Installed a $1,300 investment to avoid kicking myself in the head if the grid goes down.

[kjhall]

Have you tested it?
I have a similar setup but when we had a power outage, the truck would not allow the connection and would throw the breaker on the 30amp connection in the truck.
But when I hooked it up to generator the Generlink worked fine. Not sure why yet

Yes it works great. But I also got the disconnect problem when I first plugged in the Lightning.

To resolve it I had to disconnect the ground line between the generator plug (where the Lightning plugs in) and the Generac panel. The Lightning apparently doesn't like the bonded neutral (lots of discussion about this on the forum). The outlets are still grounded inside the panels, but the truck ground (how can it have a ground if it's on rubber??) is not connected.

Similarly, the Emporia charger showed an error (2 slow, 5 fast LED flashes), with continuous beeping when I plugged it into the off-grid inverter. Turns out it REQUIRES a bonded neutral. To resolve this I simply connected the neutral and ground from 14-50R plug together in the neutral connection on the inverter. Problem solved.

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[flyct]

Have you tested it?
I have a similar setup but when we had a power outage, the truck would not allow the connection and would throw the breaker on the 30amp connection in the truck.
But when I hooked it up to generator the Generlink worked fine. Not sure why yet

The reason it throws the breaker on the truck is the truck senses a ground fault because the Neutral and Ground are bonded together at your house by code.

If you disconnect the ground connection from your truck to the house generator inlet it would work and the truck’s breaker would not instantly trip. All your outlets and appliances in your house would still be grounded through your house wiring. All the GFCI outlets will still trip if they had a Ground Fault.

I’m not recommending you do this but talk to your electrician for advice.

 

[Maxx]

Being ready for outage is like taking an umbrella with you on a cloudy day. Umbrella ensures it will not rain.

I had multi day outage in middle of a winter right before I got the lightning. Then I rewired a few things so that I could easily heat the house and power the router/fridge/…. With a 220 extension cord/splitter. It has been 3 years and I have yet to have an outage long enough to justify plugging in.

 

[hajalie24]

That's interesting - how? That sounds like a good way damage something. The Lightning certainly is not expecting to be paralleled with another power source, and the PowerWall expects a grid connection that can source or load an very large amount of power (which the Lightning can not).

DC power supply connected to a "grid tied inverter"

 

[Henry Ford]

most of us will admit that having a utility power outage, for any 'extended' length of time, is very, very rare...so rare, in fact, that we rarely ever even 'plan' for it, since, well, the normal day-to-day life tends to help us rely on the basics that we have 24/7, without much thought, otherwise.

Tell me you don't live in Southeast Michigan without telling me you don't live in Southeast Michigan.

Next thing you'll say is roads are smooth, I bet.

 

[chriserx]

Have you tested it?
I have a similar setup but when we had a power outage, the truck would not allow the connection and would throw the breaker on the 30amp connection in the truck.
But when I hooked it up to generator the Generlink worked fine. Not sure why yet

Central AC would be the most likely candidate for this. If not that, the next thing I'd check would be a leg imbalance. It can power a total of 7200w but only 3600w per leg. Inverters will enforce this pretty strictly. Non inverter generators are more tolerant but not immune.

Edit: After reading all of the responses @flyct makes a good point about the ground, especially if it were immediate.

 

[chl]

Have you tested it?
I have a similar setup but when we had a power outage, the truck would not allow the connection and would throw the breaker on the 30amp connection in the truck.
But when I hooked it up to generator the Generlink worked fine. Not sure why yet

GFCI detected a ground fault.
If wired correctly through a neutral switching transfer switch (e.g., GENERAC 6853) I don't have that issue.
If you used a neutral switching transfer switch, then there may be a mis-wired neutral somewhere - I had that happen with one load neutral when I first tested mine - a lot of the load neutrals in the service panel were very close together so it was hard to figure out which was which.

 

[chl]

One quirk I forgot to mention with the GENRAC transfer switch used with the Lightning is if there is utility power available when you switch to or from the Lightning and the Lightning PPOB is enabled, it will trip the Lightning breaker due to an apparent small transient from the solenoid that actuates the switch.

Resetting the Lightning breaker clears the trip.

I and some other GENERAC Lightning owners have noticed this when testing.

See video the very end here when he switches back to utility and shows the Lightning screen:



PS: no need to ignore the code and disconnect the ground from the source (Lightning) to the loads.

 

[Mmiketa]

I set up my system to backfeed my whole house vs just a generator sub-panel. Had to deal with the fact that both the house is neutral-ground bonded, but I am an EE and made a decision and then discussed it with a few of my coworkers to make sure it was safe and I wasn't miscalculating anything before implementing. I've tested it in winter and since I have gas heat I can power the whole house off of 30A if I keep the big loads off. Cost me about $400 in hardware, I did all the work myself.

 

[kjhall]

One quirk I forgot to mention with the GENRAC transfer switch used with the Lightning is if there is utility power available when you switch to or from the Lightning and the Lightning PPOB is enabled, it will trip the Lightning breaker due to an apparent small transient from the solenoid that actuates the switch.

Resetting the Lightning breaker clears the trip.

I and some other GENERAC Lightning owners have noticed this when testing.

See video the very end here when he switches back to utility and shows the Lightning screen:



PS: no need to ignore the code and disconnect the ground from the source (Lightning) to the loads.

Thanks for the tip!

I'll try reconnecting the ground cable in the Generac generator cable receptacle and try the Lightning connection again.

 

[kjhall]

I set up my system to backfeed my whole house vs just a generator sub-panel. Had to deal with the fact that both the house is neutral-ground bonded, but I am an EE and made a decision and then discussed it with a few of my coworkers to make sure it was safe and I wasn't miscalculating anything before implementing. I've tested it in winter and since I have gas heat I can power the whole house off of 30A if I keep the big loads off. Cost me about $400 in hardware, I did all the work myself.

That was my dream, but we ditched propane and went all-in with electric about 11 years ago - geothermal heat pump, electric water heater, electric oven, solar array, etc. And it's been a great investment.

But it isn't feasible to power everything with just the Lightning, hence the sub-panel. I can power the geothermal heat pump, as well as much of the house lighting and some outlets with the Lightning.

 

[chl]

Thanks for the tip!

I'll try reconnecting the ground cable in the Generac generator cable receptacle and try the Lightning connection again.

No problem.

I'm an electrical engineer and the GFCI had me baffled since I knew everything was wired correctly.

Through trial and error and a lot of double-checking all the wiring I found the transient on the GEN connection line if I switched between utility and GEN when the utility had power - should not happen really, but only an issue with a sensitive GFCI like n the lightning.

Another person on this forum found the same thing and his electrician was baffled too.
They had a call in to GENERAC but I haven't heard what they said about it.

One other thing I just remembered, there was a loose unattached orange wire inside the transfer switch which had me worried, but then I saw on the GENERAC web site that it was a wire that would not be used with the manual transfer.

My switch above - from GENERAC web site FAQs below

 

[chl]

I set up my system to backfeed my whole house vs just a generator sub-panel. Had to deal with the fact that both the house is neutral-ground bonded, but I am an EE and made a decision and then discussed it with a few of my coworkers to make sure it was safe and I wasn't miscalculating anything before implementing. I've tested it in winter and since I have gas heat I can power the whole house off of 30A if I keep the big loads off. Cost me about $400 in hardware, I did all the work myself.

I am also an EE.
If you look it up you'll find the NEC 250.30 says when powering a dwelling, there has to be a continuous equipment ground from the separately derived system (a neutral switched bonded generator for example, like the Lightning).

See also the part about bonded generators in this video:

Remember, your truck chassis is bonded to the neutral of the 240V 30A output, then using your EE knowledge imagine what could go wrong (which is the whole reason the NEC exists in the first place).

 

[EVpower]

I have an EE question on the Generac panel. Does the transfer contactor do a make before break switch on the neutral conductors? If so, that might explain Pro Power on Board tripping on ground fault when the source is switched via the solenoid on the contactor vs. manual operation of the contactor.

Steve

 

[Mmiketa]

I am also an EE.
If you look it up you'll find the NEC 250.30 says when powering a dwelling, there has to be a continuous equipment ground from the separately derived system (a neutral switched bonded generator for example, like the Lightning).

See also the part about bonded generators in this video:

Remember, your truck chassis is bonded to the neutral of the 240V 30A output, then using your EE knowledge imagine what could go wrong (which is the whole reason the NEC exists in the first place).

I understand your point, and I agree that my install does not comply with the NEC which is why I am choosing to not go into details on this site or recommend to others. That being said, between the GFCI protection on the truck, and the path back to ground on the house I am confident in the safety of the system. I will remove it should I ever move out as I wouldn't want someone else utilizing it.

To add, when you have a switched neutral with a sub panel the NEC also requires you to drive a ground rod for that path to go back to ground which is indicated in your video. Do you think all of the people that bought the generac transfer switch/panel have also driven ground rods and bonded to the chassis of their trucks?

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