First Light

Yesterday I bought a workbench at Costco to keep the two solar batteries off the ground. Today I saw thatHome Depot will be having an almost identical one for about $40 cheaper. However, that cheaper one is not yet in the store and could be a couple weeks away. I don’t mind the $40 extra at this time.

Today I got both batteries up off the handtruck, got them wired and threw a few switches. I believe that I may have to update their firmware but that can wait. I checked both batteries and they seem to have a good charge on them. Then I enabled them and started powering up the controller. I was able to set a few parameters like the correct time and date and what kind of batteries I am using. In case you are wondering, here is the info:

EG4 6000XP – split phase controller (that gives 240 VAC across both lines or dual 120 VAC circuits) just like your home service

EG4 – 100AH batteries (x 2) for a total of 48 VDC @ 200Ah

DXST3000WB – DeWALT 2-shelf Industrial Storage Rack Work Station

Following the startup procedure and with all the parameters set to begin, I powered things up in order and saw that my batteries were at least at 50% or more. I measured across the L1 and L2 output lines and read ~240 VAC and L1 to Neutral was ~120 VAC and so was L2 to Neutral. Thus I have a working system but will still need to tweak it. I powered it down until the next phase.

First I will connect the Grid input to the circuit breaker box through an existing or new circuit breaker. This allows me to direct some power from the utility through the breakers to the input of my controller. That will allow me to bring the batteries to a full charge and if I want, power some loads. I don’t have any loads conencted yet, but in an emergency I could just hook some things up to the controller and have power even if the utility grid goes down.

Then I will wire some of my existing household circuits to the transfer switch. It is an A-B switch or what you might think of as a 3-way switch. The common of the switch will go to the load (light, refrigerator, etc) and either of the selectable  points on the swich will go to the solar controller or the circuit breaker box and on to the utility. I am using the transfer switch so that I can control each set of wires and determine whether they will get power from my setup or the electric company grid. If I had a larger system I could bypass the utility completely, but I prefer not to. As I mentioned previously, until I balance the loads and determine how long I can run with sunlight and batteries, I will gradually connect more to solar. I might need one more battery.

Up until this point I am not getting free electricity rather I am using the grid to power devices directly or passing the power through my system (with battery backup) and on to the devices. I would be able to charge the batteries when the rates are low and use items connected to them when the rates would have been higher; sort of price shifting.

The big change will be when I figure out how I want to mount the solar panels. At that point any electricity I generate during the day will charge the batteries for free and any devices I use during the day will use free electricity.

I was incorrect previously when I quotedtime of use  electric rates and they will be even higher at night than I wrote. Perhaps the Public Utilities Commission approved different rates. If you are interested in how much we are paying, look at Residentail Schedule “R” for Hawaii/Big Island here .

So far by three biggest hassles have been to 1) Find the way to keep the batteries off the floor, 2) Find all the extra items such as conduit that I will need and 3) Biggest hassle was lifting each of those 100 pound batteries onto the workbench. (Remember I have had a quadruple heart bypass somewhat recently).

So although I have powered up the system and seen the screen light up, I have not actually drawn any power from the system to do useable work. I’ll do that tomorrow and take a few photos.