Main / off grid - switch over

[moominmama]

been a busy few months with end less job hunting, it is not good out there.....i have actually decided to take a bit of a break from it as i am finding it all a bit too dispiriting, nearly had a new job - was waiting for contract (had already agreed start start verbally on the phone when they offered me job on Wednesday) when I got the email on Friday to say they had decided to close department and make everyone in department redundant! Spending so long on applications, and interview preparation only to find posts are being with drawn or that am going up against internal candidates....

thankfully we leave frugally and i had been been with employers with long enough to get good pay off.

so planning on sorting out and getting things done this week.

we have a solar panel and battery system, which I am very pleased with, however in the event of the electricity grid going down our system goes down as well. I am aware that you can retrospectively install a 'switch' so that in the event of a power cut you can switch your system over to go off grid so you can still have electricity.

does anyone have any experience of doing this, and if so how much did it cost? and who did you get to do it? I contacted a number of local electricians who said they had no idea as never done this, and our system installer is no longer in business. I am a bit reluctant to ask other system installer as it was not a positive experience trying to get quotes for our installation of our current system in the first place, and I would like a ball part idea of price before contacting anyone.

Thanks.

[jennyjj01]

Good luck with the job hunting.

It sounds like you have a grid tied system with battery reservoir. Unfortunately, those things wont invert up to mains in the absence of grid mains. You'll need at least a new inverter solution,
Technically, what you need is pretty simple, but good luck finding anyone to convert and work on your system as they fear falling foul of the regs.