Residential Wiring for Using Sub-Panel with Gas Generator, Batteries and Only Five Solar Panels

[dl777]

I added a sub-panel to power ten circuits with a gas generator. I would like to add batteries as a first line of defense as well as add five solar panels on the ground in my yard to add whatever electricity I can to reduce grid electricity costs. The gas generator would be used to recharge the batteries if I have an extended grid outage. Should I add a circuit in the main panel to receive the solar input and not have it part of the sub-panel side?

I have the electric wire running from the sub-panel to the outlet outside for the generator. Should I disconnect that wire from the sub-panel and put an outlet on the generator wire that I can plug the battery into (like an EcoFlow Delta)?

Should I put an outlet on the sub-panel input that the battery could plug into (or should I hardwire from the input to a plug type the battery requires)? When I am using the battery, can I just fire up the generator and the battery system will just take the input and recharge the battery or do I have to worry about the order of plugging it in (fire it up and then plug in)?

Thanks

 

[mountkay]

I’m kinda confused by some of the terminology you are using.

Should I add a circuit in the main panel to receive the solar input and not have it part of the sub-panel side?

You can’t just hook a solar (PV) input into a panel. You need an All-In-One inverter to make it 120v.

outlet on the sub-panel input that the battery could plug into

Batteries arnt 120v either, so you would need to convert the battery voltage to 120v as well.

I would like to add batteries as a first line of defense as well as add five solar panels on the ground in my yard to add whatever electricity I can to reduce grid electricity costs

I think my confusion comes from this, a product like the Ecoflow can essentially only act as a backup. You cannot seamlessly use your solar power to offset grid usage, you have to choose that you are using one or the other.

With the ecoflow hooked up to the sub panel, I believe you would also have to disconnect the sub panel from the main panel. Otherwise, to my understanding, you could be using the ecoflow to pump power back into the grid (danger!).

If you want something that would be more seemless that would not require manual switching, what you want is an All-In-One inverter. This setup would not allow you to have a portable battery like the ecoflow.

But with the AIO inverter you could have your grid input go to the inverter, as well as solar and batteries, and then the inverter connects to your main panel. I have an EG4 inverter, and it has a setting for - Solar-Utility-Batteries. That sounds like what you are looking for. Use the solar first to offset grid, then when no solar, use utility power next, and if utility is down, use the batteries. I believe some people have had issues using the EG4 like this, but it’s not the only AIO inverter capable of something like this. (Some AIO also have an input for a generator so you can run everything off of the generator as well as charge your battery bank with the generator)(could also add a panel before the input to the AIO that allows switching between grid and generator if your AIO doesn’t have 2x AC inputs).

The other option of using something like the Ecoflow would be to hook PV to the ecoflow and then ecoflow to the sub panel (could maybe do it to main panel, but idk if it could do all of your loads). But then you would have to manually switch between it and the grid (I’m not sure but could be dangerous to have both on at the same time)(and I’m pretty sure that would not be up to electrical code).

I think the way this would usually be done for it to be up to code for a generator backup would be to have the Grid and generator feed to a panel together before anything else. (This would become your “main panel”). And then have a mechanical interlock on the breakers so that they couldn’t both be on at the same time. Then run from your new “main panel” to the house panel, which is now considered a “sub panel”.


Also I’m not familiar w ecoflow - can it handle the solar input you want to give it? What kind of panels do you have and what kind of voltage and amperage can the ecoflow handle?