russbost
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| posted on 30/12/21 at 09:59 AM |
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Q for electricians - household wiring/solar/inverter
I have some additional solar panels to my existing on grid installation, which I'm intending to use with batteries & inverter to run some of
the household circuits off grid
I've already tested & have plenty adequate power, my Q is this, the inverter has a standard 3 pin socket outlet which I've been
running things from whilst testing, if I now remove set circuits from the mains supply & feed them from the inverter, can the inverter &
existing mains installation share earth & neutral connections?
I would assume sharing the earth would be sensible as otherwise anything running from the inverter isn't truly earthed, but is it safe/desirable
to "share" the neutral with the existing installation, it would obviously make the connection simpler, but I have no idea if this would
cause problems with the 2 separate AC supplies at slightly different voltages & presumably, different phases?
Any info much appreciated
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ReMan
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| posted on 30/12/21 at 01:22 PM |
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I'm not a domestic electrician, though do have some qualifcations, but have no idea what the current regs are.
For educational/interest purposes, I'd say in theory you could, bearing in mind earth is earth and will connect together ultimately
However best practice I suspect would advise against it to ensure that there is no possibility of the two separate live circuits being connected for
exactly the reasons you add.?
Anyone else?
www.plusnine.co.uk
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garyo
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| posted on 4/1/22 at 11:43 AM |
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I've been considering something like this myself for a 2022 project (probably to power an immersion heater and a couple of electric UFH set ups
that we have) I've only just started think about the details.
I presume it'd be best practise (or required?) to feed your solar circuits through a mini consumer unit so that you have RCD protection from
faults on those circuits? I wonder how you can protect against L/N to earth faults to things like central heating pipes unless you had earth bonding
from those pipes to your solar consumer unit earth busbar? This would then leave a single common earth across all of the house as you suggest in your
question, so feels unavoidable.
As you already have a grid-tied set up, why don't you intend to connect the panels up to the existing set up and then find a way of only
charging the batteries when you have a power surplus?
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russbost
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| posted on 4/1/22 at 01:57 PM |
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I have a temp setup to try everything out.
The reason for not simnply extending the existing grid tied setup is that you're not allowed to it's already the max 4kWh & on the
original tariff, so very lucrative! I also have a bit of kit that recognises whever you have excess power & are returning it to the frid, at which
point it diverts that power & dumps it into an immersion heater, we get free hot water for at least 8 months of the year & even today it
briefly had sufficient to put a little power into the cylinder! (but only because I now have some stuff running from the new panels)
I'm sure you're correct that anything from the inverter should be run thro' a mini consumer unit, for the time being I simply have a
couple of the trip switches (RCD's?) from a consumer unit to control the lives & all neutral are shared with a common connector block which
is separate to the existing mains neutral rail. I've shared the earth to existing earths at the consumer unit -all seems to be working happily
at present
Furore Formula Car - the only two seater modern Formula Car lookalike. I no longer run Furore Products or Furore Cars Ltd, but would still highly
recommend them for Acewell dashes, projector headlights, dominator headlights, indicators, mirrors etc, best prices in the UK! Take a look at
http://www.furoreproducts.co.uk/ or find more parts on Ebay, user names furoreltd & furoreproducts, discounts available for LCB users.
Don't forget Stainless Steel Braided brake hoses, made to your exact requirements in any of around 16 colours.
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/furoreproducts/m.html?_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1
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NOTE:This user is registered as a LocostBuilders trader and may offer commercial services to other users
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garyo
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| posted on 7/1/22 at 09:08 AM |
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Let me know what you discover - it sounds like we'll be trying to solve the same problem really.
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