Power-sharing

One more topic here, power sharing. Say, my house batteries are low, and I need to rob power from one of my shops, how hard is this? Do I need special equipment? Special processes? Is it able to be automated?

Trade batteries from your shop?

Or if your shop is supplied with 120v just use a battery charger

Need a lot more info. What do you have at the house? How far away from the shop? Why the shop and not the grid at the house?

This question is assuming you implement several systems.


You can have one system supply entire property.
If you use AC coupling, you can add GT PV on out buildings.

You can also have a second system downstream of main system, treating main system as "grid" and second system provides battery backup to its important loads if main system goes down. Basically a UPS, with its own PV panels. Those panels can also backfeed to main system when local battery full.

How many kW, and how many kWh, do you expect for each of the subsystems?

UlfSidda said:

how hard is this?

Click to expand...

I'd say very hard. It's not feasible to transmit power at 48v between buildings, so you'd be left with the option to run AC power from one building's inverter to charge the other building.

In a pinch, running an extension cord from one building to a charger in another building is a simple hack, but setting it up as a permanently wired feature of the system would require a lot of extra wiring and automating it would be even harder.

So, I am really early in the planning stage for the property. I don't know yet the loads on the various systems. I know I intend a woodshop, a metal shop, a plastics shop, and a lamination shop (fiberglass carbon fiber etc...) many of the machines I'm going to use, (to varying degrees per shop) are going to be DIY, I really have absolutely no clue AT THIS MOMENT what the loads are. I'll figure that out and create the individual systems. I have considered creating one main grid, but I'm expecting to be measuring in kilowatts considering all the "employees" (mostly robotic, but I'm hoping to have a couple human ones by that point lol) So I do expect to be having to provide for massive loads. Then there's the fact that, without a doubt, only one shop will NOT require 3 phase power. The laminates shop. Really my only concern there is fine extraction, and running a vacuum pump. There's not much else aside from a sander and a few cutting tools. All 110-120v. And, I worry about cost and potential danger, complication and ease of maintenance with a massive system. Honestly, the one way power flow to the house, I want the house as power stable as possible. Perishables, and the wife (lol) are the two primary reasons for the decision. That's why I want the house to be boosted by the shops. Hopefully I won't have to, but I'm sure I can suffer a day or two without working lol. The more I think about this, if the house is out of juice then the likely situation, is that the shops are out of power too, or say the house system is under maintenance, I'd like to draw from the outliers to cover the gap. As far as distance from the house to the shops, that is also an undetermined variable. We haven't picked a property yet, and to be truthful, the wife and I have been kicking around the idea of moving across the country to north Carolina, so there are still tremendous variables. I can't imagine myself having too much more than 150-200 feet between house and shops. (Yes I know, plastics and laminates release toxic fumes and damage the environment, I fully plan an air filtration system for those as well as anywhere else that needs it.) As far as what's in the house, nothing different from a normal one, maybe an extra deep freezer, so fridge two deep freezers, oven and range, maybe a fun automated entryway to a wine cellar, finished basement, oh, pool heating and filtration and a hot tub, normal lights (LED through and through of course) mini-split climate control, I have no intention of living any less quality than I do now. My true goal in this is to somehow blend science and tech. I have no desire to leave the world behind. I very much want to maintain or even grow my connection to the world. I want to be carbon negative, yeah tough talk from a nobody from nowhere, especially wanting to continue to burn wood, cause let's be real, dead standing wood, overdense forests, etc are all havens for wildfires. I'm going to mill and creatively use as much as I can and when I burn it's going to be a clean burn, and I intend to grow plants like the wonderful willow that are exceptional at carbon sequestering. My goal is to use, without hurting, nature. Water wind and solar power. I don't want to be dependent on any one thing. Storms can stop wind and solar production but water is still there, and if it's a large enough moving source it typically won't freeze other than a layer on top MAYBE, and if the water dries up, then obviously solar and likely wind will be running. Backups for my backups, make sense? Thank you all for all your help and information. I know it's hard talking in theory, I have Asperger's syndrome, and I excell with cold hard undisputable facts, theory is a little tougher, because not all the information is there. That's why I ask questions about things like potential hurdles and equipment and difficulty. I know you can't predict every little problem, but I'd like to know as much beforehand. Many thanks again!

I suggest building a small outbuilding in the middle of your property to house your battery bank, charge controllers and a couple of nice inverters feeding a switch panel that branches off to each "shop" and house on its own inverter. Maybe a ground mount solar array/wind turbines over this to keep your DC wires short

Sounds like you're doin the right thing:
Design your overall topology/layout upfront rather than try to add it on after the fact bandaid style.
Mebbe you should get some professional help? This sounds like an awfully big project to be diy-ing.

It is a rather large project I'm not even going to lie. And considering the answers I'm getting on other topics, the reality of needing professional assistance is becoming quite apparent. Thank you all for the advice