diy solar

diy solar

Looking for advice on backup configuration for grid, generator and battery without solar at the moment

Not that I am a Champion fan but these appear to meet your generator specs, assuming you can cancel your current order with Northerntool?


WOW - I got excited until I saw your linked genset is only 120v....
I've been waiting for Champion to have a quite inverter type genset that's 120/240, that's Parallel capable.
I'm looking for 120/240 is so I can connect to my main panel with interlock, feeding my subpanel at same time.

Ranked Inverter genset options I'm considering are:
1) The Northern Tool 3700/4500 Powerhorse open frame, parallel yields ~ 9kw, cheap (but backordered since Feb!)​
2) Duromax XP9000ih (out of stock until.... fall?), strong single solution, but big n heavy​
3) Northern Tool Powerhorse 7500. A Honda clone, but not as strong as doubling above options #1 & #2, but could be doubled for $$$$.​
4) Champion 100520 - I think their largest inverter genset, loudest one, no parallel. But, IN STOCK​

Yes, I think good gensets are in shortage, along with whole house backups where Generac quote backlog is over 2 months long!

Thanks for the suggestions @jbird526
 
WOW - I got excited until I saw your linked genset is only 120v....
I've been waiting for Champion to have a quite inverter type genset that's 120/240, that's Parallel capable.
I'm looking for 120/240 is so I can connect to my main panel with interlock, feeding my subpanel at same time.

Ranked Inverter genset options I'm considering are:
1) The Northern Tool 3700/4500 Powerhorse open frame, parallel yields ~ 9kw, cheap (but backordered since Feb!)​
2) Duromax XP9000ih (out of stock until.... fall?), strong single solution, but big n heavy​
3) Northern Tool Powerhorse 7500. A Honda clone, but not as strong as doubling above options #1 & #2, but could be doubled for $$$$.​
4) Champion 100520 - I think their largest inverter genset, loudest one, no parallel. But, IN STOCK​

Yes, I think good gensets are in shortage, along with whole house backups where Generac quote backlog is over 2 months long!

Thanks for the suggestions @jbird526
BTW: As I understand, best way to go is Inverter Generator with "low" THD. If THD is over 10, people report problems like Microwaves blowing.

The other thing is that some inverters don't like the high THD either.

Either case, I have a lot of electronics I'd hate to replace if the high THD caused problems and blew up things (ie Costco Trifuel Firman genset, or AIMs Inverter).

I'd be curious if others find it OK to use higher THD Inverters or Gensets, without problems?
 
WOW - I got excited until I saw your linked genset is only 120v....
I've been waiting for Champion to have a quite inverter type genset that's 120/240, that's Parallel capable.
I'm looking for 120/240 is so I can connect to my main panel with interlock, feeding my subpanel at same time.
Uhhhh sorry about that, had just 120 stuck in my head...
 
It's a clone branded here as VEVOR, model number PS5KVA. It seems to operate just like some of the MPP models I've seen Will show on videos.
Is yours still running ? Mine blew up with a dead short across the battery after 2 months of very light use and they are giving me the run around.
 
Is yours still running ?
Yes. Working just fine.

I started testing the unit on the bench in March 2020, and installed it in April 2020. At that time it was for backup power only (battery charged from the grid) as I didn't add the solar PV until August 2020. I also added Solar Assistant system monitoring Aug 2020.

Since then it's been in 24x7 operation, still mostly for backup but it runs the pool pump as a daily side gig. In Sept 2020 I doubled the capacity of the battery bank.

Coincidentally, this Summer has had the least number of outages ever so I haven't needed backup all that much. Still, Summer is not over...

This is the daily cycle over the last 5 months I've had the system monitoring:

Screen Shot 2022-01-15 at 7.24.45 am.png

As you can see, battery does not get discharged much.

Mine blew up with a dead short across the battery after 2 months of very light use and they are giving me the run around.
Ugh. Hope you get some resolution but I don't like your chances.

If you get nowhere and are in any way handy with electrical repairs/diagnostics, there is a forum with very detailed information about these PIP units which may be able to help technically.

These guys repair them and share their experiences in detail, create circuit board schematics, generate their own firmware to improve the units' functionality and so on. This is about as esoteric as it gets. I had an issue in one particular mode of operation, not with the PIP per se but with my set up as I was getting circuit breaker trips, and discussions there helped me resolve it (was a simple fix by my sparky in the end, just a change of AC breaker type).

With my unit being so cheap and an eBay "special" (a cloned PWM model) my assumption was any for failure beyond it working out of the box, I was going to be SOL. I accepted that risk, as the whole thing was a learning exercise. I have redundancy for backup power if it fails.

Should it die I will consider upgrading to a model where I have some expectation of warranty support. I figure anything beyond say 2-3 years of operation would be a bonus. It's in my mind to look at ways to give it some better cooling, as heat is the enemy when it comes to circuit board longevity.
 
Hook the Champion up to your Natural Gas. End of Story Man
While you are at it get 2 of them
 
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