I like Reliance Controls products. Home depot has a good selection on line. I would recommend getting one with as many circuits as you can afford.
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Sounds like a plan! Have a good one!
Hi Scott, I contacted a licensed electrician and he can install an interlock switch and a 50amp 220v socket for me but he said I would have to plug in a 220v generator for it otherwise it would not work. I have a sub panel inside the house which has a breaker for 220v AC. I do not need to turn on AC but can I plug in ac200 to the 220v socket outside and have it feed the power into the subpanel inside my house? I only need to use ac200 to power some of my 110v appliances and lights. TIA.
Tell you electrician that you can buy a cord (See Below) that bridges both 120 volt incoming wires to your house. By plugging in this cord to the ac200 you will have power to all the 120 volt circuits to your house with the setup you described. You do not need to have 220 volts going into your house with this cord but you will only be able to use the 120 volt circuits. You can still plug a 220 volt generator into the same socket at any time and also use 220 volt and all circuits
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Hi Scott, That is great to hear but I would like to confirm something with you. Most of my commonlt used appliances are fed by the subpanel I have inside the house. This subpanel is fed by a 220v breaker from the main panel. Thus I need to turn on this 220v breaker in the main panel when I plug in my ac200 to the 50amp socket next to the main panel. Would I be able to still get the 110v breakers power in my subpanel this way? TIA.
As I understand your setup, yes that should still work but check with your electrician to verify. The electrician should set up your input socket the same way he would if was installing it for a backup gas generator to connect to. He may need to install the input socket in a different position depending on each users setup. The good thing about the AC200 is that you can even install the input socket indoors if it makes sense to do so in a particular setup.
The adapter cable above is used simply to allow all your 120 volt circuits to receive power even though you are feeding them with a single 120 volt input. In actual use, you will also need to turn off the breakers from all 220 volt circuits in the home before you turn on the power from the AC200 or other source.
See the picture of my main panel attached. The breaker slots 17 and 19 are for my subpanel which needs 240v. Thus I will have to flip on this 240v breaker when I plug in ac200. Will my subpanel still get the power to power my 110v appliances? Thanks
I think so, but…I am not an expert.
Thanks Scott. You are right that with the adapter you showed, it should just work.
Well, finally got my setup up and running! Electricians were here today and we tested it out. Works like a charm, ready for the next power outage!! Not the best picture but hopefully you can see the transfer switch on the right with the 2 pigtails, one which is connected to the Bluetti.
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Pretty cool. That is one of my fav things about the AC200. It can connect to your home circuits
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Outstanding! Wish our building contract allowed this kind of setup.
Yeah, I’m pretty happy with the setup. They actually put 2 pigtails on and said I could connect both of my Bluetti’s (I have an AC200 and a 200P) if needed.
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That looks like exactly what I want to do. It would be a lot nicer than having extension cords running everywhere. One question. Can you just turn off grid to 1 or 2 rooms now? I wouldn’t mind being able to use my 200P to save a few bucks on our power bill.
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You could do that, but you would need to install a multiple circuit transfer switch. For example if you had a 12 circuit transfer switch, you would connect those 12 circuits to 12 circuits in your breaker panel that you chose. If one of those circuits supplied the refrigerator and another supplied your TV, you could switch just those two circuits to the “AC200” supply feed simply bu placing that transfer switch circuit in the “generator” position. There are three positions for each transfer switch. Generator / Off / Main Power. Selecting the source is a simple as moving the switch to the desired setting.
I have a transfer switch on my outside panel for my well. It’s just for that. My inside panel is where this will go. I’m going to have a electrician price it out for me. It just seems that everything would be so much neater than extension cords everywhere. Plus, I’d like to get some use out of this besides just emergencies.
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I hope there is still some people monitoring this thread, it’s covering the subject I’m struggling with right now, hooking up a AC200Max to be battery backup system for the house.
I have a L14-30 Box for my generator if the power goes out. It’s wired similarly to the way Scott-Benson wired his house, cut the main power from the grid and switch over to the generator. This is wired into my main, outdoor panel. I’ve used it for my 6000watt gas generator and it worked well.
I found an adapter to take RV plug (120v/30amp) on the AC200Max to the L14-30 box, so no problem plugging into the same outlet used for the gas generator. However, my critical house components during a blackout is my well pump and pressure tank. The submersible well pump is a 230v appliance that can draw 1200watts during normal use, probably a 2400 watt surge at startup. Amps are probably between 8 - 10 which may get up over 20 amps at startup (the well pump is on a 40amp circuit, however, it probably only needs 30amp). The 20gln pressure tank is on a 120v / 20 amp circuit so probably a sub 300 watt load when working (it only kicks on briefly to fill the tank every so often).
Long story short, I wanted to see if I could hook up two AC200Max (or an AC200 and AC300) and double my output voltage and watts so I could run the well pump. I thought I might be able to use the AC300 Split Phase Fuse Box (Fusion Box Pro – BluettiPower), but not sure. Bluetti’s Smart Home Panel (Smart Home Panel – BluettiPower) may also be an option if two AC200’s can hook into it.
The idea is to have a backup to the generator so I still have water. In my mind, it’s worth the money to have two AC200 or AC300, or a combination thereof, for this capability. However, this only works if I can get 240v and double the inverter wattage to get the well pump going.
Any thoughts or suggestions? Any info on the Split Phase Fuse Box and/or Smart Home Panel being usable with AC200’s? Thanks for your thoughts an suggestions.
-Matt
I may have answered my own questions, so I’m posting for future reference.
The Split Phase Fuse Box and Smart Home Panel allow two EP500’s or AC300’s to be “joined” together so you can double your voltage to 240v and wattage to 4000 or 6000 depending on which models you own. This appears to be possible through the programming of the units themselves. The Fuse Box and Home Panel both come with a data cable that is used to join the two separate units. Then, one unit is programmed to be the master unit which controls both units as if they were one. This programming is the necessary component to allow the two separate units to act as one for doubling the voltage and wattage.
To use two AC200’s in the same manner my assumption is you would need a separate inverter which could then take the output of both AC200’s and convert it into 240v and 4400 max wattage. Thus, I would probably need to buy a 5000 watt inverter and then plug two AC200 into that. The Inverter could then be plugged into my main panel and problem solved. I could probably use the DC outputs on the AC200s if the inverter can convert 12v to up to 240v (most can).
Thoughts?
The dc outputs of the ac 200 are limited to a max of 25 amps ea. This would limit the power of your connected ( to these dc outputs) 220 volt inverter to around 500 watts maximum which is not near enough for your needs
A transfer switch can work all of the home circuits together. It is simpler than the interlocking system because you don’t have to touch any of the original breakers in the main panel. I have installed a 100 A transfer switch between my utility master breaker and the main panel in 1995. I survive Hurricane Maria in 2017 because I had a 5 KW 240 VAC Onan generator that kept my home powered for seven weeks.
Now I have a new 7.2 kW 240 VAC Firman tri-fuel generator, and I am waiting for Bluetti to send me my dual AC300 controllers with two B300 batteries and the Fusion box. I will add solar panels later because I can get a great price locally (less than 50 cents per watt). The transfer switch was upgraded with a 120 VAC relay and audio alarm that will notify me when utility power returns.