Will this work? Battery backup for home.

[Gunnar]

Quick question. I am in the middle of installing solar, Samlex evo, and a battery bank to my travel trailer. As I am sitting at home in the dark, I am wondering if I could get a battery bank for the house, and hook up a couple circuits for lights and plugs to an evo (a second one) . It has a built in ATS, but I don't know if it's legal to connect to the grid. There should be no way for it to feedback to the grid, but I just want to make sure that it's a legal install. In theory, this would cut over fast enough that electronics wouldn't shut off. Seems like a better way than a genset. Batteries would be charged by the grid when it's up, and the evo has a generator input that I could use my small generator if power is out longer than the batteries would last. Everything would be sized for the loads of course.

Thanks in advance.

 

[snoobler]

I don't think that counts as "connecting to the grid" any more than plugging in a television or a 12V battery charger.

Are you proposing to rewire a portion of your house to be powered by the EVO that is powered by the grid when the grid is up. If the grid goes down, the EVO kicks in and powers those circuits alone on battery/solar? If so, that's a pretty common setup conceptually.

Your local requirements may differ, so it's always best to consult with a qualified electrician.

 

[Steve_S]

The EVO installed in such a manner is considered as an Advanced Battery Charger. EVO's cannot push to grid. Some models, like my 4024 has dual AC input, one for Grid Source and one for GenSet. Yes people use this configuration as means of also shifting TOU (Time of Use) costs for power. I don't know the nitty gritty details. But essentially, they setup a panel for their "daytime heavy loads" which runs from Battery/Inverter which can also have Solar attached as well, either to the Inverters Solar Ports (limited to 50A input I believe) or as a conventional setup, with the Grid AC Input connected to a 120V/20A or better circuit (or wall plug even at proper rating). The EVO is very programmable so the grid is programmed as Fall Back energy source 1 and the GenSet as #2 if you have one.

The devil in the details is timing it so that the Inverter only pulls from the grid during Off-Peak Rate Times. A few have written about doing so here and there are video's on YT. Unfortunately, as this is something that does not apply to me being offgrid, I have not followed this in detail.