diy solar

diy solar

Is this safe???!!!

I never saw a meter doing that (even a 5$ one).

They'll show 0 (or close to 0) Ohms for a short, and OL (for overload) or another similar symbol for an open circuit.
Ok, now I feel like an azz. Just looked at my Fluke. In all of the years I've been using DVMs, I never, ever noticed the 0.L on an open circuit. Probably more focused on the task at hand.

Nevermind.........
 
1- How did you provide the switching between the generator and the solar supply ?
2-Using a sensitive meter to check for a neutral to ground lug connection can fool you as it is so sensitive a better way to check is to use some thing which draws some current like a 100 watt incandescent lamp.
3-A possible way to connect two sources which is cheap and reliable is to use two 30 non fused pullout disconnects like are used to disconnect air conditioners. Place them side by side, bring each source to the line terminals, generator to one and solar to the other. Connect the load terminals of both disconnects to the house circuit, connect the neutral form each to the house circuit neutral and the hot leg of each to the hot for the house circuit. Take one pullout and store it away use the other to connect which ever source you wish to use. It would not be possible to connect both sources at the same time.
4- Provide a medium sized stick next to the disconnects and use it to hit anyone who locates the second pull out and attempts to connect both sources at once.
 
1- How did you provide the switching between the generator and the solar supply ?
2-Using a sensitive meter to check for a neutral to ground lug connection can fool you as it is so sensitive a better way to check is to use some thing which draws some current like a 100 watt incandescent lamp.
3-A possible way to connect two sources which is cheap and reliable is to use two 30 non fused pullout disconnects like are used to disconnect air conditioners. Place them side by side, bring each source to the line terminals, generator to one and solar to the other. Connect the load terminals of both disconnects to the house circuit, connect the neutral form each to the house circuit neutral and the hot leg of each to the hot for the house circuit. Take one pullout and store it away use the other to connect which ever source you wish to use. It would not be possible to connect both sources at the same time.
4- Provide a medium sized stick next to the disconnects and use it to hit anyone who locates the second pull out and attempts to connect both sources at once.
1- I decided to leave it separate for now and just have the solar circuit run into the house for lights completely independent and then just run drop cords to the 3 refrigerators separately if I have to fire up the small stand alone generator.

We really only have a couple of short power outages per year and since I have natural gas heating and an old back up natural gas hot water heating radiator system... I can use a generator drop cord in case of an emergency and run the generator to the circulating pump and controls. Like I said, being 60 years old.... I don't want to electrocute someone in the future if I am not here in 30 years because they didn't know what to do to run the generator into a connection to the house alongside solar.
 
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I achieved about the same thing but in a way that lets the generator and solar+battery both provide power. All power going to the house comes from a 2 kW inverter. When needed, the generator helps via a 60 amp battery charger on the solar battery (300 Ah in my case). The generator is capable of 1600W but output is a comfortable 1000W into the charger.
 
Remember that generators need to be 6 feet from the building and 10 feet from any opening like a window (even closed) and doors or dryer vents, etc etc. That's code.

The insurance institute did a directed study on this and said "10 feet is way way too close".

I took this to mean don't screw around! Get at least two carbon monoxide detectors for the house if you run a generator within 25 feet of the place. And, ALWAYS get ones that have read-outs so you can get some sense of what's going on and that they actually work which you can't tell with display-less ones.
 
Remember that generators need to be 6 feet from the building and 10 feet from any opening like a window (even closed) and doors or dryer vents, etc etc. That's code.

The insurance institute did a directed study on this and said "10 feet is way way too close".

I took this to mean don't screw around! Get at least two carbon monoxide detectors for the house if you run a generator within 25 feet of the place. And, ALWAYS get ones that have read-outs so you can get some sense of what's going on and that they actually work which you can't tell with display-less ones.

+1 to the display. We had an incident in the 5th wheel recently where the "dumb" CO detector was triggering. We had been running the stove quite a bit, and it was cold, so I had closed up the vents.

It was extremely beneficial to have the second unit with the display (it also had a higher threshold for triggering - time based). I opened the vent, and we could see that the concentration was slowly going down, and Google said it was the kind of concentration that allowed up to 8 hours of exposure initially. Dropped to zero after 15 minutes or so.
 
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