Question about using solar for an emergency circuit for your house from you unattached garage.

[wade0000]

Hello,
My solar power system is completely inside an unattached garage... panels, CC, batteries, inverter, etc. Being that I don't need to run my outdoor pond pump in the winter when the goldfish go to the bottom and don't really need dissolved oxygen, I wanted to repurpose my solar output for the winter in 2 forms: 1) an emergency circuit going back into the house for a few receptacles to plug in extension cords for running lights, fans, etc. when we have a power outage and 2) the ability to manually switch the plug-in from AC to solar AC to power a backup second refrigerator in the basement.

So, my question is: Is it okay to run a 14/2 wire thru a electrical PVC underground conduit into your basement and then just connect up a few duplex receptacles 1 for the refrigerator marked SOLAR, one running upstairs into the living room and one into a laundry room?

If so, where would you put the switch to activate it? back in the garage? Or inside the basement?

Would it be okay to write SOLAR! SOLAR! SOLAR every 2 feet on the wire or conduit inside the house including the receptacles so that future generations won't be confused by the wiring with solar and grid together inside the dwelling?

thanks in advance for the proper way to do this.

 

[JoeHam]

To be clear. These would be SEPARATE circuits from the house wiring with ABSOLUTELY NO chance of back feeding your house panel?

If not, DON’T DO IT.

If it is completely separate then I would use an appropriately sized breaker out in the garage to switch it and also protect from any short circuits from the garage to your outlets.

And consider this for labeling:

Amazon.com

 

[Hedges]

I would use 12 awg rather than 14, and include a ground, which I would either tie in to ground of the house or at least its own ground rod. In my area, each building gets a ground rod and grounds are tied together.
Hopefully your inverter has/allows neutral to be tied to ground, isn't one of those +/-60VAC units.

How big an inverter? I've put an interlocked breaker in my main panel. These are usually used as a whole-house manual transfer switch for a generator. It lets be run everything. If yours is small you would turn off excessive loads, but could power small loads anywhere. Your inverter is apparently 120V only which causes some additional issues with a split-phase house, which can be addressed.

 

[wade0000]

To be clear. These would be SEPARATE circuits from the house wiring with ABSOLUTELY NO chance of back feeding your house panel?

If not, DON’T DO IT.

If it is completely separate then I would use an appropriately sized breaker out in the garage to switch it and also protect from any short circuits from the garage to your outlets.

And consider this for labeling:

Amazon.com

Yes, totally separate circuits and not comingled in any way... not even close to the regular AC panel

 

[wade0000]

I would use 12 awg rather than 14, and include a ground, which I would either tie in to ground of the house or at least its own ground rod. In my area, each building gets a ground rod and grounds are tied together.
Hopefully your inverter has/allows neutral to be tied to ground, isn't one of those +/-60VAC units.

How big an inverter? I've put an interlocked breaker in my main panel. These are usually used as a whole-house manual transfer switch for a generator. It lets be run everything. If yours is small you would turn off excessive loads, but could power small loads anywhere. Your inverter is apparently 120V only which causes some additional issues with a split-phase house, which can be addressed.

I've got an AC breaker after the inverter and the inverter is 3000W steady level.

My main question is would you run such a circuit into your house and how would you label it and separate it such that nobody by the time you are gone can not see that it is solar, etc/

 

[wade0000]

deleted - posted against wrong thread

 

[Hedges]

You could certainly label it as "solar", "from garage", etc.

Mostly what I see is "this equipment is supplied by two power sources" to alert that disconnecting a single source isn't sufficient. But that isn't your case, separate outlet box for separate source.

If you wanted, you could install a generator plug interlocked with your main breaker. That way the house could be powered by a generator, or by this inverter. Interlock prevents conflict with utility grid, and using a plug means you can completely disconnect the inverter.

There can be problems with feeding just 120V into a 120/240V panel, but 3000W is small enough that I think it could be fed to both "hot" pins of the plug. Any 120V appliance gets 120V, and 240V appliances get zero. (if you only connect one hot, some things on the other leg could experience brownout.) If the inverter was larger I would worry about current in neutral wire if shared by two hots of different phase, but with 3000W it would only be about 25A.

 

[wade0000]

You could certainly label it as "solar", "from garage", etc.

Mostly what I see is "this equipment is supplied by two power sources" to alert that disconnecting a single source isn't sufficient. But that isn't your case, separate outlet box for separate source.

If you wanted, you could install a generator plug interlocked with your main breaker. That way the house could be powered by a generator, or by this inverter. Interlock prevents conflict with utility grid, and using a plug means you can completely disconnect the inverter.

There can be problems with feeding just 120V into a 120/240V panel, but 3000W is small enough that I think it could be fed to both "hot" pins of the plug. Any 120V appliance gets 120V, and 240V appliances get zero. (if you only connect one hot, some things on the other leg could experience brownout.) If the inverter was larger I would worry about current in neutral wire if shared by two hots of different phase, but with 3000W it would only be about 25A.

Very good. As info., there are 2 15A circuits exiting inverter. I chose that instead of connecting the basic output option which gives ONE 20A output.

Thanks again. I think I will label like crazy and keep a separate circuit throughout

 

[JoeHam]

I think I will label like crazy and keep a separate circuit throughout

There are only 500 labels in the link I posted above!

?

 

[wade0000]

There are only 500 labels in the link I posted above!

?

HA! I have about 10 left over.. .but I might need 50!