Quote:
Originally Posted by gbbengi
Hello all,
First post! Yup, I'm a newbie! 
So, here is the deal. I built myself a small sweet little battery back up bank. I am currently disconnected from local utilities, so I am technically "off grid".
Here is my video: Never mind, it wont let me post my you tube video. But if you want to find it, go to you tube, and in the address bar add this "watch?v=_Ryw-6R0l9o"
I was looking into purchasing one of the tie in inverters and "tricking it" into thinking I am on grid, I don't need it to do much, basically just power on bathroom lights when needed, and also outside lights for a couple hours per night so it looks like I have power to my neighbors! LOL (every bulb in my place is 10 watt energy star spiral)
I do have a smaller set of solar panels which I will be adding to next week, also will be getting a small wind turbine.
What is the easiest way to set it up so that I can minimally use the household wiring that I would normally be using everyday anyway? I thought about the "suicide cable" and turning all circuits off but one and putting a protective harness on the extra male end to keep it plugged in, but I was told this could still start a fire through reverse polarity, hence the reason I was looking to use the GTI-because it has reverse polarity protection.
Thanks for any help I can get! |
Hello, I was able to watch your youtube movie.
In your video, I think you were charging your battery pack (from the grid) to use during off-peak hours.
I've never heard of that being a good solution to paying peak hour prices,
since charging up and then using a battery bank is very inefficient.
Way too many losses in that cycle.
When you include the price of the hardware (and periodic battery replacement), it's very expensive.
How much PV are you going to install? And how much power do you
plan to feed your off-grid appliances?
Unless you plan to use very few KW hours, going solar PV is going to be very expensive.
It's not something that most people would even consider, once they look at the cost.
Now, if you're rich, that's a different story. Since you would not care that
breaking even would take 20+ years..
Small wind turbines are pretty much a joke, when installed on a typical home site.
Location, location, Location is everything. If you don't have to hang on to
your hat while outdoors, forget it.
If you are interested, check out the Fearlessthinker videos.
Car PMA Wind Turbine performance II - Reality check - YouTube
As for connecting inverters to your house wiring via an outlet,
that can be dangerous.. The reason Enphase and others does not sell
a plug-in-the-outlet inverter system, is the fact that it won't pass code. (In the USA).
Lets say, you plug in a 1200w GTI into a 120vac socket (rated for 15a).
And then started plugging in loads to that circuit, until it was sucking
in 1800w from the grid, and 1200w from the GTI.
Now, you have 3,000 watts, ruining on a circuit designed for 1800w.
But, you don't see the wire heating up inside the walls,
so everything seems just fine. Until the clouds roll in..
Now, your 3,000 watt load is going to be fed by the grid.
That 25 amps is going to pop your 15A breaker..
But, if there's a problem and it sticks?
There is a good possibility you will see some smoke..
Check out this site for more info..
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Got to run,
Cheers,
Rich