Using Your Solar/RE Power, Backup, Parallel With Grid Power

[JeepHammer]

USING your small solar/RE power can be fairly aggravating.
And using your small RE power in an emergency can be MORE aggravating since you are in the dark, in an emergency...

I spent some time prior to the big 2012 scare wiring these dual Electrical Grid & Renewable/Back Up IN PARALLEL, This is NOT a Grid-Intertie arrangement.

YOUR SAFETY IS UP TO YOU.
While *I* find this perfectly safe and had no issues in any of the installs I've done, it will drive code inspectors crazy.
YOU will have to decide *IF* and *HOW* YOU will use these ideas.
This requires drilling and running 120/240 Volt wires, but uses common equipment you already have in the home, with very few additions/purchases.

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120 Volt Small Solar/RE outlets in the home so you can use your production by moving you device plugs from Grid To Solar connections...

Every wall outlet you already have has 2 sockets, these sockets are connected by a small tab on the side of the outlet.
The TAB is designed to be broken off so each socket can be powered independently one can be Solar or Emergency, the other Grid powered.
When you want to use your RE, Emergency system, you simply move the Appliance plug to the other socket in the outlet.

You will need to know your outlets, so here is some images/diagrams to help understand what everything is and how to wire it...



The 'Gold' terminal screws are ALWAYS the 'Line' or 'Hot' terminal, no exceptions.
This is 'Normally' a 'Black' insulated wire in the bundle.

The 'Silver' terminal screws are ALWAYS the 'Neutral' terminal, no exceptions.
This is 'Normally' a 'White' insulated wire in the bundle.

The 'Green' terminal screw are ALWAYS the 'Ground' or 'Earth Ground', no exceptions.
This is 'Normally' a 'Green' or Bare Copper wire in the bundle.

NO MATTER WHAT COLOR the insulation color is, the 'Hot' must ALWAYS go to the 'Gold' screws,
The 'Neutral' must always go to the 'Silver' screws.
The 'Ground' must always go to the 'Green' screws.



Notice I Show The 'Ground' Terminal At The Top, And This Is How Outlets Are *Supposed* To Be Installed.
The Idea Is, If The Plug Gets Backed Out Leaving A Gap And Something Falls Between Plug & Outlet, The First Thing Contacted Is The Electrical Safety, The 'Ground' Terminal,
And If What Ever Fell In There Contacts The Line Voltage Terminal It Will Trip The Circuit Protection (Fuse or Breaker).
While Not Observed, I Thought You Should Be Aware Of This.

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This shows the connector TAB between recepticles that MUST be removed.
They are made two ways, one with a slot for screwdriver, the other sticks out so you can grab it with pliers.



In ANY outlet box (in the wall) will have at least TWO ports to let wires into the box.
It will be up to YOU to drill the holes, run the wire, snake it into the box and connect to your outlet.
there are long/flexible drill bits at the big box stores specifically, and you will find they have a hole in the point,
Tie a string to the point AFTER the hole is drilled and pull that 'Snake' back through when you pull the drill bit out.
That string will let you pull the wire through and up to the box/outlet.



*IF* you have a run of wire more than about 6 Feet, put an AC Circuit Breaker in the wire as close to the inverter as is practical.
This Circuit Breaker MUST be sized to protect the WIRE RUN, not the inverter or appliance.
I show Yellow for using your RE regularly, I show Red for Emergency power set up.
DO PAINT the half of the outlet you have connected to RE or Emergency Backup.

If you have a double outlet, it's even easier...



AGAIN, I WOULD USE A DIFFERENT COLOR OUTLET OR PAINT THE RE/EMERGENCY POWER OUTLET.



This allows you to use your Renewable Energy PARALLEL to Grid power, If you RE gets too low, simply move the plug to the grid socket.

 

[JeepHammer]

As your Renewable Energy system gets larger, you may want to run the entire shop/home from that RE.
Most Homes have a 240 VAC that comes in on three lines, 'Line 1', Line 2, and Neutral.
Those 3 Incoming Lines will pick up an 'Earth Ground' when they reach the outside of the shop/home.
Your Breaker Box will have 4 Incoming Lines.

DO NOT IGNORE THE INTERLOCK WHEN USING BREAKERS TO CONNECT THE INVERTER TO BREAKER BOX!

Examples Of Breaker Box Interlocks,



The Interlock Allows Only ONE Voltage Source At A Time.
Either the Grid Main switch has to be turned OFF, or the Renewable Energy has to be turned off.
This simple device forces you to turn one off before the other can be turned on.


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The other way to connect your RE to power the entire house is a TRANSFER SWITCH.
The incoming Grid Power will have a set of connections,
The RE power will have a set of connections.
The Breaker Box will have a set of connections.

The Transfer switch does exactly what it sounds like, transfer the Breaker box to Grid or RE, not both.
The only real advantage I see with Transfer Switches is when you have very high powered inverter,
OR,
You want to use an Automatic Transfer Switch which will automatically transfer from Grid to RE when the Grid fails.

 

[jasonhc73]

I swap over to my RE every M-F from 2-7 to avoid TOU charges ($4 kWh and $9 kWh in the summer).

I run my entire house during those times on RE LiFePO4 batteries. $42,000 from Tesla for this option (6months to a year before they even call back), or ~$6500 DIY in my garage (3 weeks).

I totally love the idea of the green plugs and thought about doing it myself, but not splitting the plugs like you show. I thought of just putting another plug next to the current one. But then I thought, WTH, go all in and just go to the end result and switch at the loads panel and run the entire house off grid.

 

[JeepHammer]

I used a 120/240 vac generator in my early days, before the house.
I used a transfer switch and bank of chargers for the batteries, the expensive route.
Now I use 12, 24 & 48 vDC generators on the engine, charge batteries directly,
The transfer switch is on the 240 vac genset & house breaker box, the primary is the solar.
Normally when the batteries are low, I just fire up the self regulated DC generator and charge batteries, I haven't had to use the AC generator in 14 years, other than to fire it up during maintenance.

No sense in genset producing AC, converting to DC in the chargers, then converting back to AC in the inverter.

I just use a gas engine converted to Propane (got tired of cleaning out bad gasoline and rebuilding carbs/fuel pumps),
And added big honkin' industrial alternators that have adjustable regulators so I don't have to convert anything.

I can't say it will work for everyone, but it works for me...

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Not everyone wants to go Grid Intertie just to use their SMALL systems as they build.
You also want to use power produced past the point the batteries get charged.

If it's a backup/emergency system, a light or two, with gas heat the control transformer and blower motor, the fridge/freezer...
You just swap sockets in the outlet and you are off to the races, the Grid can come back on and not smoke anything.

Again, I can't say it will work for everyone's situation, but it worked for me when I ran a split generator & solar system,
Works just as well for Grid & Solar in parallel.

 

[scottvanv]

Anyone on this thread care to comment on the below concept that I'm mulling (researching how to ground it now)? (Honestly, this problem needs to be solved ... surely there's a box out there that can just shunt grid power around an inverter when, in the case of my boxes, is overloaded at >60A?) In my case, Sat at 10AM, family of 4, AC running and hybrid water heater running, I'm at ~30A continuous. No one was in the kitchen, and I wasn't in the garage, clothes dryer wasn't running. I can, likely, handle the oven and some tools, but not the clothes dryer and the oven and tools. I really don't want to have to think about this, ever, unless we're in Grid Down, when the whole family will be forced to be quite energy conscious (and grateful, instead of thinking I'm insane, for putting in solar in case of SHTF ), so it's worth it to pay, literally, a bit of $$ to the power company for my continuous high amp, but rarely used and therefore low energy usage devices (just about everything in the kitchen, some of my tools, and my wife's hair dryer). Comments / suggestions would be awesome!! Thanks in advance ...