Off grid backup for on grid house

[LAD]

Am new to the group. I feel the need to have backup power for critical items in my house. I have solar vendors bugging me all the time, but I don't have resources for a long term investment. I was looking at portable generators like the Bluetti but found the EG4 system in the recent video much more affordable. Portable panels are not feasible due to shade and too easily stolen, so I'm thinking they will need to be roof mounted or pergola mounted, with a controller and battery in my utility room. I do not want to tie into the grid, so I was thinking about installing a completely separate wired circuit with various outlets to the areas I would want to power from solar. For example, in my kitchen, I would install an outlet for my refrigerator and others to power a microwave or small appliances. These outlets and those I would install in other parts of the house would be color coded and would normally run off the solar. If the battery was too low, I could just switch the plugs to the regular outlets. Having rewired an entire house and added several circuits to my current house, I can do this safely. I am on a limited budget, so hiring professional installers is not possible. Any thoughts or suggestions? Legal issues?

 

[kundip]

Am new to the group. I feel the need to have backup power for critical items in my house. I have solar vendors bugging me all the time, but I don't have resources for a long term investment. I was looking at portable generators like the Bluetti but found the EG4 system in the recent video much more affordable. Portable panels are not feasible due to shade and too easily stolen, so I'm thinking they will need to be roof mounted or pergola mounted, with a controller and battery in my utility room. I do not want to tie into the grid, so I was thinking about installing a completely separate wired circuit with various outlets to the areas I would want to power from solar. For example, in my kitchen, I would install an outlet for my refrigerator and others to power a microwave or small appliances. These outlets and those I would install in other parts of the house would be color coded and would normally run off the solar. If the battery was too low, I could just switch the plugs to the regular outlets. Having rewired an entire house and added several circuits to my current house, I can do this safely. I am on a limited budget, so hiring professional installers is not possible. Any thoughts or suggestions? Legal issues?

How we did on our home was to use the light circuit (in Australia).
We put a power transfer switch on that.
On our supply side of the switch we put 2 x 2.5 KW of lifepo4. (240V AC).
We then added ceiling light sockets and put essential devices on those.
LOW power only. No microwaves, rosters, kettles.
So we have the lights, internet router, all my phone chargers, computers, TV also our fridge which draws 300 watts on that circuit.
All up it maxes out at 800 watts but mostly sits at 400 watts.

 

[kundip]

You can see how I have done the fridge.
At the battery we have a mains transfer switch taking power from the grid socket through an 8 amp breaker.
This is the primary supply.
The battery is set up with an inverter for the secondary supply on the mains transfer switch.
So when the grid goes out we don't even notice until / if the batteries run out.
Then I can unplug the battery supply & use my small generator in the power transfer socket.

 

[timselectric]

Am new to the group. I feel the need to have backup power for critical items in my house. I have solar vendors bugging me all the time, but I don't have resources for a long term investment. I was looking at portable generators like the Bluetti but found the EG4 system in the recent video much more affordable. Portable panels are not feasible due to shade and too easily stolen, so I'm thinking they will need to be roof mounted or pergola mounted, with a controller and battery in my utility room. I do not want to tie into the grid, so I was thinking about installing a completely separate wired circuit with various outlets to the areas I would want to power from solar. For example, in my kitchen, I would install an outlet for my refrigerator and others to power a microwave or small appliances. These outlets and those I would install in other parts of the house would be color coded and would normally run off the solar. If the battery was too low, I could just switch the plugs to the regular outlets. Having rewired an entire house and added several circuits to my current house, I can do this safely. I am on a limited budget, so hiring professional installers is not possible. Any thoughts or suggestions? Legal issues?

If you add an input to that inverter from your main panel, it has a built-in transfer switch to move everything back to grid automatically.