Remote Trip question

[LilMT]

I have an off grid prewired system MNEMS4448PAECL250 that I absolutely love.

My solar panels are ground mounted and have a local combiner/disconnect.

What I would like to do is set up an emergency system shutdown that would open the following breakers:

Main Battery Shutoff - currently MNEDC175 Breaker - I think
PV Input breaker currently - MNEDC60-300 PV - I think
PV output breaker currently - MNEDC70 - I think
AC input breaker currently a 30A 2 pole not certain of the part number.

All of this is based on the diagram from Midnite Solar I am currently not at the box so cannot verify for now.

I would like to be able to do this so as to provide a single point of shutdown in case of emergency (thinking a fire or something as catastrophic).  This is not necessarily used to save the equipment but to disconnect all potential loads that might be headed into the house.

My system has been inspected and approved by the local electrical inspector, but he suggests I investigate the feasibility of a single point of shutdown.  And I like to idea as well.

I was thinking that if I could swap the above breakers out with some kind of remote trip breakers and a big red 48V emergency kill switch that would activate all of the RT breakers from my battery bank.  Kinda like the old birdhouse just less finesse. 

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[boB]

Great questions.

I do not think we have remote trip AC breakers ?   

Do you have grid coming into the inverters that would pass through their relays ?

The pass-through AC relays in the inverter would shut off when the battery breaker trips off.

Is there a reason that would not work ?

Will let the others comment on the rest for the moment.

boB

[LilMT]

The only AC I have coming in would be from a generator that is remote start from the Magnasine AGS.  Not cert what would happen if battery main was disconnected while generator was running.  I think the relay for the 2-wire start would open and the generator would shut down.

If, however (A very unlikely situation), it was a manual start at the generator when something happened the generator would continue to run and I believe the Inverter (when powered down) sets itself to AC bypass, so any AC inbound continues into the house.  I helped a neighbor once with and emergency battery swap in the middle of the night.  His system is very similar to mine.  We manually started the gen, opened the Battery disconnect and the inverter stayed powered while providing line voltage to the house through the inverter, even though the invert was disconnected from the batteries.

Even if I could not find RT AC breakers, but I could the rest, I think I would be happy with the solution.  Worse case would be the big red button and a simple Nema 3R rated AC disconnect. ??maybe 

[boB]

Yeah, I don't think you would have any issue.

I was thinking of a relay with its contacts connected to the generator AC output to inverter input and coil engaged if the battery is on to the inverter BUT then that coil would normally always be on and you probably don't want that.

There may be some other ways to make that work ?

Or, just know exactly how it is always going to work and make sure nothing else happens ?

Something like that ?

boB

[LilMT]

I like the relay idea and I could probably make that work.  Thinking about it, my new gen has a kill switch built in.  I will have to run through the schematics for the gen, but I think it is a DC circuit that if open, it will prevent the gen from starting.  In fact, once it has been opened the internal gen control lock the machine until faults are cleared.  Patch into that with a DCRT breaker.  Again, I will have to look at the schematics, but I would think a 5A 12V breaker.  hmmmm.

I was digging around last night, and I think I found an AC remote trip breaker from Carling in their H series breakers.  appears to be rated for AC or DC. AC @250V 50/60hz and up to 35A.  Problem is, if I am reading the spec right is that for a 2-pole breaker, it will take 3 spaces, the extra one for the RT terminals.  The other problem is that I am a complete idiot when it comes to decipher how to come up with the correct part number.