After trying to design a practical system using 12 volt components, I have seen the light.
I have a 12 volt RV system that works very well for what I expect from it, and had hoped that by making my off grid garage project a little bigger, 12 volts would work there too. It would, if I wasn’t trying to run a few mains circuits to sample the world of solar, and have a backup system for a few grid powered critical loads.
I have 4- 220 Amp hour 12 volt batteries I can series parallel into 2-24 volt batteries giving me 440 Amp hours capacity
My solar panels are 24 volt already, as is my charge controller (24 volt) 2000 watts solar, 250/85 charge controller.
A basic 24-to-12 volt step down converter will handle my minor 12 volt needs.
Now I need a 24 volt, 2500-3000 watt inverter.
My wish is to use a 6 circuit transfer switch that allows me to decide when I want the grid to power the circuits, and when I want my inverter to power them.
The inverter/chargers and AIO’s that I have looked at have automatic transfer switches built in. They appear to work well at using grid power as the default source for household circuits, and switching to inverter power when grid is lost; a basic “backup system”.
I need the reverse. I see that the inverter can be set as default on some, but it still doesn’t give me the control I want, at least not without buying really complicated systems that you need to be a computer programmer to configure. I admire the people that can do this, but I am not one of them.
The goal is to run two of the 6 critical load circuits 24/7 on solar/inverter power, and the rest only in a grid power outage. I want to maintain the battery system capacity to run critical loads, meaning, I will only ever draw down the batteries 25%, leaving 75% capacity at any given time so I have a few days backup in case of grid failure.
I believe what I need is a basic inverter. I can use an independent charger, connected as needed to grid, or generator power to recharge my battery bank in either bad/cloudy weather, or grid down.
With a transfer switch, if I can’t recharge with solar because of too many cloudy days, I can throw the switch back to grid, use grid to feed all loads, and wait for sunshine.
In order to do this easily, and without having to switch neutral, does anyone have a recommendation for a 24 volt inverter that will allow me to pass neutral through to my main AC panel, so that only hot for each circuit needs to be switched?
If I can find a suitable inverter that doesn’t require switching neutral, then I can wire the transfer switch with a receptacle that will accept either inverter, or generator input, with no changes in wiring between. That will give me the three energy options that should cover 99% of the potential scenarios.
If this isn't possible, then I am looking at pulling the critical load circuits (wires) out of the sub panel and creating a separate sub panel, fed by the main subpanel, with a switched neutral switch in between.
Thank you.
I have a 12 volt RV system that works very well for what I expect from it, and had hoped that by making my off grid garage project a little bigger, 12 volts would work there too. It would, if I wasn’t trying to run a few mains circuits to sample the world of solar, and have a backup system for a few grid powered critical loads.
I have 4- 220 Amp hour 12 volt batteries I can series parallel into 2-24 volt batteries giving me 440 Amp hours capacity
My solar panels are 24 volt already, as is my charge controller (24 volt) 2000 watts solar, 250/85 charge controller.
A basic 24-to-12 volt step down converter will handle my minor 12 volt needs.
Now I need a 24 volt, 2500-3000 watt inverter.
My wish is to use a 6 circuit transfer switch that allows me to decide when I want the grid to power the circuits, and when I want my inverter to power them.
The inverter/chargers and AIO’s that I have looked at have automatic transfer switches built in. They appear to work well at using grid power as the default source for household circuits, and switching to inverter power when grid is lost; a basic “backup system”.
I need the reverse. I see that the inverter can be set as default on some, but it still doesn’t give me the control I want, at least not without buying really complicated systems that you need to be a computer programmer to configure. I admire the people that can do this, but I am not one of them.
The goal is to run two of the 6 critical load circuits 24/7 on solar/inverter power, and the rest only in a grid power outage. I want to maintain the battery system capacity to run critical loads, meaning, I will only ever draw down the batteries 25%, leaving 75% capacity at any given time so I have a few days backup in case of grid failure.
I believe what I need is a basic inverter. I can use an independent charger, connected as needed to grid, or generator power to recharge my battery bank in either bad/cloudy weather, or grid down.
With a transfer switch, if I can’t recharge with solar because of too many cloudy days, I can throw the switch back to grid, use grid to feed all loads, and wait for sunshine.
In order to do this easily, and without having to switch neutral, does anyone have a recommendation for a 24 volt inverter that will allow me to pass neutral through to my main AC panel, so that only hot for each circuit needs to be switched?
If I can find a suitable inverter that doesn’t require switching neutral, then I can wire the transfer switch with a receptacle that will accept either inverter, or generator input, with no changes in wiring between. That will give me the three energy options that should cover 99% of the potential scenarios.
If this isn't possible, then I am looking at pulling the critical load circuits (wires) out of the sub panel and creating a separate sub panel, fed by the main subpanel, with a switched neutral switch in between.
Thank you.
