this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
488 points (99.4% liked)
Technology
82549 readers
3374 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Again, it doesn't matter what inverter you buy, they can't tell the difference between off grid and grid off. So if it shuts off when it doesn't detect voltage, then it won't work off grid. Which makes it sound like you're saying off-grid inverters are illegal.
They detect incoming frequency, not voltage. And yes, they absolutely detect the difference, I have one, it works exactly like this.
How do you detect the frequency of voltage that doesn't exist? Hold a wire up in the air and measure the frequency and let me know what you find.
I mean...if there is no grid frequency detected it automatically breaks connection between the house and the grid and keeps supplying the house from the panels and batteries. When it detects grid frequency again it reconnects the house to grid. It's a fairly simple concept.
Okay now try again but there is no grid.
So you do realize that this is exactly how HV wire detectors work right lol... You hold up a wire (or there's a wire in the wall) carrying high voltage, and the wand will pick up the EM Field.
Right. What's the typical frequency of the EMF field generated by a piece of wire?
What are waves if not frequencies?
Why don't you want to answer the question?
Because waves are frequencies. I wanted to encourage you to think about what your were arguing about.
Right, it's definitely not because you don't know? Waves are not frequencies. Frequency is a measurement of how often something happens, typically measured in Hz. In the case of a loose piece of wire, there is nothing happening, and you can't measure how often nothing happens. But thanks for confirming you don't know.
You have a wire, it has voltage going through it, that means it has an EM field. We can measure said field in many ways. You can even measure this without needing to physically touch the wire. The absence of any electricity at all means no frequency, no em field. Put even 1mv through the wire and now it has an EM field.
You have just measured Frequency vs No frequency. Why is this such a difficult concept to understand?
This is not difficult to understand, which is why I don't understand why you're having such a hard time.
None of what you just said explains what the EMF frequency is for a loose wire, or how an inverter would tell the difference between off grid and grid off.
They would likely have two separate frequencies, a standard used nationally "On the Grid" frequency, and if you're "Off the Grid" you would need to have a different frequency then what ever is used locally.
You could use a device Like this to measure, or change the frequency of said wire.
I said "grid off". LOL again I ask, what is the frequency of a loose piece of wire? Let me go ahead and answer this for you this time: there is none. Which is why an inverter can't tell the difference between being off the grid, and being on the grid with no power. They're both "no frequency". Is any of this getting through to you?
Ahh I misunderstood you and took you for the benefit of the doubt.
If you have a system off grid then it doesn't fucking matter.
Yes but, for the last time, the inverter, importantly, doesn't know if you're off-grid or not