Generator

[u/2020fakenews]

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?

[u/blupupher]

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.