for. They all have their pros and cons and it seems the lower capicity of the VPhase is it's main downfall but shouldn't be a problem in the majority of homes. The reason I decided against the Voltis was the fact that it doesn't optimise below 300W and the fact that it and the V04 home are essentially just step down transformers and also cost (and weigh) a fair bit more. It is true that the Vphase can't be installed straight from the meter but why would you want to try and optimise a heating element? My son installed our Vphase (He's the electrician) and found no problem in splitting the board.

A slight correction to this. The Voltis (VH60HD to make sure we are talking about the same unit) apparently optimises at any current above 0.5A by default, this is user settable to 0.2A. So I make that about 115W down to 50W or there abouts. It is also 40A max continuous, 60A for 30 minutes before dropping to bypass mode. This isn't entirely obvious from the tech info on the website but I have had it confirmed by their technical support.
There does seam some slight advantage to splitting the CU in that you don't end up optimising cookers and immersion heaters (which is counter-productive) but I guess you could still split off the cooker/immersion to a not optimised board with the voltis if you wanted to.

I take it from what you are saying the vphase is not tranformer based. So must be a switch mode design? I can see an advantage in that in that it could maintain a constant output voltage for variable (within limits) input voltage but I think you would struggle to get a switch mode as efficient as a transformer so I am not sure it will really gain anything in reality. That is assuming my knowledge of smps design is not too out of date anyway!

I should add that this is all theoretical, I haven't actually installed any of these beasts but I have been looking at whether they are worth installing.