I am going to try to explain this well. I already have a system for my shop, works well and I have no issues with that. I am looking at one of two things, tie the shop solar into the house, or a different entire system for the house.
In the house there is a automatic transfer panel that will fire up the generator when the power goes out. What I would like is to have the ability to turn off the generator and have everything that runs off that generator, normal freezer fridge, few lights.... run on battery, then if the battery starts to run low, say storms for a week straight like we are having now, I can fire up the generator. Thought is I can save on the propane to run the generator and use that only when I need to.
It would also be nice to run on battery during "normal" days just to save on the electric bill. I DO NOT want it tied into the grid at all.
I have done most of this in the shop myself, but there was no automatic transfer panel. What I did in there was setup a manual transfer panel and then I can choose just what circuits I want on the "grid" and what on "battery". This has worked out real well. I have some things out there, saws, sanders, 110 welders that don't do real well on solar, so when using those tools I can flip a switch and be on "grid". In the house I would like to have this as well, I like having that manual control.
Am I way off in left field with my thinking here? Making it more hard then it needs to be.
I have not decided if I want to tie the shop and house together, it will be a bit of a cable run, and under a driveway, so that is what I am thinking a different system all the way around.
In the house there is a automatic transfer panel that will fire up the generator when the power goes out. What I would like is to have the ability to turn off the generator and have everything that runs off that generator, normal freezer fridge, few lights.... run on battery, then if the battery starts to run low, say storms for a week straight like we are having now, I can fire up the generator. Thought is I can save on the propane to run the generator and use that only when I need to.
It would also be nice to run on battery during "normal" days just to save on the electric bill. I DO NOT want it tied into the grid at all.
I have done most of this in the shop myself, but there was no automatic transfer panel. What I did in there was setup a manual transfer panel and then I can choose just what circuits I want on the "grid" and what on "battery". This has worked out real well. I have some things out there, saws, sanders, 110 welders that don't do real well on solar, so when using those tools I can flip a switch and be on "grid". In the house I would like to have this as well, I like having that manual control.
Am I way off in left field with my thinking here? Making it more hard then it needs to be.
I have not decided if I want to tie the shop and house together, it will be a bit of a cable run, and under a driveway, so that is what I am thinking a different system all the way around.
