Below is a drawing of the general site electrical hookup. This is a draft for discussion purposes. It is now quite old but, has a few useful tidbits.
Must use a double pole switch to switch in the generator to insure it is not hooked up to PG&E when the power comes back on. The generator has no means to synchronize phase with the utility.
Upon power outage the user must power off all breakers except critical circuits to get the load down below the generator's output capacity. The PV panel inverter can be connected up PG&E even during a power outage because it has facilities to synchronize when power returns. Must use a Utility interactive inverter.
At some time in the future a battery system will be added to the PV system to allow battery backup in case of power outage. It is also necessary if the PV array is to be used to power the house during a daylight hours brown out.
Battery backup will power the house through the utility interactive inverter and the breaker panel on the main power pole. Power will flow backwards through the garage breaker in that panel. In this case non critical breaker circuits must also be turned off to keep power consumption below the capacity of the Battery Backup system.
Last Updated 10/29/06 M.H.