ruralsolar
New Member
I'm looking at moving forward with a sol-ark 15k setup (batteries to be done "later") and of course one advantage is the full 200amp passthrough, no need for a critical loads sub panel. The thought process that's on my mind though, when I do get batteries, what's the best way to load shed high amperage circuits? I'm thinking of something that's a reverse of the critical loads panel (or non-critical load panel). The idea for me with the batteries is in the event of a grid down situation. The high amperage loads I have right now are a hottub, clothes dryer, hot water tank, heat pump with 3kw backup heater (this one might end up "split" where the backup heater is on non-critical but the heat pump itself is on backup power), I was going to say well pump but that's not really that large of a load for us.
To complicate things slightly, our meter is built into an outdoor panel with some breaker spaces at one corner of the house (1 single 20amp in use), with the "main" house panel at the opposite corner (bad planning). I was going to put the sol-ark in between those, so the outside panel breaker spaces would not be on any backup, but with the thought of another panel to break out the high amperage loads, do I daisy chain in another panel before the sol-ark? What options are available to ensure high draw loads are not pulling battery when it comes to that time?
To complicate things slightly, our meter is built into an outdoor panel with some breaker spaces at one corner of the house (1 single 20amp in use), with the "main" house panel at the opposite corner (bad planning). I was going to put the sol-ark in between those, so the outside panel breaker spaces would not be on any backup, but with the thought of another panel to break out the high amperage loads, do I daisy chain in another panel before the sol-ark? What options are available to ensure high draw loads are not pulling battery when it comes to that time?