Wildfire Electric Backup

[Mike90250]

You size the generator to power your critical loads, and switch everything else off. Set the ATS to manual. You get an hours warning or so before a PSPS, identify what circuits are critical, and only leave those on. Or get a big honking generator. November, several years ago, the electric AND natural gas was shut off in much of Mendocino county, there was an army of PG&E trucks taking days to relight all the pilots before gas could be restored.

[jasonvr]

You size the generator to power your critical loads, and switch everything else off. Set the ATS to manual. You get an hours warning or so before a PSPS, identify what circuits are critical, and only leave those on. Or get a big honking generator. November, several years ago, the electric AND natural gas was shut off in much of Mendocino county, there was an army of PG&E trucks taking days to relight all the pilots before gas could be restored.

My area is technically not a high risk fire area, but rather an area served by a line that crosses a high risk area, so I don't THINK my gas would go off (but who knows). Even when there was an active fire in the area and the evac zone ended a block from my house, the gas stayed on. I'm thinking it is fed from the direction that is generally opposite from where the fires are.

And as far as the PSPS warning, it'd be great if it worked like that, but it didn't. I got emails days before that I might be subject to a PSPS depending on conditions. At 9:30pm my power went off without warning and an hour later I got an email telling me my power was off....

Determining critical circuits could be fun as the wiring in my house seems a bit random (the house is almost 50 yrs old and has had a couple remodels). Certainly the pool pump isn't critical and I'd say besides the central air, it is the largest draw. I'd have to debate whether the central air is critical or not. We have a heat pump mini-split in the bedroom and if things got really warm, we could kinda live out of that room rather than firing up the central (we also have whole house fans for the evening)...

[solardreamer]

Adding onto this thread as I now find myself in a similar situation having just gone thru a 29 hour Public Safety Power Shutoff on Thanksgiving. Currently have a SolarEdge inverter with 19 panels - 6.27kW total - no batteries. Was hoping there was a way to add a generator (NG) to the setup while allowing me to use the solar while available (it was bright and sunny during the day while the power was off), but it seems as though that is impossible without batteries which I still don't think make economic sense at this point (payback vs lifespan doesn't make sense).

I think I have posted this info before but just in case. Depending on your SolarEdge model, generator paralleling can be supported via the Alternative Power Source feature (https://www.solaredge.com/sites/defa...ge-sources.pdf.) with some caveats. You may want to contact SE to check.

[jasonvr]

I think I have posted this info before but just in case. Depending on your SolarEdge model, generator paralleling can be supported via the Alternative Power Source feature (https://www.solaredge.com/sites/defa...ge-sources.pdf.) with some caveats. You may want to contact SE to check.

Unfortunately I have an SE6000A-US which I don't think supports that