Tweet
Having an engineering mindset (network engineer, NOT an electrical engineer or electrician) - I really like to understand HOW things work, even if I'm hiring a professional to do the install.
Today, my home is a very simple portable generator setup. I have a mechanical interlock panel with a 30A 240V breaker going to a mechanical meter and then a 30A generator inlet box. I have a Cat RP7500E that I converted to dual fuel (added natural gas). The inlet box is at the same point on the house as my gas inlet, where I have a 3/4" nat gas quick connect. So when power fails (like it did in Texas recently), I wheel out my generator, connect it to nat gas and the elec inlet box and fire it up to let it warm up for a minute or so, then go into the garage, flip off the non-essential breakers, then flip off the main breaker, lift up the mechanical interlock and flip on the generator inlet breaker to backfeed the panel. This works great, but it's very much a manual effort - and rather loud. I'm sure I'm not telling anyone in this forum anything new.
This leads me to my question: in evaluating a potential new home (may be a vacation home for several years, then when kids are out of school, could become our primary home). In this new home, I'd really like something that is more automated and is more self sufficient. Hence, why I love the concept of hybrid inverters + solar + battery. My general goals include:
- Have enough inverter to handle the home's main panel (not interested in having critical loads only panels). Please note electric heat + electric dryers are "deal breakers" when looking at homes, but they would definitely have air conditioning, most likely a single 5-ton or possibly two 3-ton units based on the homes I've been looking at.
- Primary battery charging would be via solar, so maybe 15kw-ish?
- A standby generator would be nice - and I'd personally like to have a 250g propane tank dedicated to it, even if we have nat gas at the home, purely for the more self sufficiency goal. (after being in Texas and being aware that the gas grid almost failed... that sort of changed my perspective on nat gas availability)
I am looking at Diagram 5, on page 48 of this Sol-Ark documentation: https://practicalpreppers.com/wp-con...-7-27-2020.pdf
In this diagram, there is a 200A bypass switch that has the grid (and the two Sol-Ark's "AC in" breakers connect) on one side and the Sol-Ark "load out" on the other side. I just wanted to confirm that this bypass switch is essentially an auto transfer switch which detects grid failures and automatically disconnects so the two Sol-Arks from the grid, allowing them to use the batts/solar to power the home.
My second question is about the 200A knife blade disconnect. Is this just a mechanical disconnect that can be used to #1 disconnect from the grid during install, then #2 to manually test the system to ensure everything is working well?
And finally, based on the above info, do two Sol-Ark 12Ks in a stacked configuration cover enough inverter for running the main panel, as per the example diagram #5? As I understand, this would be 16kw constant, with 36kw peak (5sec), which seems sufficient to me, but was just curious on y'alls opinion as you are probably more experienced in such matters.
Thanks in advance for all your input. This whole project is still probably 2 years away, but I do enjoy researching.
Today, my home is a very simple portable generator setup. I have a mechanical interlock panel with a 30A 240V breaker going to a mechanical meter and then a 30A generator inlet box. I have a Cat RP7500E that I converted to dual fuel (added natural gas). The inlet box is at the same point on the house as my gas inlet, where I have a 3/4" nat gas quick connect. So when power fails (like it did in Texas recently), I wheel out my generator, connect it to nat gas and the elec inlet box and fire it up to let it warm up for a minute or so, then go into the garage, flip off the non-essential breakers, then flip off the main breaker, lift up the mechanical interlock and flip on the generator inlet breaker to backfeed the panel. This works great, but it's very much a manual effort - and rather loud. I'm sure I'm not telling anyone in this forum anything new.
This leads me to my question: in evaluating a potential new home (may be a vacation home for several years, then when kids are out of school, could become our primary home). In this new home, I'd really like something that is more automated and is more self sufficient. Hence, why I love the concept of hybrid inverters + solar + battery. My general goals include:
- Have enough inverter to handle the home's main panel (not interested in having critical loads only panels). Please note electric heat + electric dryers are "deal breakers" when looking at homes, but they would definitely have air conditioning, most likely a single 5-ton or possibly two 3-ton units based on the homes I've been looking at.
- Primary battery charging would be via solar, so maybe 15kw-ish?
- A standby generator would be nice - and I'd personally like to have a 250g propane tank dedicated to it, even if we have nat gas at the home, purely for the more self sufficiency goal. (after being in Texas and being aware that the gas grid almost failed... that sort of changed my perspective on nat gas availability)
I am looking at Diagram 5, on page 48 of this Sol-Ark documentation: https://practicalpreppers.com/wp-con...-7-27-2020.pdf
In this diagram, there is a 200A bypass switch that has the grid (and the two Sol-Ark's "AC in" breakers connect) on one side and the Sol-Ark "load out" on the other side. I just wanted to confirm that this bypass switch is essentially an auto transfer switch which detects grid failures and automatically disconnects so the two Sol-Arks from the grid, allowing them to use the batts/solar to power the home.
My second question is about the 200A knife blade disconnect. Is this just a mechanical disconnect that can be used to #1 disconnect from the grid during install, then #2 to manually test the system to ensure everything is working well?
And finally, based on the above info, do two Sol-Ark 12Ks in a stacked configuration cover enough inverter for running the main panel, as per the example diagram #5? As I understand, this would be 16kw constant, with 36kw peak (5sec), which seems sufficient to me, but was just curious on y'alls opinion as you are probably more experienced in such matters.
Thanks in advance for all your input. This whole project is still probably 2 years away, but I do enjoy researching.
Comment