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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Todd,<br>
Yes on all points. Why back up the whole house? The residence is a
remodeled traditional New Mexico adobe and the property is fully
landscaped; the original meter and service was moved out to a new
location and the home's breaker panel location was on an exterior
wall around which concrete was poured for a patio. The home has
none of the killer electric loads (cooking, water heating, etc.)
to make the whole-house option a poor choice. <br>
<br>
We too normally separate out essential loads from nonessential,
but that isn't an option here. Thus the separation can't serve to
alert the customer of an outage. The battery-powered light, or an
audible alarm out by the road, were the solutions that I though
of, but I was hoping for a more imaginative solution.<br>
<br>
Incidentally, your comment about an amp-hour meter brings another
question: a traditional amp-hour meter, like a TriMetric
2020,doesn't work well in GTWB situations, as the charged
parameters are seldom met absent a grid outage, and thus the
charge efficiency error can accumulate over time and lead to false
readings. What do you use, Todd, or if you use a traditional
amp-hour meter, how do you program it to fool it into maintaining
accuracy in a system that always sits in float?<br>
Allan<br>
<br>
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<font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><b>Allan Sindelar</b></font><br>
<small><a href="mailto:Allan@positiveenergysolar.com"><font
color="#000099" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><u>Allan@positiveenergysolar.com</u></font></a></small><font
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">NABCEP Certified Photovoltaic
Installer<br>
NABCEP Certified Technical Sales Professional<br>
New Mexico EE98J Journeyman Electrician<br>
Founder and Chief Technology Officer<br>
<b>Positive Energy, Inc.</b><br>
3209 Richards Lane (note new address)<br>
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507<br>
<b>505 424-1112</b><br>
<a href="http://www.positiveenergysolar.com/"
target="_blank"><u>www.positiveenergysolar.com</u></a><o:p></o:p></span></font>
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On 8/9/2012 10:02 AM, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:toddcory@finestplanet.com">toddcory@finestplanet.com</a> wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:1344528139.14617463@webmail.finestplanet.com"
type="cite"><font face="arial" size="4">
<p style="margin:0;padding:0;">99% of the grid-ties i do
incorporate battery backup. when i am wiring a system into a
house, i usually put the amp hour meter in the kitchen and
only wire essential back up loads (water pump, communication,
refrigeration & basic lighting) into the system. this
design alerts the customer of when the grid is down and they
need to go into 'conserve mode', and also eliminates power
robbing waste.</p>
<p style="margin:0;padding:0;"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;padding:0;">i am not sure why your customer
would want to have the whole house backed up? i try to leave a
couple of non essential, but noticeable circuits as 'grid
only'. if the house is already wired and changing a circuit is
not possible, you will need to somehow access a grid only
circuit (the ac input to the inverter) and put some kind of
alarm on it. hardware stores sell battery powered lights that
come on when the power is off. one of these could be modified
with a sonalert (or other audible alarm) which would come on
to notify the customer to change their behavior.</p>
<p style="margin:0;padding:0;"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;padding:0;">todd</p>
<p style="margin:0;padding:0;"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;padding:0;"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;padding:0;"> </p>
<p style="margin:0;padding:0;">On Thursday, August 9, 2012
8:18am, "Allan Sindelar" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:allan@positiveenergysolar.com"><allan@positiveenergysolar.com></a>
said:<br>
<br>
</p>
<div id="SafeStyles1344526224">Wrenches,<br>
For a grid-tied-with-backup system that is still in the design
stage, we have a customer request for a signal to let them
know when an outage occurs and they are running on backup
power, so that they may turn off unnecessary loads and "go
into backup consciousness". The problem is that the entire
home would be on backup, with the GTWB system tied into a
meter and main disconnect location away from the home, rather
than the more typical main panel/subpanel approach at the
home. Any relay-based alarm based on loss of grid AC would not
likely trigger, as the switchover is too quick. Any ideas for
simple solutions, please?<br>
Allan<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><strong>Allan
Sindelar</strong></span><br>
<small><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:Allan@positiveenergysolar.com"><span
style="color: #000099; font-family: 'Times New Roman',
Times, serif;"><span style="text-decoration:
underline;">Allan@positiveenergysolar.com</span></span></a></small><span
style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">NABCEP Certified
Photovoltaic Installer<br>
NABCEP Certified Technical Sales Professional<br>
New Mexico EE98J Journeyman Electrician<br>
Founder and Chief Technology Officer<br>
<strong>Positive Energy, Inc.</strong><br>
3209 Richards Lane (note new address)<br>
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507<br>
<strong>505 424-1112</strong><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.positiveenergysolar.com/"
target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration:
underline;">www.positiveenergysolar.com</span></a></span></span>
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<br>
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