krobertson
New member
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2019
- Messages
- 9
I was hoping to see if there was anyone in the states who uses a hybrid setup that is actually tied in to the grid.
What was your experience with getting your system permitted and operational with your local gov't and power company?
I was initially hoping to do setup with an automatic transfer switch so I'd not be tied in to the grid and simplify the process, but that has some complications. I wanted the battery to cover the house, but not our two EVs. I was planning ~30kWh system, but the cars average charging ~40kW/night, and regularly spike up to ~80kW/night. It'd be hard to exclude the EVs. Our house just sucks in how utilities were laid out. The house is very long, with the main panel on one side, and the garage on the other. The garage side of the house is on a separate 100A subpanel, along with that side of the house, and the main AC system. The cost to do a separate 50A+ subpanel 150ft through the crawl space to the main panel would likely cost more than a full UL listed hybrid inverter.
I don't want the batteries to do just the EVs, since the main goal is the house and avoiding PG&E's multiple yearly outages. Some alternatives I could do would be to have multiple inverters to be able to cover the EVs + ACs (15-20kW). I'd like to figure outwhat the cost gap between this and full hybrid though. And lastly, think though a setup whereI'd always switch back to grid power ~10:45pm (off-peak starts at 11pm, so that is when cars start charging), and have the chargers on a contactor where if power goes out, batteries can kick in, but disconnect the chargers.
If anyone has gone down this path, would love to know and may ask about your experiences... what the requirements where, how much you had to document, which parts you could do or couldn't, etc.
What was your experience with getting your system permitted and operational with your local gov't and power company?
I was initially hoping to do setup with an automatic transfer switch so I'd not be tied in to the grid and simplify the process, but that has some complications. I wanted the battery to cover the house, but not our two EVs. I was planning ~30kWh system, but the cars average charging ~40kW/night, and regularly spike up to ~80kW/night. It'd be hard to exclude the EVs. Our house just sucks in how utilities were laid out. The house is very long, with the main panel on one side, and the garage on the other. The garage side of the house is on a separate 100A subpanel, along with that side of the house, and the main AC system. The cost to do a separate 50A+ subpanel 150ft through the crawl space to the main panel would likely cost more than a full UL listed hybrid inverter.
I don't want the batteries to do just the EVs, since the main goal is the house and avoiding PG&E's multiple yearly outages. Some alternatives I could do would be to have multiple inverters to be able to cover the EVs + ACs (15-20kW). I'd like to figure outwhat the cost gap between this and full hybrid though. And lastly, think though a setup whereI'd always switch back to grid power ~10:45pm (off-peak starts at 11pm, so that is when cars start charging), and have the chargers on a contactor where if power goes out, batteries can kick in, but disconnect the chargers.
If anyone has gone down this path, would love to know and may ask about your experiences... what the requirements where, how much you had to document, which parts you could do or couldn't, etc.