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<p>I recently set up a Generac ATS to transfer to an existing Magnum
off grid system. Grid was added to the house later. I ended up
putting a 7ah 12 v battery, 120 vac outlet, and 1 A charger inside
the enclosure to power the ATS. Gird sense was connected right to
the grid input terminals in the ATS. It worked, but Generac
certainly frowned on this use of their equipment. It was not
easy figuring out the terminal strip connections, either. </p>
<p>I thought it was slightly kludgy, and probably 5 years from now,
it will stop working when the little battery fails. They'll call
a Generac dealer, who will have no idea what he's looking at.</p>
<p>Ray Walters<br>
Remote Solar<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 9/20/2024 8:33 AM, Sam Haraldson via
RE-wrenches wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAGKtuynGr46h1fQnJtnZYdn-p6448s1eStZx5edT8CwGptyV+w@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">Wrenches,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>We are primarily a grid-tied solar EPC but like many solar
companies have a long history with small off-grid
installations. In the past few years we have been tackling a
handful of large, complex, grid-tied battery-backup systems
(sub 90 kwh) range with some working flawlessly and some
plagued with weekly quirks. A weak link we've found in two of
these installations was our choice to use Generac Automatic
Transfer Switches. In order for this ATS to sense a grid
outage and perform its transfer it relies on circuitry built
into a Generac generator as well as a source of 12v power
(typically the generator start battery). </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>One of our sites doesn't have a generator at all and the
other does, but the grid sensing circuitry in the ATS is
bypassed as we want the Sol-Arks to be the first-line of power
during an outage and not the generator. In order to
accomplish this our electrician designed custom circuitry for
grid sensing which is powered by a separate 12v source, has a
10 second delay, and flips the transfer switch during an
outage placing the loads under the control of the Sol-Arks. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Our initial design for these systems did not take into
consideration that a Generac ATS doesn't have its own "brains"
to grid sense and since we are now relying on a small custom
circuit and a small external 12v power supply to act as a key
player in an otherwise powerful and robust backup system we
are second guessing our equipment choice. What ATS solutions
are Wrenches employing that we should be considering? </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>TL;DR - what are the simplest ATS solutions that sense the
grid (frequency, voltage, et al) and self-switch between
backup and grid power automatically? <br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Sincerely,</div>
<div>Sam</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
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href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onsiteenergyinc.com/&source=gmail-html&ust=1677085494759000&usg=AOvVaw2NN36GoM1sjnS4RdC8Svt-"
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<div color="#514ca0"
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HARALDSON <span
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<div color="#f9a145"
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551-6135<br>
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<div color="#514ca0"
style="padding:0px;color:rgb(81,76,160);font-size:7pt;line-height:8pt">1515
N. Rouse Ave Bozeman, MT 59715</div>
<div color="#f9a145"
style="padding:0px;color:rgb(249,161,69);font-size:7pt;line-height:9pt">Locally
owned and operated since 2012</div>
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