Is it wise to connect Solar Power into a wall outlet, rather than directly at a breaker?
Is it wise to connect Solar Power into a wall outlet, rather than directly at the MDP breaker, for a grid-tied system? The reason I ask is, I am out of panel space here at the apartment I am renting. I would put a DC disconnect before the inverter, and a resettable fuse after the inverter (before the wall outlet). But I still want to know (code issues and anything you wish to rant about ... please let me know) if there would need to be any power conditioning equipment required ... etc?
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Just make it safe for all……..now and later. Esp. kids. Good luck, and enjoy it.
since you stated that live in a rented apartment you should talk to the landlord for legal reasons.
there must always be a disconnect between the sorce and the outlet.good luck.
as long as the circuit breaker is off and no one has access to it but you, so it won’t be accidentally turned on.
as long as you don’t over load your circuit i.e matching wire size to over current protection device
the weak link sounds like the receptacle, (worn contacts, degraded, loose connections) change it with a new one and make sure it is rated the same amperage as the breaker in the MDP, if the circuit is a 20A and the receptacle is only rated 15A then you can only use a breaker rated at 15A on the back feed.
wrap the wire around the screw type or saddle clamp type receptacle not the push in crap. make it tight, that includes wire nuts…loose connections cause fires.
and i would use a DC rated circuit breaker to protect the inverter instead of just a manual disconnect and an AC rated circuit breaker for equal to or less than the lowest ampacity item in the circuit.
From a purely logical standpoint I don’t see why you could not do this. As long as the panels are not capable of producing 110v @ greater than the amperage rating of the circuit you are connecting to, why not. You certainly could not provide enough power to run your entire home through one breaker circuit, though. If your plug circuit is on a 15 amp breaker you should be able to connect a solor panel of up to 15 amps (that would be pretty large array, I think).
Can’t imagine that would be a safe thing to do.
If your intent is to back-feed your whole apartment your breaker size for the wall outlet circuit may be limiting. Look at the different breaker sizes in your box. Also, your wires are sized for appropriate loading.
no
I cannot add any more to Eaglewatcher’s answer..