I have been designing everyone elses systems and finally get to design one for myself. We have had a 7 kW PV system for a while, and with the SMA Secure Power Supply at least we could do basic things while the sun was out. If the power was off, we ran an extension cord out to the PV ground mount and that would keep the refrigerator and computers alive.
We are out of power an average of 10 days per year, and it is always a huge pain. Just about everyone fires up the smelly gas generators and tries to run our lives off the bare minimum. Since I work in the industry, I paid the company I work with for this installation of 5 Batteries, and have SGIP to offset some of the cost. It has been great to be hands on from the first design decisions and to bring this vision to completion.
We are also on well water, and in a high fire danger zone so the power going out is extra dangerous. Since we were doing a lot of upgrades and needed a new service panel due to corroded aluminum bus bars, we decided to try for the 400A service upgrade along with 2 car chargers for our eventual second EV. I have lived for 3 years now with my EV, with nothing better than 120v charging at home. It will be nice to have a real charger now, but I charge mostly at work.
I signed my contract in Sep 2020 and submitted my paperwork to PGE immediately after I got approval from the county about a month later. I ran the load calculations for my ranch plus the 2 new car chargers and it came to 226A. The city pushed back a little on that large service but eventually approved the permit.
PGE was a massive delay, due to the requested 400A upgrade requiring a transformer evaluation. I was initially told 4-5 months for this evaluation, starting in February 2021. I just now have the PGE starting the scheduling process, and now the wait begins for the crews to actually connect the new 400A service you see on the wall. I next wait 6-8 weeks for the firm date of the shutdown. I am just thankful that a transformer upgrade wasn't required.
After that, I will have about a day when much of the ranch is without power while the installers reconfigure the old distribution system. It hasn't been touched in 50 years, and needs some loose ends brought up to code.
It is currently waiting for PGE lineman to complete, but the majority of the system is installed. I'm pretty happy with how it came out, the guys will paint the conduit to match my bright house once the last conduit to the Signature Gen 2 HPWC is installed.
We are out of power an average of 10 days per year, and it is always a huge pain. Just about everyone fires up the smelly gas generators and tries to run our lives off the bare minimum. Since I work in the industry, I paid the company I work with for this installation of 5 Batteries, and have SGIP to offset some of the cost. It has been great to be hands on from the first design decisions and to bring this vision to completion.
We are also on well water, and in a high fire danger zone so the power going out is extra dangerous. Since we were doing a lot of upgrades and needed a new service panel due to corroded aluminum bus bars, we decided to try for the 400A service upgrade along with 2 car chargers for our eventual second EV. I have lived for 3 years now with my EV, with nothing better than 120v charging at home. It will be nice to have a real charger now, but I charge mostly at work.
I signed my contract in Sep 2020 and submitted my paperwork to PGE immediately after I got approval from the county about a month later. I ran the load calculations for my ranch plus the 2 new car chargers and it came to 226A. The city pushed back a little on that large service but eventually approved the permit.
PGE was a massive delay, due to the requested 400A upgrade requiring a transformer evaluation. I was initially told 4-5 months for this evaluation, starting in February 2021. I just now have the PGE starting the scheduling process, and now the wait begins for the crews to actually connect the new 400A service you see on the wall. I next wait 6-8 weeks for the firm date of the shutdown. I am just thankful that a transformer upgrade wasn't required.
After that, I will have about a day when much of the ranch is without power while the installers reconfigure the old distribution system. It hasn't been touched in 50 years, and needs some loose ends brought up to code.
It is currently waiting for PGE lineman to complete, but the majority of the system is installed. I'm pretty happy with how it came out, the guys will paint the conduit to match my bright house once the last conduit to the Signature Gen 2 HPWC is installed.
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