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Survival and Preparations Long and short term survival and 'prepping'. |
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Utilizing Your Home Solar Panel System During a Long Term Power Outage
While a generator easily bridges the gap during a short term outage, what if the outage lasts weeks or months? If you already have a solar panel system, what are the options, banks of batteries with an inverter? Does anybody have setup they can share?
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I'm interested in this myself. Tagged.
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NRA lifetime member 2AF Defender member When did I go from being a "citizen" to a "taxpayer"? Jon Lovitz: ‘I can’t wait to go to a hospital run by the DMV!’ Peace, love, and heavy weapons. Sometimes you have to be insistent." - David Lee Roth |
#4
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When I worked for one of the solar companies that was doing grid tied systems I asked about this from the techies. It's not super easy, and I wish they made a magic switch but they don't. You probably need to study the wiring, learn how to reroute the juice to a battery array and have that battery system feed into your house. I'm no electrician. Those who are would make a fortune in a long term black out helping folks make use of their panels.
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#5
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You have to have the right inverter/controller first, all the inverters sold with solar systems are designed to shut down if utility service goes down. Reason is you would back feed power to the grid if they didn't shut down. Then there is a big bank of batteries ($$$) to contend with. It can be done but at a high price.
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^^^The above is just an opinion. NRA Patron Member CRPA 5 yr Member "...which from their verbosity, their endless tautologies, their involutions of case within case, and parenthesis within parenthesis, and their multiplied efforts at certainty by saids and aforesaids, by ors and by ands, to make them more plain, do really render them more perplexed and incomprehensible, not only to common readers, but to lawyers themselves. " - Thomas Jefferson |
#6
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Most solar systems are designed to shut down when power goes out (to avoid backfeeding the grid and injuring utility workers on what otherwise would be a dead line). Some systems being offered now are designed to work even when power out (shuts off the grid tie but keeps feeding the inverter and thus your panel)
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Expert firearms attorney: https://www.rwslaw.com/team/adam-j-richards/ Check out https://www.firearmsunknown.com/. Support a good calgunner local to San Diego. |
#7
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I'm currently rewiring my home because the original service entrance was placed in the wrong location (behind the wood stove) and needs to be moved, so I'm adding in a generator tie-in with a switch. Might have to pre-plan for a secondary switching system so a solar system could be handled as well.
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NRA lifetime member 2AF Defender member When did I go from being a "citizen" to a "taxpayer"? Jon Lovitz: ‘I can’t wait to go to a hospital run by the DMV!’ Peace, love, and heavy weapons. Sometimes you have to be insistent." - David Lee Roth |
#8
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At the ranch we have a non grid 14 KV solar system. When the power goes off we throw a manual switch to go just to solar. We have 5 48 volt forklift batteries and they weigh about 3500 lbs each.
The inverters were about 3 grand each, 4 of them. I can't remember what the chargers costs but there is 5 of them. We have a Multiquip 12 KV gen set and a 6500 propane onan that runs the well and pressure system. You don't even want to know what good copper cable costs per foot let alone the fittings. This all sits in the power shack as we call it, 20 by 24 building that is almost as big as a garage. PG & E said we cannot be a grid tied system to sell them power. Making my own power still cost twice what I can buy it for from grid. |
#9
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Many thanks for all the good ideas and insight. I should have clarified the demand in my op. I'm interested in a relatively low profile power demand/existence; refrigerator, minimal LEDs in the PM, recharging phones, radios, cordless tools, laptops, and likely an every other day well pump to fill a storage tank. I have no interest is a seamless transition to maintaining a luxuriant demand existence. Please keep the ideas coming.
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#10
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My buddy/Neighbor down the block did this.
He has solar panels that tie into a bank of batteries. He has a remote control tablet and can run the front half of his house off the batteries. It looks soo easy. |
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Any details are most appreciated.
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#12
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Sunny Boy makes an invertor which is grid tied, but when the power is out you can throw a switch and plug in some extension cords. I think the max power is like 1500 watts. Of course it does not work at night, but it would be enough to keep your devices charged and the fridge cold.
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May I always be the type of person my dog thinks I am |
#13
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I'm not handy.
He has solar panels on his roof that just charge the bank of batteries. The batteries look like large car batteries but he may have said they were marine? They are connected together to form a loop? He made a control board like tablet and can just switch to the battery bank. He changed everything in his house tof LED and it works great. It gets foggy in our part and he did mention the batteries don't charge well at night or during the fog. I think he pays around $20 a month for electricity, family of 4... |
#17
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First realize you will not be able to power everything like when your main breaker is on. No coffee maker, blow dryer, microwave and TV at the same time running a load of laundry.
I built a standalone back-up a couple of years back; Siemens panels, MidNite Kid charge controller, Xantrex 1800W Pure Sine inverter and four new good sized Crown deep cycles. Quality stuff. 12v configured for a 48v system. I've since added a converter down to 12v to power/charge anything in the house. My house is gas with millivolt appliances and that helps. I spent a year configuring my build. The charge controller and inverter take up no more space than a few shoe boxes. Honda 2000 and plenty of juice with a couple of gondo power cables just in case.
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After watching WTC Bldg #7 being razed, and considering it's main occupants.. I stumbled onto this note while checking advanced weapons.. "911 = false flag. WTC 7 was brought down by demolition. 47 floors came down in 6 1/2 seconds - not hit by a plane. Just one of hundreds of absurdities that occurred that day. Wake up". Last edited by sdkevin; 04-21-2016 at 9:21 PM.. |
#18
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I'm not an electrical engineer and I have yet to study it in depth due to lack of cash, but I believe that manual switching on a grid-tied system is the easiest and initial way to go, before you can afford the controllers and batteries. As stated, you would only get power during daylight hours in an outage and would have to have made the manual switch, but it could keep your fridge running and lantern batteries charged. Just don't open the fridge too much at night.
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__________________
After watching WTC Bldg #7 being razed, and considering it's main occupants.. I stumbled onto this note while checking advanced weapons.. "911 = false flag. WTC 7 was brought down by demolition. 47 floors came down in 6 1/2 seconds - not hit by a plane. Just one of hundreds of absurdities that occurred that day. Wake up". |
#20
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Again, I haven't even sketched this out, just pondering. I have the advantage of a sub-panel (with a 30 amp breaker in the main panel) in my detached garage, where I have a spare refrigerator. I can disconnect the sub-panel from the grid easily. My panels would be on the roof of my garage, so the two new switch plan would be a bit easier than some instances. And yes, probably not to code, but home owners install structural, electrical and other improvements themselves all the time without permits/inspection. |
#21
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__________________
NRA lifetime member 2AF Defender member When did I go from being a "citizen" to a "taxpayer"? Jon Lovitz: ‘I can’t wait to go to a hospital run by the DMV!’ Peace, love, and heavy weapons. Sometimes you have to be insistent." - David Lee Roth |
#22
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Yep Mike, my little city has really started cracking down on homebrewed builds.
Again, this is the kinda crap that requires new rules and laws.. like we don't have enough already.
__________________
After watching WTC Bldg #7 being razed, and considering it's main occupants.. I stumbled onto this note while checking advanced weapons.. "911 = false flag. WTC 7 was brought down by demolition. 47 floors came down in 6 1/2 seconds - not hit by a plane. Just one of hundreds of absurdities that occurred that day. Wake up". |
#23
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I have a very small system. Built it myself.
Started out with Harbor Freight 15w x 3 (45w) and two 6v x 2 deep cycle golf cart/forklift batteries. Then I upgraded to two 140w panels, taking the old HF panels out of the loop (still have them in storage). Then I upgraded to two additional 140w panels and two additional batteries of the same rating and brand. Eventually all the batteries and 3 of the panels were relocated to my travel trailer. One of the panels stayed at home on the roof, charging the two deep cycle batteries (originally from the trailer) I keep for an emergency. There is a 2kw inverter. It's not nice to the electronics, so I use it primarily for large appliances. I have a smaller inverter that is pure sine wave which works for light electronic loads. I did a whole thread on it here a few years back if anyone cares to look. None of my systems have ever been grid tied. And they are not intended to power the house just like normal on an ongoing basis. I have refrigeration for a couple of days, or basic power for a shorter period. ETA: It's here, not sure why photos are not showing: http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/s...d.php?t=828643
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The one thing worse than defeat is surrender. Last edited by bruss01; 04-22-2016 at 10:48 AM.. |
#24
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__________________
NRA lifetime member 2AF Defender member When did I go from being a "citizen" to a "taxpayer"? Jon Lovitz: ‘I can’t wait to go to a hospital run by the DMV!’ Peace, love, and heavy weapons. Sometimes you have to be insistent." - David Lee Roth |
#25
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__________________
^^^The above is just an opinion. NRA Patron Member CRPA 5 yr Member "...which from their verbosity, their endless tautologies, their involutions of case within case, and parenthesis within parenthesis, and their multiplied efforts at certainty by saids and aforesaids, by ors and by ands, to make them more plain, do really render them more perplexed and incomprehensible, not only to common readers, but to lawyers themselves. " - Thomas Jefferson |
#26
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Thanks. For some reason I thought all transfer switches were automatic switches and those are quite expensive and not really needed for home use. I found some manual transfer switches at much lower cost.
Last edited by MotoriousRacing; 04-22-2016 at 1:06 PM.. |
#27
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It really isn't too tough to do as long as you start out with the right components. If you want to retrofit an existing grid-tie-only system so that it can operate during power outages, it's not going to happen...
If you start out with a good grid-tie system with battery backup (I have Outback GVFX3648 inverters), it's quite easy to do. When the power goes out, you don't even notice a flicker on the lines that are backed up by the battery side. The hardest part of it is installing a separate load center for the backed-up loads. I did mine when I was doing a complete re-build of the house, so I just picked the circuits that I wanted backed up, and wired accordingly. If you already have separate load centers for various systems (many houses have a separate load center for heat, kitchen, hot water) it's reasonably easy to just detach those centers from the main panel and run the solar backup line to them. |
#28
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Bruss01 Solar Energy Project
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The one thing worse than defeat is surrender. |
#29
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This company makes them for many different panel models. http://www.interlockkit.com/?gclid=C...FZFcfgode3QBLg I have Square D panel and bought the OEM interlock that was available, UL stamped etc., for liability reasons.
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Just taking up space in (what is no longer) the second-worst small town in California. |
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