Hello Jeff, Why mess with the grids unreliable and potentially harmful power. Go with your question 2…. using the power inverters full time with no AC input, no transfer switch. You will need a power supply/battery charger large enough to power the loads through the inverter and maintain the battery at 100%. Protect the PS with the appropriate AC surge or LV protection. With this setup your AC power is always on with no brownouts or loss of power.
Larry Crutcher Starlight Solar Power Systems On Mar 13, 2020, at 12:02 PM, Jeff Clearwater <[email protected]> wrote: Good Day Esteemed Wrenchers, So we are doing more work in developing countries where the grid is super unreliable but on for some hours almost daily. So let's say we have a grid that's on 9 AM - 11 AM and 4 PM - 7 PM each day but often browns-out during those hours and comes on and off during those hours. 230 VAC voltage can drop to 160-180 periodically or go above 260 in spikes. The present practice in many of these situations is for battery based system designers/installers is to set up an off-grid system in parallel to the mains but not relying on them - so the grid AC IN is not connected. They just install a transfer switch and manually switch or they wire a critical loads panel to the solar. This avoids constant switching and nuisance shut-downs from the battery inverter and protects it from burning out trying to handle the grid. MY QUESTION: I'm wondering what we can do to use the grid when it is up for opportunity charging of the batteries while at the same time not subjecting our nice new battery inverters to constant brown-out tripping and possibly long term damage. So question #1 - Is anyone using existing battery inverters but succesfully navigating such a grid variablity settings such that you are able to take advantage of the grid even if browning out often? or question #2 - Can we add some sort of high Voltage and Frequency tolerant battery charger to the system - keep the battery inverter/charger off grid - but charge the batteries from something able to handle the wonky grid without constantly nuisance charging or burning itself up? Your thoughts and wisdom I await!!! Best, Jeff -- ~~~~~~~~~~~ Jeff Clearwater Village Power Design linkedin <https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-clearwater-0622a312/> www.villagepowerdesign.com <http://www.villagepowerdesign.com/> cell - 413-559-9763 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance List Address: [email protected] Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
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