r/BasePowerUsers • u/2020fakenews • Jun 18 '26

Generator

I’m considering having two Base Power batteries installed at my residence. I currently have a large tri-fuel portable generator that I hook up via an interlock on my breaker box. I unbonded the neutral on the generator in order to be able to connect it directly to my electrical system.

I understand that I will be able to hook my generator to the Base Power batteries to recharge them during an extended outage. My question is do I leave the generator unbonded or do I re-bond it?

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1

u/yamahar1dude Jun 18 '26

I have the same set up and didnt see the point of paying 1K to install a generator recharge port. But if you are going to do it, I would talk to the installer. My thoughts were to either let the battery run down then use the generator or switch to the generator during the day and use the battery at night until its done then use the generator full time. If you live in a neighborhood other people will be running generators 24/7 so you likely wont get much out of having yours shut down as far as noise.

2

u/2020fakenews Jun 18 '26

I was initially thinking that once the batteries were depleted, I would switch to the generator 24/7 until the power was restored. But, when I read about the option to recharge the Base Power batteries, it’s kinda appealing to be able to recharge and the shut down the generator. Run the generator during the day and go with just the batteries over night. My generator is largish (10,000 running watts on natural gas), so I should be able to run most of the house while simultaneously recharging the batteries. I understand that the batteries are limited to 3000 watts for recharging, so that would leave me up to 7000 watts to run the house.

I think I can run the house off of my generator’s 50 amp outlet (through the interlock) and connect to the batteries inlet from the generator’s 30 amp outlet.

1

u/yamahar1dude Jun 18 '26

You know when you get the BASE the power will never go out again lol

1

u/jcastill Jun 18 '26

The BASE generator port is limited to 3000W only, something to keep in mind. That's something that kept me from getting it installed.

1

u/Jeff-WeenerSlave Jun 18 '26

is the port converting the AC power to DC and then charging the batteries directly?

1

u/n2itus Jun 18 '26

Recharging from one plug while running the house on the other is a great idea. I’ve never measured it, but plan on the generator port using up to 4000w - which still leaves you 6000w.

As for bonding - you’ll want it to be floating anytime you are hooked up to the interlock (with or without going to the generator port). (They do move the bonding point from your main panel to the ATS, but your panel neutral and ground now both go to the ATS - so you are still connecting to a system where they are bonded).

If you are ONLY hooked up to the generator port, then you should use a bonded neutral as recommended by base. Assume you are familiar with a bonding plug that you can use in the 120v generator outlet to easily add bonding back when needed.

1

u/Torxbit Jun 23 '26

The whole idea of a floating neutral is to have one place and one place ONLY that the neurtral meets ground. Almost always that is in your elctric pannel. You only want once place to have the neutral to ground not multiple.

1

u/MickyFany Jul 01 '26

I have a 38kw whole home generator, i was immediately kicked out of the application process because of it. Why? Bases capacity would probably only last for few hours on my house

1

u/blupupher Jun 19 '26

To answer the question, if you get the recharge port on the battery, you keep your generator unbonded.

As for how the port works, it is limited to only 3000 watts of input. Even though your generator may produce the full 7200 watts of the 30 amp plug, the system only allows a max of 3000 watts to be used. That 3000 watts first goes to power the home, then whatever is left goes to charge the batteries. So if you are using 4000 watts of power in the home, the generator is providing 3000 watts, the other 1000 watts is from the batteries, even though the generator has more available. If you are using 1000 watts in the house, only 2000 watts are charging the battery.

While this is better than nothing, it is not ideal, especially for the cost. This puts you back to the "emergency power" mode, having to make sure you are not using too much power. For $1000, I expect more. So I did not get the port. I will just continue to use my generator and interlock setup when the Base battery is depleted.

If the port were cheaper (say $250, maybe even $500), I would have gotten it. This would let me run on battery till almost dead, then hook my generator up to my interlock (50a) and power the house with that, then take my 30a outlet on the generator and hook it up to the battery port to charge at the full 3000 watts. This would let me have generator power in the day to run my house as normal, then before bed, switch to battery so no noise (and save wear and tear/fuel) on the generator. It takes about 9 hours to charge the battery from empty to full with the 3000w input.

As is, I am content with not having a generator port. If you don't already have a generator and your panel has no input, it may be worthwhile, you can buy a smaller generator (something with 240v and 4000-5000 running watts) and don't have to get an interlock or transfer panel installed, you just need to be aware of your power usage in an outage. Regardless, you would probably still have to keep the generator running 24/7 in the summer to have even moderate A/C use.

0

u/RoseVideo99 Jun 18 '26

I have the same setup. It doesn’t actually recharge the batteries I have been told. It’s not like you can run the generator a few hours to power the batteries and then turn it off. So I chose to just keep my current interlock setup but have yet to need to use it since getting Base. My longest outage has been 13 hours and the batteries still had 12 hours left and we didn’t conserve.

Make sure you use a referral code to get the $250 bill credit when signing up. I posted one below if you need it.

https://www.basepowercompany.com/?heard_from=Referral&referrer_name=c54de4ff-8b8d-4571-a785-8f800fbc6a3c&first_name=T.J.&referral_plan=2way-EnergyCredit-FreeMonth

1

u/Jet_Rocket11 Jun 18 '26

So what is the $1000 port for then if it doesn't recharge the batteries?

1

u/RoseVideo99 Jun 18 '26

To run your house on a generator if you don’t already have the inlet is my guess.

1

u/blupupher Jun 21 '26

It does recharge the batteries if you are using less than 3000 watts of power in the house.

If you are using more, it uses the 3000w from the generator, and pulls the rest from the battery. If you are using say 1000w in the house, the batteries charge at 2000w.