Putting solar panels on a minisplit.

[Michael Block]

I have been toying with an idea. I have a couple panels with a micro inverter. I was wondering if anyone tried, hooking to the load side of the contactor. I am making sure the production of power is under what the minisplit uses. With a micro inverter the panels will not produce until power is present. This way I can have a mini split running using very little power and no one will know they are there. What is everyone’s thought.

 

[MisterSandals]

Are your micro inverters split phase? Is you mini split split phase?

You are essentially proposing an illegal solar install. If you want to make it safer, you might want to connect it properly: connect your solar/micros to a pair of (usually 15A) breaker (one for each phase) in your panel. The power generated will be used by loads in the panel and the excess would be exported to the grid.
Having a breaker would allow you to turn off the micros manually, perhaps when not using the mini split so as to not export.

But don't take this as a recommendation to circumvent the legal way...

 

[timselectric]

I have been toying with an idea. I have a couple panels with a micro inverter. I was wondering if anyone tried, hooking to the load side of the contactor. I am making sure the production of power is under what the minisplit uses. With a micro inverter the panels will not produce until power is present. This way I can have a mini split running using very little power and no one will know they are there. What is everyone’s thought.

Yes, that works fine.
There's about a 5 minute delay between the A/C starting up and the micro inverters turning on. But it will work from then, until the A/C shuts off.

 

[timselectric]

But, you are talking about a mini split. They don't usually have a standard A/C contactor. And the compressor is variable speed driven. I'm not sure if there's any where to connect to with micro inverters.