Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
My sister and her son own a second home at Little River in Memdocino County in California, It is all electric and they finally saw the value of adding solar to that home. My nephew and his partner like to go there for a respite but need to be able to work remotely during the frequent power outages. So he bought a Harbor Freight 6500 Watt generator and asked me to hook up the transfer switch. The solar is getting installed in the next few weeks which should get them under the wire for NEM 2.0. I am following up with the installer to make sure the application gets submitted as soon as possible. I am going to wait until the solar system is inspected by the Mendocino County Building Department before I wire up the transfer switch. In the meantime I have identified the eight or ten circuits that they want to run off the generator when the power goes out.
Long term I do not think my 85 year old sister is going to be able to hand start that generator on a cold windy night when the power goes out, so she has asked me to look into a battery backed system that would be easier for her. My thinking is if I can AC couple the new GT system to a small battery backed system they could have the best of both worlds. A hybrid inverter with a battery could keep the food fresh in the refrig and freezer for shortr term outages. For extended outages the generator could charge the small batteries if the weather is not sufficient for the AC coupled solar to do that. It is only a two hour drive up the Coast for me so I can always go up there to help start the generator if needed.
I have never considered a generator for my own system so this will be an interesting project to give them something that can leverage that new GT solar system and a generator that i suspect probably puts out a fairly dirty signal. It has no dual fuel capabiliy or auto start functionality. They are okay with installing the battery backup behind the meter without a permit so I am looking at a Growatt or EG4 and rack batteries that could communicate with the inverter. This is a six month or year long project so I have plenty of time after the solar is installed and the generator is functional to better define the use case.
Long term I do not think my 85 year old sister is going to be able to hand start that generator on a cold windy night when the power goes out, so she has asked me to look into a battery backed system that would be easier for her. My thinking is if I can AC couple the new GT system to a small battery backed system they could have the best of both worlds. A hybrid inverter with a battery could keep the food fresh in the refrig and freezer for shortr term outages. For extended outages the generator could charge the small batteries if the weather is not sufficient for the AC coupled solar to do that. It is only a two hour drive up the Coast for me so I can always go up there to help start the generator if needed.
I have never considered a generator for my own system so this will be an interesting project to give them something that can leverage that new GT solar system and a generator that i suspect probably puts out a fairly dirty signal. It has no dual fuel capabiliy or auto start functionality. They are okay with installing the battery backup behind the meter without a permit so I am looking at a Growatt or EG4 and rack batteries that could communicate with the inverter. This is a six month or year long project so I have plenty of time after the solar is installed and the generator is functional to better define the use case.
