Just a quick summary of the solar installation. APA Ready Rack ground mount with 20 ZNShine 450 Watt Bi-Facial solar panels, EG4 18Kpv Inverter, and EG4 PowerPro 280ah battery.
Hi Gary. Awesome video. I am about to make my purchase soon. Have a couple of questions. 1) could you post a video showing the wiring on the switch, disconnect and main panel with a bit of explaining? 2) do you plan to install any lightning protection?
You need to add plastic conduit bushings in all of the holes with wires passing through them, to prevent possible insulation cutting on the metal edges. I doubt if you would pass any inspection without them.
Really appreciate you filming this. I am in NC, Watauga County, and have been on RU-vid's solar rabbit hole for a month now. I like the EG4 components, so it's nice to hear from people using them for when I finally pull the trigger. If you had the space would you have gone with the EG4-LL batteries? How much did that ground mount cost? We have Blue Ridge Energy up here so I need to learn more about their requirements before I do anything.
Thanks, I'm really posting just to give other folks an idea of what it takes. If I had the space I would most likely have went with a 6 bay cabinet and 3 EG4-LL batteries to start. It is much easier to move them around and you can add one at a time till you have the amount that works for you. The only down side is making your own cables to go from the cabinet to the inverter. The ground mount was $3,830 with shipping. My city is quite the pain. Everything has to be certified to UL standards. I had to have engineering plans to submit to the city, the utilities commission, and the power company. Once they were approved, I had to pay for a building permit, electrical permit, and an interconnection fee. The city checked all the certification on the equipment (ground mount, solar panels, grounding and bonding, electrical enclosure, circuit breakers, surge protectors, battery, and inverter). I have to replace my DC electrical enclosure because it is CE certified and my state doesn't recognize the cert. Currently waiting for a new UL listed enclosure so I can get my electrical final inspection.
Oh, and if you are going to be grid tied you have to request a docket number from the North Carolina Utilities Commission. Your utility company will want this when you fill out all the paperwork for the interconnect agreement. That is, if your utility does interconnect agreements. I have heard some locations the power company wont do interconnect agreements and wont credit any additional power you give to them. Right now I am running my system in Off-Grid-Mode. At 7AM it will start to charge the battery. At 9AM there is enough power in the battery and enough power from solar the inverter will turn off the grid power and switch to solar. By Noon the battery is fully charged and it will run till the sun goes down powered from the panels (around 4PM). It will then run off the battery till around 9PM (I run it to 25% SOC). At that point the inverter will switch the grid power back on. The inverter will pull power from the battery all night to continue to operate. By morning the battery will be at 20% SOC (I set it up this way so I will still have some power if the grid goes down). This is all seamless, you can't even tell when it does it unless you look at the app.
Is the PowerPro the UL certified ? If so what was the wait time on delivery ? Curious to see how it goes with Duke Energy. Exactly the system I have been looking at. Kind of split between the PowerPro and the EG4-LL. Love the 18KPV Inverter.
Yes, the PowerPro I have is UL certified. The city wouldn't approve it without the cert. I ordered back in September and received it the first week of December. SS said they had a large shipment arriving in mid December, but I'm not sure how many were already sold. I should have my final city inspection next week and then I will move on to Duke Energy to get their part done. I am limited on space, so that is the main reason for using the PowerPro over the EG4-LL batteries.
Can you explain how your connected to a transfer switch and what happened when the power goes.off no side line tap? What I mean to say is can you show the inside of the disconnect and switch
Power comes in and out through the back of the conduit box. I have a 200 Amp fused disconnect which brings in the power and then it goes out to a 200 Amp bypass transfer switch. This link is a photo of the conduit: ru-vid.com/show-UC2uGt3IC0ApijJmEKdwvoPgcommunity?lb=Ugkx_5MkuujPhF72zxigUR1VxLyI0vUs7yI4 200 Amps from the meter goes into a 200 Amp Fused Disconnect. From there grid power goes into the inverter AND into the 200 Amp Bypass Transfer Switch. The output power from the inverter also goes to the 200 Amp Bypass Transfer Switch. From the 200 Amp Bypass Transfer Switch you select either grid power or inverter power and it is routed into the main power distribution panel. This allows me to completely isolate the solar for maintenance, but still have power from the grid to the house. Here is a photo of the 200 Amp Fused Disconnect: ru-vid.com/show-UC2uGt3IC0ApijJmEKdwvoPgcommunity?lb=Ugkxfh-qlbkKL5d_xieUANfyFgSHPynIT1nd Here is a photo of the 200 Amp Bypass Transfer Switch: ru-vid.com/show-UC2uGt3IC0ApijJmEKdwvoPgcommunity?lb=UgkxGb65XS_T7CDRn9Mo3d_ufMAGzzvRyY9H
Can you provide a diagram that you used for connecting the mains meter -> disconnect -> 18K -> Transfer Switch -> main panel? Looking at the EG4 18K installation manual I cannot find a diagram that describes your system. Does your main panel have a 200 AMP circuit breaker? Also do you have a bill of materials?
Here is the wiring diagram: ru-vid.com/show-UC2uGt3IC0ApijJmEKdwvoPgcommunity?lb=UgkxEpVJce4cYhsnehZPYKJwNmOXQ-ELGRsC The 200 Amp disconnect and the 200 Amp by-pass transfer switch are both Siemens purchased from Lowe's. My main panel has a 200 Amp breaker. I haven't put together a bill of materials, but it is something I can work on.
Depends on which version of the NEC your city follows. My city inspector did not say anything and the PVC was in the engineering drawings which were submitted and approved by the city. The new NEC clearly states it must be in EMT where it enter the structure and to the first point of disconnect.
@@Gary_Pauls_DIY so it is EMT from when it enters the building TO the first disconnect INSIDE the building? Or do you mean it is EMT from inside the building till it goes outside and meets the first disconnect OUTSIDE the building? I'm working on that part now. Thanks.
@@joetripp123 By the new code anything carrying DC voltage needs to be inside EMT or a metal enclosure (gutter) if it is inside the building structure. In my case it is OK to run the PV power through PVC up to my house, but when it enters the house it should have switched to EMT all the way to the cable box under the inverter.
@@Gary_Pauls_DIY ok that is the logic I was also designing around. Thanks for the confirmation. I just wasn’t sure that after I exit the building I had to stay EMT till I got to the panels (at my first disconnect).
@@joetripp123 I would say this though. If you are trying to pass city/county inspection, I would ask them what they want to see. One thing I have learned from doing this myself as well as watching what others have done, every inspector is different. It is one thing to be safe and it is another to pass inspection. I paid for engineer stamped plans and that is the way the inspector wanted to see it installed. (even though some things don't match NEC code requirements).
No thanks, I would never install a high frequency, transformerless inverter in my home. High frequency inverters have a far shorter life expectancy than heavy duty low frequency inverters, and they have a substantially lower surge capacity. That's they're price so low. I would rather spend a little more money and install a low frequency, transformer based inverter.
So far the system runs everything without any hiccups. I have tried to set up my main panel to even out the loads, but when my wife is running a lot of electrical appliances in the kitchen it definitely is out of balance and the 18Kpv handles it with no issues. I do not have any 120v inductive loads so can't really say how it would handle a large inductive load on a single leg. There is just not many inverters out there that use transformers and can handle the amount of PV I'm putting into it. Schneider I think would work, but you need so many separate parts to get a full system. This system is clean, relatively easy to install, has decent software, and handles a lot of PV and battery storage without having to buy a lot of extra parts and breakers. What system do you run and how is it working for you?
A hybrid, low frequency, transformer based inverter charger will last far longer and will give you a much higher 300%+ surge capacity. I repair inverter for a living, have done so for that past 24 years, and I can tell you from experience that high frequency transformerless inverter simply don't last without an iron core, copper wound output transformer. High frequency inverter tech makes up more than 80% of the repair quotes that we receive. Manufacturers like Schneider Electric, Magnum Energy, Outback Power, Sigineer Power, Victron Energy, all make low frequency inverter chargers. @@JayLittlefield
