[hamburgler]

Is it possible to upload energy into your house through a plug on the wall instead of drawing energy from it? Could a solar panel be made that can plug into the wall and upload keeping users from having to do complicated wiring procedures? If its possible it would have to know when to stop adding extra energy so as not to overload.

 

[Tex]

It's possible but not practical. In order to feed power to the grid, certain safeties are required. If there is an outage, your power producer has to disconnect or you will try to power the grid and possibly hurt an electrical worker. To make a small inverter to feed the grid on that small of a scale and include all the necessary safety features wouldn't be cost effective to produce.

 

[SurvivalNut]

Is it possible to upload energy into your house through a plug on the wall instead of drawing energy from it? Could a solar panel be made that can plug into the wall and upload keeping users from having to do complicated wiring procedures? If its possible it would have to know when to stop adding extra energy so as not to overload.

,

Since I am on a budget, as a hobby I am adding some additional sockets in my garage. There will be 12v outlets and some 110v from inverter all fed from my storage batteries. This way my garage is a working experiment and I have a fully functional powered space. None hooked up to the grid. It has been fun to see what works/does not. The batteries are charged from a solar panel. I am adding a small wind turbine ($600) next year. In power outages, an extension cord run into the house from the garage will power small basic items intermittently. Just an idea. In the endtimes I don't plan on ramping up electrification, just learning to simplify. I just added a wood fireplace. My gas bill went to pennies. Having fun!

 

[ke4sky]

Fail to battery automatic transfer switch

These links may help:

Emergency power system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CareBase Home Page, outdoor UPS, dc to ac inverters, automatic transfer switches, low-impedance isolation transformer power line conditioners, precision PWM automatic voltage regulators, uninterruptible power supplies, surge arresters, heavy-duty
AUTOMATIC TRANSFER SWITCHES
Briggs and Stratton 040305 - 20 kW Empower Automatic Start Standby Liquid Propane Generator
150 Amp 3 Pole Cutler Hammer GenSwitch Automatic Transfer Switch - Americas Generators
Safety Switches - RELECTRIC

 

[skip]

These links may help:

Emergency power system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CareBase Home Page, outdoor UPS, dc to ac inverters, automatic transfer switches, low-impedance isolation transformer power line conditioners, precision PWM automatic voltage regulators, uninterruptible power supplies, surge arresters, heavy-duty
AUTOMATIC TRANSFER SWITCHES
Briggs and Stratton 040305 - 20 kW Empower Automatic Start Standby Liquid Propane Generator
150 Amp 3 Pole Cutler Hammer GenSwitch Automatic Transfer Switch - Americas Generators
Safety Switches - RELECTRIC

To those who want to save some money, I work for a company that makes manual transfer switches for around $250 for a 200 amp to $500 for a 600A version. Just check some of the electrical distributors in your area, or your electric company. Many dairy farmers use these to hook up their PTO driven generators . We also make a version that uses two sets of breakers to transfer your home between your own power and the utility's.

 

[The_Blob]

in most states now the utility companies are required to help you connect safely to the grid if you are producing power, they won't pay for your equipment or anything like that, but they will make sure you don't provide an electrical hazzard to yourself or to their workers.

 

[Obsidian]

in most states now the utility companies are required to help you connect safely to the grid if you are producing power, they won't pay for your equipment or anything like that, but they will make sure you don't provide an electrical hazzard to yourself or to their workers.

I believe that's the law everywhere. If not, it should be. You must tell the utility. Otherwise, electrical workers can get killed.

Now if you generate more than you use, even only sporadically, it can flow back through the lines and you get credit for it from the utility.

But, I believe there's some line work that needs doing for that. And you'll need a meter that can detect reverse energy flow, which can count how much you should get credit for and warns the utility that you could be sending some back.

 

[guyfour]

If only every car had a solar panel on the roof and every parking space a plugin for it's retractable cord... Then all the cars that aren't in use would be uploading... Any car without the battery energy to go could download energy because of the surplus... etc etc

 

[Obsidian]

If only every car had a solar panel on the roof and every parking space a plugin for it's retractable cord... Then all the cars that aren't in use would be uploading... Any car without the battery energy to go could download energy because of the surplus... etc etc

That day is not far off.

There are already companies developing technology to tie cars into the home power supply. The car can be charging when needed, or can serve as emergency power in case of outage, not just for the home but for the grid as well. If energy from your car is used to power the grid, there's a meter that tracks how much so that you get a credit from the utility.

Check out a company called Gridpoint. They provide batteries of the same type that hybrid cars use to provide emergency power for homes and businesses. They are kept charged most of the time, but provide backup during outages.

 

[NaeKid]

For the Canadian's here, there is a company that I just discovered this morning that will become my newest best friend. Energy Alternatives is based on Vancouver Island which specializes in solar and wind power generation, 12-volt fridges, 12-Volt HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, AirConditioning), 12-volt water heaters, water-pumps - etc. I've been going through their site all morning and its amazing the amount of products they have available.

I am slowly expanding my list of "must-haves" for when I go grid-free ..

 

[nj_m715]

You said power a house not power the grid. I do HVAC and we need to winterize or work on houses with no power. Instead of dragging drop lights and cords everywhere I can use this to power up a circuit in the house with my inverter. I have used it in my own house during blackouts. I turn off the main breaker and power the circuit I need like the fridge, sump pump or heater. Don't use it if you do not have a basic understanding of electricity. Plug it into the house, then into the inverter, because the exposed prongs will be hot.

If you want to power the grid there is alot of info here, but they are not using solar.
http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/159605551/m/1241093942/p/1

 

[northernontario]

You said power a house not power the grid. I do HVAC and we need to winterize or work on houses with no power. Instead of dragging drop lights and cords everywhere I can use this to power up a circuit in the house with my inverter. I have used it in my own house during blackouts. I turn off the main breaker and power the circuit I need like the fridge, sump pump or heater. Don't use it if you do not have a basic understanding of electricity. Plug it into the house, then into the inverter, because the exposed prongs will be hot.

If you want to power the grid there is alot of info here, but they are not using solar.
WVO diesel to drive a Induction motor generator - Topic Powered by Eve For Enterprise

Thats exactly what I made last christmas when the power went out at my father's place. chunk of extension cord with two male ends. Main breaker off in the house, and all the other breakers off that we didn't need. Then, plug in generator to an exterior outlet, fire it up, turn on that breaker. Then it was just a matter of testing one breaker at a time till we found an outlet we wanted to use that was on the same 'side' of the panel. Ended up being a split plug (110 black top, 110 red bottom) in the bathroom.

Extension cord from that outlet to whatever item we wanted to run (fridge, light, heater). It's a small generator, so we could only run one thing at a time... but it got the job done for the couple of days we were without power.

Critical thing here though... first thing we did was kill the main breaker!

 

[The_Blob]

I've done something similar, but I feed both sides of my breaker box (2 cords to 1) so that I can run the 220 appliances as well