Backfeeding a 200 amp panel with an Outback 3648 [RE-wrenches]

[bbassett at rockisland.com]

I have also thought that a grid feed circuit separate from the bypass 
feed would be a good feature on the Outback inverters, but for an 
additional reason. Here in WA state we have production based incentives 
that have recently been put into action (finally). The largest utility, 
PSE, is charging the customer for the production meters that they are 
putting in these systems. This amounts to $160 for a simple grid tie, 
and up to $955 for a 120/240 battery based grid tie system (using 
Outback's system of using form 12S meters, two for 120/240). 
Unfortunately, the law was not written to prohibit this for the 
incentive metering (but fortunately was for net metering on the main 
utility meter). The Sunny Island gets around this problem nicely, but it 
would be an advantage to use a WA made inverter since the incentive 
rises from $0.15kWh to $0.18kWh if it is. With separate grid tie and 
bypass circuits this would then use the easy, less expensive metering.

The other possibility around the bus size issue is to get the code 
rewritten to allow a larger grid intertie at the opposite end of the 
busbar from the feedin main breaker. I believe this makes it impossible 
to overload the bus in most residential panels. This would help in not 
having to oversize AC panels for combining multiple inverter outputs 
also. Or maybe one of the big panel mfg could put in lugs at both ends 
of the bus for feedin and get UL on it for that purpose.

Brad


Allan Sindelar wrote:
> 
> If the two functions could somehow be separated, the range of
> applications would be increased, as it's only the sell function that is
> subject to the 120% bussbar limitation of 690-64(b)(2).
> 
>


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