California: Legal to power part of your home with a non-UL 5kWh portable battery (dolly/trailer)?

[newtosolar11]

I have four 12.8v 100ah batteries and a 12V AIO inverter (MPP 1012LV-MS). None of the products are UL certified to operate as ESS batteries in California.

I want to create a dolly/trailer type system that I can use either at home or while camping with my RV. Idea is to roll it wherever I need. It will be inside my home 90% of the time. The inverter can only do 1000W, but that's plenty for one room in my house.

Reading the various laws though, I can't really tell whether this is legal. The California electrical code seems to cover portable batteries as well for home ESS. If it's not legal, would using a UL listed inverter make it legal?

Obviously I could do this without involving my AHJ since they would have no way of knowing, but I don't want to. Last thing I would want is a random fire and my insurance refusing to cover.

 

[timselectric]

If it's a portable system (it seems to be), no codes apply, and you can do whatever you want. The only part that needs to be inspected is the inlet receptacle and circuit connections. Just like a portable generator hookup.

 

[timselectric]

Of course California doesn't allow portable generators, so you should double check how it applies to California. But anywhere else, what I posted holds true.

 

[Danke]

Nothing is Legal in California.

 

[darrell2002]

We had a discussion on rule 21 last week in This thread. Seems like you technically have to get it through the AHJ and then file with the Poco, at least in SCE areas.
You do not need to have a permission to operate agreement, just file a bunch of red tape for "Isolated Operation Mode" which is free. Doubt that anything without all the approvals would fly in this process.
Everyone has their own risk threshold. I'm relatively risk averse. Million dollar houses like mine are a dime a dozen in CA & insurance may not cover it even if the inverter / battery was not the source of a fire.

 

[400bird]

Are you looking to move entire circuits over to the mobile system? Or just one room, like on extension cords? Every house I've seen each circuit covers portions of multiple rooms, with every room partially covered by at least 2 circuits.

Most household circuits are 15 or 20 amps breakers (1,800-2,400 watts) so your inverter won't cover a single loaded circuit, buy pay attention, you might be fine.

How do you plan to recharge the battery?

Move your circuit to a transfer switch with a generator plug (this "should" be permitted and inspected by you AHJ) the equip you inverter with a matching cord and done.

Charging may be an entirely different story.

 

[HarryN]

Nothing is Legal in California.

 

[HarryN]

A UPS is legal to use, so perhaps think about it in those terms.

 

[newtosolar11]

Are you looking to move entire circuits over to the mobile system? Or just one room, like on extension cords? Every house I've seen each circuit covers portions of multiple rooms, with every room partially covered by at least 2 circuits.

Most household circuits are 15 or 20 amps breakers (1,800-2,400 watts) so your inverter won't cover a single loaded circuit, buy pay attention, you might be fine.

How do you plan to recharge the battery?

Move your circuit to a transfer switch with a generator plug (this "should" be permitted and inspected by you AHJ) the equip you inverter with a matching cord and done.

Charging may be an entirely different story.

1. My office runs through a 1500W UPS, which runs my NAS, computer, and some other electronics. It would be under 1000W a vast majority of the time.
2. For charging, my RV has panels on the roof. The dolly will have a modular PV connection hooked up to a PV disconnect rated for more higher than what the AIO can even input.

Seems like from the other comments though that this isn't legal by California standards!

Although not sure because I'm not connecting to the grid at all, and running it through my UPS.

 

[400bird]

Seems like from the other comments though that this isn't legal by California standards!

There's a lot of members who don't live in California and like to jump to biased conclusions.

Although not sure because I'm not connecting to the grid at all, and running it through my UPS.

If you're talking about pv mounted to an RV, inverter and battery on wheels, and nothing connected to your household wiring, I don't see a need to ask or tell anyone.