Yesterday my new solar/battery/generator system was finished being installed and they explained how it works. I have a 23kw array, 48 Enphase IQ8A microinverters, one SPAN panel, 2 Powerwalls, and a Kohler 20kw generator.
The installer said that as it is now, my home will run on solar until the battery dies. Then when the battery does die it totally shuts down the solar and switches over to generator. He said that the generator cannot charge the battery though. So at this point because the battery is dead the solar cannot kick back on even if the power outage is a 3 week outage or 3 month outage, and I am stuck on generator indefinitely because the generator will not charge the battery. Does that sound right / make sense?
The way that I want it to operate during an outage is to have the battery run until there is 5% battery left and then intelligently/automatically kick on the generator, with the generator charging the battery back to 100% before shutting off again, and me never being in situation where I have a $100k solar install in that is totally unusable when I need it most in the middle of an extended power outage. I just can't fathom that we could spend that much money on solar and then have it be totally unusable when we need it most.
What he explained as a work-around is that the only way (as my system is built today) to keep from losing the operation of my solar in an extended outage is to manually walk downstairs and flip the switch to OFF on the Powerwall when it reaches 5%, then next day if/when the sun comes out, turn it back on. That seems silly to me since the whole system is incredibly connected, intelligent, and automated. Is he giving me bad information or do I just need to add some kind of additional equipment to get it to work how I want it to?
The installer said that as it is now, my home will run on solar until the battery dies. Then when the battery does die it totally shuts down the solar and switches over to generator. He said that the generator cannot charge the battery though. So at this point because the battery is dead the solar cannot kick back on even if the power outage is a 3 week outage or 3 month outage, and I am stuck on generator indefinitely because the generator will not charge the battery. Does that sound right / make sense?
The way that I want it to operate during an outage is to have the battery run until there is 5% battery left and then intelligently/automatically kick on the generator, with the generator charging the battery back to 100% before shutting off again, and me never being in situation where I have a $100k solar install in that is totally unusable when I need it most in the middle of an extended power outage. I just can't fathom that we could spend that much money on solar and then have it be totally unusable when we need it most.
What he explained as a work-around is that the only way (as my system is built today) to keep from losing the operation of my solar in an extended outage is to manually walk downstairs and flip the switch to OFF on the Powerwall when it reaches 5%, then next day if/when the sun comes out, turn it back on. That seems silly to me since the whole system is incredibly connected, intelligent, and automated. Is he giving me bad information or do I just need to add some kind of additional equipment to get it to work how I want it to?