I'm planning to install a solar home kit to power my air conditioning and have a backup in case of blackouts. My setup will include 10 solar panels at 550W each, a 10kWh LiFePO4 battery, and a solar inverter. After surveying my home energy use, I found that my AC runs all night and consumes about 8kWh, which is why I went with the 10kWh battery. I want to make sure I can also power essential items during an outage. I'm doing all the installation work myself and have a big focus on battery longevity and system efficiency. I'd love any advice or best practices from those who have solar setups at home!
2 Answers
Your system should work well as long as you're okay with running some extension cords for any temporary setups. Just make sure to keep it safe!
For a partial home backup, it's best to connect your solar inverter between your main panel and a critical loads panel. Most good inverters let you set rules for how power is used—like defaulting to battery when it's full and using grid power when the battery is halfway charged. I'd recommend running your AC and essential appliances like lights, fridge, and certain outlets off that second panel.
I want to follow that plan, but I'm nervous about wiring into my main panel. I might just hook everything with extension cords to essentials if I'm not feeling confident!