Turning off all power for electrical maintenance for your house

[SolarBob]

This may seem like a rather stupid question. I have 48 panels and 2 PW's. When the power goes out the house keeps running.

My question is when I am having electrical maintenance performed, adding circuit breakers, running a new circuit, fixing a breaker, how do I turn off all the power so the maintenance can be performed. I have two circuit breaker boxes with two breakers for each box, and 2 breakers for my A/C installed by Tesla.

I don't want anyone to get hurt or damage my system. We are going to add a 3rd A/C that requires a new circuit breaker and power line.

What is the right way to turn it all off, no backup, and then turn it all back on once the new Breaker and Circuit is installed.


Thanks

 

[dhrivnak]

No need to turn it all off and any good electrician should be able to isolate the area being worked on so that it is safe.

 

[getakey]

Any good electrician that's still alive

 

[BGbreeder]

No need to turn it all off and any good electrician should be able to isolate the area being worked on so that it is safe.

I think that the operative word here is "good". Lots of electricians have stories about flipping a breaker and thinking that they have the circuit de-energized, and then finding out the hard way it wasn't due to some error. (Wrong breaker label/back feed/miswiring...) Have a look over on inspectopedia or Mike Holt's forum. Your electrician shouldn't be touching busbars, but accidents happen. I think that a "good" electrician should be double checking everything always.

You have three sources of electricity; grid, PV, batteries. Some may/will have multiple breakers.

My overwhelming advice is to remind your electrician that you have multiple power sources, and to let the professional in the room do what they believe is appropriate. If something goes sideways, I suspect that the last thing you want is for the electrician to say "well, I did what the owner told me to and then it blew up..."

 

[Electrph]

As above should be able to isolate individual circuits being worked on with ind breakers
If really need complete shut down systems vary but for Tesla gateway system shut off solar at inverter / shut off breakers in gateway to solar and batteries / shut off main breaker from utility
then CHeCK circuit you will work on with meter
As stated above hard to miss all the warning labels of tri power source
agree with @BGbreeder I would remind them of batteries in particular .. prob not encountered as often

 

[jjrandorin]

There are two things being asked here, actually.

I agree with @dhrivnak , that it is highly unlikely an electrician would need to turn off power to your entire home to complete the work you want to do. What needs to be turned off or not depends on whether the new AC is going in the backup loads side or not. The electrician installing that should be able to determine where that circuit is, and what needs to happen.

I also agree with @BGbreeder and @Electrph (who both are posting while I am typing this, lol) that "let the professional determine what to do, just inform them of your multiple sources.

Saying that, thats also not quite the question you asked. This is how I would turn everything off at my home (PV + 2 powerwalls)

• push rocker switch on each powerwall, to turn them off
• Turn off breaker to each powerwall, which should be labelled in a load center, or TEG gateway 2 if thats where they are.
• Turn Switch on solar inverter (s) to off position. Varies by solar inverter where this might be, or if micro inverters may not be accessable
• Turn breaker for PV system to off position in the load center (breaker box) that contains it. It should be labelled

Reverse this process to turn the PV and Storage back on. Whether you need to do all this is another question, but I am attempting to help you with the "how" part of the question.

 

[Electrph]

There are two things being asked here, actually.

I agree with @dhrivnak , that it is highly unlikely an electrician would need to turn off power to your entire home to complete the work you want to do. What needs to be turned off or not depends on whether the new AC is going in the backup loads side or not. The electrician installing that should be able to determine where that circuit is, and what needs to happen.

I also agree with @BGbreeder and @Electrph (who both are posting while I am typing this, lol) that "let the professional determine what to do, just inform them of your multiple sources.

Saying that, thats also not quite the question you asked. This is how I would turn everything off at my home (PV + 2 powerwalls)

• push rocker switch on each powerwall, to turn them off
• Turn off breaker to each powerwall, which should be labelled in a load center, or TEG gateway 2 if thats where they are.
• Turn Switch on solar inverter (s) to off position. Varies by solar inverter where this might be, or if micro inverters may not be accessable
• Turn breaker for PV system to off position in the load center (breaker box) that contains it. It should be labelled

Reverse this process to turn the PV and Storage back on. Whether you need to do all this is another question, but I am attempting to help you with the "how" part of the question.

You forgot the grid power …. Zap !

 

[jjrandorin]

You forgot the grid power …. Zap !

Lol... I actually noticed that when I was re reading what I wrote, so was going to add that in as the last bullet, but then was going to need to re write / add to the text after the bullet, and then thought... " multiple people already mentioned this is likely not needed, so me putting it here will make it look needed".

 

[jrweiss98020]

YOU should also be able to find and open the circuit breakers from your PV panels/inverter and your Powerwall! There is also an On/Off switch on each Powerwall.