Positive attitude, Neutral preconceptions, looking for a Sine

[MeicalNissyen]

hey all,

I've been mulling this about for a couple years now, its time to get my checkbook out.

I'm on well&septic, power supplied by Teco, Use 40kwh/day summer, 25 in the winter.
power comes as 220 on a A&B pair of 110 leads which, I believe is called split phase

Why am I here? mainly, crappy power reliability. the bill is ~1100/year. replacing Teco will cost me well north of 15K, so this is not primarily an economic thing.
but the drops, resets, the load flicker in the lighting I can see when a major appliance kicks on, 2 dead TV;s, one dead reciever, that crap, thats worth 15K.


So, eventually I'll be off grid with panels keeping up with my load, but upfront, I want to run the entire household from my inverter(s), drawing from a 48v battery rack.
Teco can be used to keep them charged.

an I can go like that indefinitely.

That brings me to where I need some forum love.

I've noted the world has started calling things by lots of names. my recent re-exploration of the world of weed, after a 30 year hiatus, brings to mind a great example:
"threaded battery"

So, what is the current term for the above setup?


Next,
Forum help need I have,

Wants vs Needs

Teco does not supply it, but I have a fascination with 3 phase 240. My first career was machining, and I have a decent freestanding garage. lift, welder, air compressor etc. a bridgeport could move in next to the lathe any day now. 3 phase tools are more common, better, occasioally cheaper, but it would be a nice, not vital thing to have. My understanding is that I can create that with 3 matched inverters. would the grid tie charging be an issue? using the TECO split to the bats. ?

Inverter sizing
take the common 6500watt, 3 of those is 20K total. that number, 20K watts that refers to peak current flow capacity? not over time but supplying 6500 each ? yea?

My peak draw items of note would be the AC which is noted to be 5K welder can peak at 4K but closer to 2K for 90% of uses compressor 2K, de humidifier 1.5K

So, that would seem to cover current carry needs

If I content my self with regular split/single phase, I could then run with 1 inverter, Is that correct??

some beefy 12,000 ~15,000 unit would just cover the whole house running, and say, the compressor kicking on. no sweat


Solar recharging is a thing to chew on. the newish steel garage has 325 sf of south roof. hella start, not enough. House roof is 15yo, an I don;t want to put anything over that, but, those GAF solar shingles could go up there in a few years.

Hopefully the gist of my power vision came thru. Please do chime in with any relevant observations, as far as equipment desires, I have been playing with 3d printers of late.... VERY not impressed with chinese electrical safety standards, so something to consider

 

[MichaelK]

Start out with an itemized list of what you need to power. The watts they consume, their starting surges, and the time of day you want to run them.

Schneider's XW 6848 might be a good choice for you. At ~3200$ right now, three of them would be ~10k$. Yes, I believe you can wire three of them for three-phase power. Native use though with just one is split-phase 120/240V.

Sounds like you are consuming a lot of power with air-conditioning? Realistically, air-conditioning and winter heat are just about the biggest challenges for an off-grid system. Does that also include electric hot water, and an electric cook stove? For a regular 21'st century lifestyle with propane for cooking and hot water, I'm finding I can get along fine with 3-4kWh of power per day. That's with the frig running 24/7, lights, TV, computer, ect.

If you are in an all-electric house I think you will find though that switching to solar while maintaining the same lifestyle is going to be prohibitively expensive. If you are willing to put in a lot of conservation methods in place, and employ gas for heating/cooking, I'd say it's far more doable. Remember that off-grid solar is the single most expensive way to get electricity.

 

[HRTKD]

"Threaded battery" may refer to the cell terminals. Some have holes drilled into the terminal and the hole is then threaded. You provide the fastener of your choice to go into the threaded hole. The common alternative is a laser welded stud.