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Wiring 120v battery inverter power feed into 240v panel at cabin

Wiring 120v battery inverter power feed into 240v panel at cabin


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Old 08-08-14, 09:38 PM
J
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Wiring 120v battery inverter power feed into 240v panel at cabin

First post ever so pls excuse any mistakes.

Need some DIY advice on running a 240v panel off a 120v feed.

I have an off the grid cabin in Ontario Canada that currently is powered via a 240v feed off a 4000w generator. Cabin is a converted mobile home with a 200 amp panel 240v but NO 240v breakers and NO split plug breakers. In fact almost no breakers left at all, just the plugs and lights. The meter socket is jumpered and a heavy cab tire (4 ga maybe) cord runs to a 30 amp cord end plugged into the generator.

We are trying to ease into solar and currently have a 900 w 120v inverter with plans to upgrade to a 3000 w but still 120v as it seems all 240v inverters are very expensive.

With no 240v need or usage, and no split plugs my idea was simply to make a short 3 wire cord with a std 120v male end to plug into the inverter and then a 30a 240v female end with the ground, neutral, and single hot connected and a short little black jumper tying the two hot sides of the female cord end with the jumper right inside the cord end housing.

In normal generator operation I'd plug the cabin right into the generator as I do now and when using the solar/battery powered inverter I'd just plug the cabin cord into the little adaptor and then that cord into the inverter. Voila!

Any reason why this won't work or i should be worried?
Thanks.
Jaybird.
 
  #2  
Old 08-09-14, 04:55 AM
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Welcome to the forums. Aaah, if it were only that easy, we would not need giant electric companies selling us power! Solar panels must be combined with battery banks in order to supply amperage sufficient to run what you need. Running directly off a panel through an inverter will last only a few seconds at best. Even your 4000 watt generator will be limited to lights and a few low load items. You can only feed one side of your panel with 120 volta, meaning every other slot can be used. Take a close look at the configuration of the buss bars feeding down from your feeders, and note how they squiggle from right to left.
 
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Old 08-09-14, 07:21 AM
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Sorry, should have clarified that. The inverter and everything upstream is already hooked up and working fine (to a battery bank and solar panel array).

All I'm really trying to nail down is how I get the 120v from the inverter to my 240 panel.
 
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Old 08-09-14, 07:35 AM
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Simplest would be a transfer panel. Move all 120v loads you want to run with the solar panel to the transfer panel. Connect the solar to the transfer panel. The use of a transfer panel instead of just moving everything you want on solar to a separate panel would allow you to power them from the generator if the battery bank was low. When the transfer panel was switched to solar the main panel would be isolated from it so the generator could still power the main panel circuits.

The transfer panel would be connected to a single pole breaker in the main panel. Since most transfer panels are 2 pole you could use half or connect the two buss bars together to use the whole panel.
 
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Old 08-09-14, 07:54 AM
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Thanks, and that was my first thought but a panel will be $300 and a half a days work. What I was planning would be a $25 fix and would only require me to unplug my power lead from the generator panel into the inverter patch cord with the jumpered female end.

Here's a pic from another guy who did the same thing in a similar situation (ie no 240v breakers and no split plugs to worry about overloading the neutral) but there's no follow up to see if his worked so I thought I'd throw it out there in my case below.
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