Living off the Grid, Part II: Northern Exposure

(Page 10 of 10)

February/March 1994
By Matt Scanlon 
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Throwing the Switch

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With all the connections made, Kip checked the box lugs and other connects in the system and battery bank with a digital multi-meter to make sure they were correct and free of short-circuits, ground faults, and series or parallel misconnections. Now he was ready to turn the equipment on. The system's main switch is located on the powercenter. It is a removable fuse that, when pushed in, connects the batteries to the inverter and the solar panels to the batteries. All that was left to do then was turn on the inverter and breathe a sigh of relief as it began turning 24-volts DC into 120-volts AC.

To make sure that the battery charger on the inverter was working, Kip started up the generator and sure enough, after a few seconds the inverter reversed its role and began changing 120-volts AC into 24-volts DC, pushing approximately 40 amps into the batteries. Finally, Kip verified the solar part of his installation. At about midday, he shut off the generator and examined the meter on the powercenter that measures incoming voltage from the array. Eighteen amps at 27.5 volts were headed for the batteries.

Now he had all the AC power he needed to run his tools through the batteries and inverter, plus primary recharge capability from the solar array and backup recharge capability from the generator.

Good-bye, utilities!

MOTHER gratefully acknowledges Richard Gottlieb of Sunnyside Solar, RD 4, Box 808, Green River Road, Brattleboro, VT 05301 (802-257-7482) and John Weiss of Solar Energy lnternational, Box 1115, Carbondale, C0,81623 (303-963-8855) for their generous assistance in the production of this article.

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