In Florida, USA, it is Illegal to be disconnected from the grid....

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100kwh-hunter said:
@ Ibiza, you meant "polite state" i guess.
I almost got a ticket for polluting surface water.
Here is the deal.
I have a canal on the border of my land, dead at one side.
I put a pump in it for my irrigation system. Water was pumped on my crops and was going back thru the ground.
Simple, right? rain water follows the same path, ticket was 5000 euro, i got off with a warning.
Now that pump is hidden and pumps at 2 am.
I dump my waste water of the filter(from my pond) into the canal, i had to prove that my water was in better condition(healthier) than the water in the canal, i won...
Now the roberment(also the lower ones) is/are keeping a eye on me, somehow i still manage to obey the law and be self supporting.(somehow....yah right, read learn &obey: overcome improvise and adapt :angel: )
Biodiesel is out of the question, but i drove some happy miles, so now i go electric....
my tobacco, wine, veggies are very good.
But this is way off topic, sorry
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yes, you are right. I made a mistake typing . sorry!
 
Korishan said:
Just came across an article I found quite interesting. In the state of Florida (where I, and several other members, live), it is illegal to run your home solely off your own power. The article was specifically targeting Solar installations, however I'm sure it includes other means of alternative energies because of the wording.

https://studionewsnetwork.com/polic...ur-home-with-solar-panels-thanks-to-lobbying/
http://www.wftv.com/news/local/want-solar-panels-you-still-have-to-pay-florida-utilities/276475576



That is ridiculous!! Incredulous!! Insidious!! And a whole slew of other "ous" words I can't think of right now. FPL (Florida Power And Light support: fpl customer service) as lobbied the state gov't to put into place laws that keep us from disconnecting from the grid. What a crock!

For fellow Floridians looking to go grid-less, I recommend doing what I'm gonna do. Leave the grid connected, but that main breaker is turned off in the house and install a light out at the pole to use "some" power during the month. For me it only costs $20 for connection, so about $30 with taxes and fees and such. Add another $10 per month for the light and I think they'll be happy and leave me alone.
Fortunately, they can't take the property as it is a homestead for 2 other homes.



How does using your own power in conjunction with their power make the meter go "up" to cost you more? That doesn't make and sense what so ever. If a flow of power is coming into the house at a set rate, and a secondary source starts feeding the house, then the flow coming from the power company would slow down, not speed up.
And this brings up another issue (which was discussed over in the Slack channel) that the people who had solar panels couldn't use their power because it was directly tied into the grid. So it "had" to be shut down so the linesmen would be safe. Well, if 1) they didn't have to be required to be connected; 2) had a ATS installed; 3) Quick acting contactors (or whatever they are called for AC on mains) that would disconnect when it detects no power from mains; then the linesman would be safe to begin with. FPL sure is making things worse. Glad I don't get my power directly from them, I'm through Clay Electric and they do things a lot differently. They don't bug you unless you don't pay the bill. And even then, they work with you helpfully.

Be careful fellow Floridians. Make sure you keep things safe and secure and keep FPL off your back by installing your proper switches and such. Run the garage off the grid and the house off the powerwall.
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Thank you fot this expert information.
 
My plan right now is to see if I can find an electrician who will wire up a separate breaker (and small panel) so that I can run a part of my house off the grid, or switch it and put that section of the house back on the grid.
Right now, I am skeptical that I will find one to do it.
Not surprising that they don't want you to be totally off grid, they can't keep track of you otherwise.
 
Dr. Dickie said:
My plan right now is to see if I can find an electrician who will wire up a separate breaker (and small panel) so that I can run a part of my house off the grid, or switch it and put that section of the house back on the grid.
Right now, I am skeptical that I will find one to do it.
Not surprising that they don't want you to be totally off grid, they can't keep track of you otherwise.
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I'm off-grid and use ATS(s). At the main panel a combination of an ATS and a 10 circuit Manual Transfer Switch give me individual circuit control. I can select which loads I want to be active / on the inverter. This is the same setup as you can do for an backup generator - I just use the inverter power in place of generator power. Maybe something like that would work for you and you could probably get that installed OK.
 
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OffGridInTheCity said:
I'm off-grid and use ATS(s). At the main panel a combination of an ATS and a 10 circuit Manual Transfer Switch give me individual circuit control. I can select which loads I want to be active / on the inverter. This is the same setup as you can do for an backup generator - I just use the inverter power in place of generator power. Maybe something like that would work for you and you could probably get that installed OK.
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I plan on proposing it as for generator.
I don't really want an ATS, as I would like to run a portion of my house off of the solar all the time, but be able to switch it back to grid if I need to work on the battery pack or solar array.
 
Dr. Dickie said:
I plan on proposing it as for generator.
I don't really want an ATS, as I would like to run a portion of my house off of the solar all the time, but be able to switch it back to grid if I need to work on the battery pack or solar array.
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Cool - should be very straight-forward to get a manual transfer switch installed.
 
I don't see why an electrician would not install a secondary sub-panel with a transfer switch. You don't have to tell them "what" the second power source will be. Even if you did, it would be on you, not them. As long as the transfer switch with sub-panel is installed according to code, they are good to go.
Plenty of electricians would install such a sub-panel.

You don't need an ATS, just a standard MTS, Manual Transfer Switch. This can be done either with a separate switch, or with a cover plate that blocks some of the breakers to keep you from backfeeding when on generator. I think the separate switch would be the way to go, tho.
 
I don't see any problem either.
HOWEVER, city regulations and such are a funny thing.
I HOPE there is no problem. I think I will find out next week. It is time to start getting things prepared.
Yeah, I want a manual switch, for select circuits. I have Killawatt meters (refrigerator, TV, etc.--I think the light bulb watts listing will be close enough) in the circuits I want to have switched right now to get an idea of the kilowatts/per hour expected. Then I can run those circuits off the solar/battery set up. If I need to do some maintained, I can switch back to the grid--but, there is no way to have it feed back into the grid.
 
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