Keith_PDX
New Member
Hello Everyone,
I have been doing solar/lithium in vans for quite some time and am finally to a point where I am ready to dive into setting my house up to be self-sustaining.
Here is my plan, in phases. I have been using an Emporia to monitor my energy usage. Luckily I am in the NW and have natural gas for heating, cooking and my dryer so my electrical needs do not have a lot of high wattage items. We rarely use our air conditioner so I am not sizing the system for that initially.
First phase is I would like to procure the following two items and setup a whole-house UPS. My goal is I would like to run off of battery during peak power times and re-charge from the grid during cheaper power times along with having the UPS functionality for power disturbances.
My confusion comes into how to do an automatic transfer relay to support Phase 1. I have watched several inverter videos on YouTube and a lot of people seem to connect them with either a manual breaker lockout to prohibit simultaneous generator/UPS and Utility power or rely on the internal transfer function but either way they appear to just back feed into the main house panel. I do not want to do this as I don't have a permit/approval to backfeed to the grid nor do I plan to get one. Grid Tie Solar is not an objective for me. I also would like to avoid from adding a critical load panel, if possible, and just feed my existing panel. Do you have any recommendations for an ATS that I can have professionally installed between the incoming utility power and my existing 200A panel that would allow me to disconnect utility power and use my battery bank in this method? It needs to transfer automatically on utility power loss or have the ability to manually be remotely operated so i can program a relay contact to perm the transfer function based upon the time of day.
Appreciate the help, knowledge and wisdom of this group. Hopefully I am not overcomplicating this...
Keith
I have been doing solar/lithium in vans for quite some time and am finally to a point where I am ready to dive into setting my house up to be self-sustaining.
Here is my plan, in phases. I have been using an Emporia to monitor my energy usage. Luckily I am in the NW and have natural gas for heating, cooking and my dryer so my electrical needs do not have a lot of high wattage items. We rarely use our air conditioner so I am not sizing the system for that initially.
First phase is I would like to procure the following two items and setup a whole-house UPS. My goal is I would like to run off of battery during peak power times and re-charge from the grid during cheaper power times along with having the UPS functionality for power disturbances.
- Either a Growatt 6k SPF-6000T-DVM-MPV or MPP LVX6048 split phase hybrid inverter (still deciding)
- 30kWh of LiFePO4 battery capacity @ 48V.
My confusion comes into how to do an automatic transfer relay to support Phase 1. I have watched several inverter videos on YouTube and a lot of people seem to connect them with either a manual breaker lockout to prohibit simultaneous generator/UPS and Utility power or rely on the internal transfer function but either way they appear to just back feed into the main house panel. I do not want to do this as I don't have a permit/approval to backfeed to the grid nor do I plan to get one. Grid Tie Solar is not an objective for me. I also would like to avoid from adding a critical load panel, if possible, and just feed my existing panel. Do you have any recommendations for an ATS that I can have professionally installed between the incoming utility power and my existing 200A panel that would allow me to disconnect utility power and use my battery bank in this method? It needs to transfer automatically on utility power loss or have the ability to manually be remotely operated so i can program a relay contact to perm the transfer function based upon the time of day.
Appreciate the help, knowledge and wisdom of this group. Hopefully I am not overcomplicating this...
Keith
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