Contactor with AC coil and DC load for power input selection

[elbac81]

Hello, hope you all are doing good.

I have an Hybrid inverter which I intend to feed DC solar energy to (if available), and automatically switch to AC mains when the DC power is not enough.

Although the inverter accepts both AC an DC input, it does not have the function to automatically choose.

The solution I am trying to implement is a smart solar cell (Zigbee), that below the chosen luminosity will switch to mains, but if available, will always choose the panels.

There is a contactor with it's coil beeing fed by the mains, but the load poles carry the + and - from the panels. The AC energy goes into the contactor's coil via a Zigbee smart circuit breaker.

If the luminosity is below the defined, the breaker will cut energy to the contactor's coil, wait for 10 seconds and then another smart breaker will change it's state to ON, feeding AC energy to the inverter.

My question is: I know that the contactor I am using isn't suited for this. Do you have any idea if there are available DC contactors with AC coil?

Also, if interested provide your thoughts on this, and let me know if you think there is a better and safer solution for this.

Thanks in advance.

 

[crossy]

I'd be tempted to use a solid-state relay (SSR) switching DC with contacts is a nightmare.

What string voltage/current are you looking at?

 

[Shimmy]

@crossy beat me to it; SSR likely easiest approach. But, I have to wonder if there is a better way within the inverter configuration.

 

[elbac81]

I'd be tempted to use a solid-state relay (SSR) switching DC with contacts is a nightmare.

What string voltage/current are you looking at

Hi, thanks for the reply.

The max total values of panel string are 200V / 13Amp.

If you could please elaborate on the SSR i'd appreciate it, as I have no experience with said devices.