Perchy
New Member
(Post moved from incorrect category)
Hello, this is my first dive into diy solar, i am a complete newbie. I have been reading and watching all the videos I can to come up with a good plan. My goal is to power my 20'x20' electronics shop/studio and also I need to provide critical load battery backup to my house during power outages. I live in the Santa Cruz mountains and we lose power often in the winter. (rarely for more that 24 hours). my house uses Natural gas for heat and cooking so not a lot of amp load.
Purchased items
EG4 6000xp
Basen Green battery enclosure w/16 314ah Eve cells.
10 370w solar panels.
MY PLAN
Use 6000xp to run my shop sub panel. currently 3x20amp breakers and eventually I want to install a small 9k mini split.
I currently have a 3 wire 4 gauge on a 40 amp 240v breaker, and a 20 amp 120v 12-2 feed from the house to the shop sub panel. (no grounds)
QUESTIONS
1. If I install a manual interlock on my main house panel, can I run the 4 gauge wire running to my house off of a 30a 240v breaker on the sub panel connected to the 6000xp to power the house? ( I currently only use 7.8 kwh a day normal usage)
YES
2. Do I need to hook the inverter to the grid? is it safe to connect it from the existing 20 amp 120v circuit? Can the inverter limit power draw from the house circuit below 20amps? will this still work to charge the battery on stormy days?
NO NEEDS TO BE 8 GAUGE
3. I plan on installing a ground rod outside the shop to ground the new system and panel racking . The shop is currently only grounded through the conduit on the feed from the main house panel. is a second ground rod ok since the 6000xp is an off grid system? or do I need to pull a new ground wire all the way from the house panel? property was built in 1958 and they didn't use grounds... Intuition tells me i need to go with best practice and install a ground wire all the way to the main panel, but this is going to be very hard. Any way around this?
CODE ALLOWS YOU TO RUN GROUND OFF OF ANY CONDUIT OVER 1", THIS SHOULD BE THE ONLY SYSTEM GROUND. PANELS CAN BE EARTH GROUNDED WITH A REDUNDANT GROUND NEXT TO SHOP BUT NOT TO SYSTEM.
4. How do I deal with neutral bonding in this situation? I am obviously bonded at my main panel in the house. But, I am unsure how to deal with it on the 6000xp as it will need a bond when I am running the shop normally but when I switch over to powering the house will I have a problem since although the main breaker will be off the AC line neutral will still be bonded? or is this not an issue? ( I have been told this isn’t an issue if i use the manual interlock?)
ONLY NEUTRAL BOND ALLOWED IS AT MAIN PANEL IN HOUSE. 6000XP HAS A COMMON NEUTRAL BOND ARCHITECTURE THAT WILL SHARE BOND WITH HOUSE MAIN PANEL
5. Do I need to spend the $$$ on running a new 60' of 4-4 feeder to the shop and not half ass it? its a hard run under the house, a deck and requires cutting concrete and trenching so I really dont want to do it...
NO USE EXISTING 4-3 RUN AND RUN A NEW 8 GAUGE FEEDER TO CONNECT INVERTER TO MAIN PANEL.
thank you for any advice!
-Bill
Hello, this is my first dive into diy solar, i am a complete newbie. I have been reading and watching all the videos I can to come up with a good plan. My goal is to power my 20'x20' electronics shop/studio and also I need to provide critical load battery backup to my house during power outages. I live in the Santa Cruz mountains and we lose power often in the winter. (rarely for more that 24 hours). my house uses Natural gas for heat and cooking so not a lot of amp load.
Purchased items
EG4 6000xp
Basen Green battery enclosure w/16 314ah Eve cells.
10 370w solar panels.
MY PLAN
Use 6000xp to run my shop sub panel. currently 3x20amp breakers and eventually I want to install a small 9k mini split.
I currently have a 3 wire 4 gauge on a 40 amp 240v breaker, and a 20 amp 120v 12-2 feed from the house to the shop sub panel. (no grounds)
QUESTIONS
1. If I install a manual interlock on my main house panel, can I run the 4 gauge wire running to my house off of a 30a 240v breaker on the sub panel connected to the 6000xp to power the house? ( I currently only use 7.8 kwh a day normal usage)
YES
2. Do I need to hook the inverter to the grid? is it safe to connect it from the existing 20 amp 120v circuit? Can the inverter limit power draw from the house circuit below 20amps? will this still work to charge the battery on stormy days?
NO NEEDS TO BE 8 GAUGE
3. I plan on installing a ground rod outside the shop to ground the new system and panel racking . The shop is currently only grounded through the conduit on the feed from the main house panel. is a second ground rod ok since the 6000xp is an off grid system? or do I need to pull a new ground wire all the way from the house panel? property was built in 1958 and they didn't use grounds... Intuition tells me i need to go with best practice and install a ground wire all the way to the main panel, but this is going to be very hard. Any way around this?
CODE ALLOWS YOU TO RUN GROUND OFF OF ANY CONDUIT OVER 1", THIS SHOULD BE THE ONLY SYSTEM GROUND. PANELS CAN BE EARTH GROUNDED WITH A REDUNDANT GROUND NEXT TO SHOP BUT NOT TO SYSTEM.
4. How do I deal with neutral bonding in this situation? I am obviously bonded at my main panel in the house. But, I am unsure how to deal with it on the 6000xp as it will need a bond when I am running the shop normally but when I switch over to powering the house will I have a problem since although the main breaker will be off the AC line neutral will still be bonded? or is this not an issue? ( I have been told this isn’t an issue if i use the manual interlock?)
ONLY NEUTRAL BOND ALLOWED IS AT MAIN PANEL IN HOUSE. 6000XP HAS A COMMON NEUTRAL BOND ARCHITECTURE THAT WILL SHARE BOND WITH HOUSE MAIN PANEL
5. Do I need to spend the $$$ on running a new 60' of 4-4 feeder to the shop and not half ass it? its a hard run under the house, a deck and requires cutting concrete and trenching so I really dont want to do it...
NO USE EXISTING 4-3 RUN AND RUN A NEW 8 GAUGE FEEDER TO CONNECT INVERTER TO MAIN PANEL.
thank you for any advice!
-Bill
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