I'm new here and am in the preliminary planning phase for a system that plan on installing. I was leaning towards IQ7 micro inverters with a small battery run inverter for grid down scenarios but after reading up on here I learned about the Factor 1.0 Rule https://www.victronenergy.com/live/ac_coupling:start
My primary reason for being interested in solar is to be prepared for long term grid down situations and to hedge against rising energy costs. I'm in sunny AZ and right now power is very reasonable compared to other places, off peak is $0.0523 and on peak is $0.08683 per kWh. I have 400A main service split into 200A for my main house and 200A sub panel to my detached workshop and guest house. My highest usage so far has been 78kWh in a day and I average closer to 50kWh when its cold which is when I use the most power. I'm thinking of a 10kW to 15kW PV array. Due to location of where I want the PV array I would like to back feed PV power into the 200A sub panel in the shop and put the battery inverter up at the house into the main 400A panel with an interlock so I can safely only create a micro grid when I'm disconnected from the utility grid. I'm not sure if this is a viable or code compliant setup?
I have a very well insulated house with hydronic electric heat pumps for heating and cooling and I'm planning on adding large water tanks so they can store heat energy during sunlight hours so my electric loads during the night when PV isn't producing could be very minimal, hence I don't have a reason to invest in a very big micro grid creating battery inverter and batteries. I like the idea of micro inverters because its reduces the single point failure of one inverter and sounds like it would be easier to add more panels in the future.
Is there a way around the Factor 1.0 Rule? Or am I going to be better off with a DC coupled hybrid system?
My primary reason for being interested in solar is to be prepared for long term grid down situations and to hedge against rising energy costs. I'm in sunny AZ and right now power is very reasonable compared to other places, off peak is $0.0523 and on peak is $0.08683 per kWh. I have 400A main service split into 200A for my main house and 200A sub panel to my detached workshop and guest house. My highest usage so far has been 78kWh in a day and I average closer to 50kWh when its cold which is when I use the most power. I'm thinking of a 10kW to 15kW PV array. Due to location of where I want the PV array I would like to back feed PV power into the 200A sub panel in the shop and put the battery inverter up at the house into the main 400A panel with an interlock so I can safely only create a micro grid when I'm disconnected from the utility grid. I'm not sure if this is a viable or code compliant setup?
I have a very well insulated house with hydronic electric heat pumps for heating and cooling and I'm planning on adding large water tanks so they can store heat energy during sunlight hours so my electric loads during the night when PV isn't producing could be very minimal, hence I don't have a reason to invest in a very big micro grid creating battery inverter and batteries. I like the idea of micro inverters because its reduces the single point failure of one inverter and sounds like it would be easier to add more panels in the future.
Is there a way around the Factor 1.0 Rule? Or am I going to be better off with a DC coupled hybrid system?