Personally I think the "limited to home" is maybe the most useful feature of the Sol-Ark. I have mine set to cover the critical loads panel (well pump, some lights, receptacles, etc), and then any excess (and have I lots of excess because I didnt load up my critical panel too heavy with breakers/circuits). It covers my critical panel and the excess goes to my main panel. The Sol-Ark provides all the PV power it can to the main panel and the grid picks up the rest. I find that most days when the sun in shining, the Sol-Ark is covering the critical loads panel, all of my main panel, and charging my batteries all at the same time. I have a 10kw array. Without the "limited to home" feature, I would be pressed to put everything I wanted to cover with solar in my critical panel and it would be loaded down heavy. The way I now have it, with just a few breakers in my critical panel, if the Sol-Ark locks up or dies on me, its not a lot that is going to go dark. I left my fridge and freezer on the main panel just for that reason, yet the sun still powers them most of the time, and some with battery at night. To me, its like best of both worlds using the "limited to home" feature. My generator is NOT connected to my Sol-Ark. My generator is connected to the main panel via ATS. The main panel is where the Sol-Ark gets its AC power from that is passed through if/when theres not enough solar power. Sounds complicated but its not. I do have a manual by-pass switch where I can flip to by-pass the Sol-Ark and send grid power to the critical panel in the event I have to repair/replace my Sol-Ark.
I think you can still sell to the grid (if wanted) when doing limited to load, or limited to home. Dont quote me on this, I dont sell to the grid but I think thats somewhat a separate feature or setting. I could be wrong. I was thinking you could configure it to limit power to home (covering critical panel and assisting main panel as much as possible), and sell to the grid at the same time. Say your main panel just has little load at times during the day, the excess could be sold to grid. But turn something on and the power would go to it reducing/limiting/stopping power being sold to grid. Anyway, you'll need to confirm this if interested. Again, I dont sell to grid and don't use that feature.
