I'm about to have a FranklinWh battery installed for home backup and to save on peak hour electricity costs without exporting any power for now. The battery will connect to my main service panel, and I'm trying to keep costs down by avoiding a subpanel installation. In the future, I'm hoping to add a small ground-mounted solar system, around 2-3 kW to start, because I have some big trees blocking sunlight at the moment. My question is: Is it possible to use inverters that only charge the battery without connecting to the grid? Would this make my setup simpler and cheaper? Or should I go ahead and connect the solar to the grid since my battery is already grid-interactive? Is there a way to power my home circuits directly from solar while still keeping some off-grid functionality? I'm looking for ways to build my solar setup slowly and ideally use a straightforward string inverter instead of a more expensive grid-capable one.
1 Answer
You might want to look into a transfer switch. It ensures you're not connected to the grid when your battery is in use, which is mainly a safety feature to avoid issues like backfeeding power. Once your solar panels are in, this method could be a simple solution for your setup. Remember, safety first!
Thanks for the tip! I’m all for safety. I’m just trying to avoid any bureaucratic headaches with permits since I want to do this gradually. But having my own setup to power the house and charge the battery sounds appealing. My off-peak rates are really low, so I’d prefer to keep everything off-grid if I can.