How To Install a Sub Panel for Emergency Backup Power - Anker SOLIX F3800 Home Power Panel

Thx a lot for the vid.
The CTs should be facing towards the panel not the grid.

We are planning totally off grid. If we use the Anker power panel - with two F3800's, what will that schematic look like? No grid in.
Pairing 3800's is done through the Power panel

Great idea EMP proof

Good job. Like it that you do not talk 100/hr. Hi to the Mrs.

This was very interesting and you explain things very well so people can understand. Thank you.

Lol, I love that you left your wife on the right side of the screen even though her part was done. 😂 Great wife!

I was under the impression all conduit ran inside was to be metal for grounding reasons.

I like you using the screw lugs instead of the crimp on connectors. That way a DIY Does not have to have the special tool required to crimp the connector on to the end of the large gage wire. Nice personal touch, that your son and wife was there with you.

Typical husband.... just leave the wife standing there.

Ben, I like the idea of using the lugs instead of the crimp connectors, I don't think I would have thought of this. I have been researching this particular setup for a few days now for a customer that can't use a generator and I'm glad I ran across your video. He wants backup power for his computer system and a few other things but it needs to be bigger than just a regular UPS. This may very well be the solution he is looking for. I'm glad you showed how it operates after you showed the installation. I like your work.

Yer an artist

Hi, great vid! 2 questions: 1.) Can you use other batteries with the solix? 2.) Has installing the lugs instead of the crimp ends essentially replaced ferrules? I dont see them in electrical dept. anymore... Old school diy-er...

question..... if you have a service box with a shut off switch and it is bonded. and you have a main box inside the house and connect a generator on it with a back feed and lock out switch. when you shut off the main box switch will the bonding on the service box still be good for the generator system ???????? or do you have to turn off the switch on the service box too.

“My OCD nature often times costs me a lot of time”

“I’m going off of memory from a measurement I took yesterday”

So which one is it? OCD or wing it?

Loved this video. Would you mind making one on the rooftop solar integration feature? I bought this system, and have existing rooftop solar, but my electrician doesn't think the rooftop solar will work when the grid power is down

Seems to be simpler if everything would just run off a battery generator at all times, and the battery just charges from the available energy, be it solar, turbine, and or grid. Then, when the power does fail, it wouldn't even be noticed until the battery is depleted. At least that's what I would want. I'd also want to get off the grid entirely by having my power managed to only use battery power and it is recharged by solar, wind, and or water turbines. These power companies have been stealing from customers long enough and it is time the consumers have the "power" to fight back. See what I did there ?

As for Nolox, or whatever, I say just avoid aluminum wire completely. If you plan to buy a house, and cannot afford to rewire it, either stipulate they give you a rewire allowance, require them to rewire it, or don't buy the house. Learned that the hard way too. In a condo.

It's nice to have "little helpers"

With the rise of these batteries and such, I am getting away from combining grounds and neutrals, regardless if it main box or not. They should be separated just for an extra layer of safety assurance.

Curious where you are. The information box says this was a month ago and you showed snow... It's been like summer last month here, which was April, as it is now May and up to 90 F degrees now.

I've had a few problems with these wire clamps too. I think they changed the design. In my case, I'd tighten them down and the entire wire broke. Imagine not knowing or even thinking of that and trying to trouble shoot why something isn't working when put all back together. So yeah, another something that has been changed, because someone wasn't happy and had to fix something that wasn't broken, causing new problems for the rest of us. Oy vey !

Bigger boxes behoove the consumer. Always better to have more room than you need, than not enough. Also, for future where you might need more room.

One of the things I have been trying to figure out about this sort of setup is when running two F3800's. If I want to charge from directly connected solar, would each 3800 need its own set of solar panels, or would 3800 #1 share charge with #2?

Nice job. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

Try buying colored electrical tape next time and just phasing the wires. A lot cheaper than buying 100 feet of white wire. I’m an electrician and trust me it’s code. All you have to do is mark the wire with the appropriate color. Also, these units are only running about 25 or 30 A. I ran number six and put it on a 70 amp breaker instead of running number four for 100 amp breaker

You should use antioxidant regardless. And definitely it’s aluminum wire. You should really stop giving people bad information. I’ve been an electrician 30 years.

The black coating on that wire is specifically made to be cut off so its a black or white wire. That's why it's just a thin cover nit actual insulation.

Any issues since installing?

If the main does nit get turned off how are you not backfeeding to the grid in a power outage ? We would be using a interlock kit in a portable generator set up , another question is do you have to add a sub panel ? You can't just hook it up to a main breaker box ?

Great video. Very informative and enjoyable to watch. You provide many good tips for doing this type of work.

I need to connect a smart home panel, however all of the videos and diagrams have the current transformers on one of two wires. All showing a 200amp circuit.

My house has 4 wires as the 200 amps are spread across the multiple 100amp circuits. No matter what I attach the L1 current transformer to, the system tells me it’s not connected. Any idea how to fix this or what it should be connected to?

I’m not an electrician so I don’t really know. …….. Can you spray paint the blk cable to white? Just a thought.

In the app…. Can you set an alarm that will tell you when it switches to the backup power?

How long are the wires on those current clamps? I'm seriously considering this unit but I don't have room within 10-15' of my main panel to install the home power panel.

You explain things very clearly.
I’m looking forward to see how you extend the wiring to the new panel

Shouldn't the Anker app, on both of your phones, send you a message saying the grid power is out and you're now on battery?

Good video, the Anker F3800 system is decent. I have two F3800's and 6 BP3800 expansion batteries and a Home Power Panel... so I am speaking from experience. Unfortunately I would not buy again because but they essentially have no customer service. And when they do firmware upgrades, they don't know the changes in specs. And they don't ship anywhere near their promised shipping and delivery time. But as for support, each call or chat takes hours and each response it automatic and says they will reply in 2 days... even for the most basic questions. So unless you're a solar expert, don't count on ANKER for any help unless you have a ton of patience.

You explained things in a way that even I feel like i can do it... granted, i'd probably electrocute myself

could you use 2 anker panels and 2 F3800 (one for each panel) and those panels would have 1 sub-panel each.. essentially doubling how many circuits would be in backup mode ?

Thank you for this video. This is the best explanation I’ve seen. Could you have installed the larger circuits on the sub-panel if you wanted, or should the should it be limited to 120 circuits when using the home panel? I have a couple sub-panels I would like to access through the backup mode, but turn off as desired.

Great video.. Can I ask roughly how many hours it took to set up the whole system? Looking to install something similar but not an electrician so curious how much more to add to the budget to pay someone smart enough to do the install. Keep up the good work

You stated that the Anker has a maximum 50 amp output thru the sub panel.. But I noticed that the main breaker on your sub panel is 100 amp. But the panel in the parts list is a 125 amp Square D panel. Did you change the main breaker or is this a different panel or does it matter ?

Also, I gave a 3,000 sq ft house and the electrician used 38 circuits. Any suggestions how to get this down to 50 amps with such a wide spread of usage ?

@B.S. very good video, fun to watch showing real world family at play, BTW i know this is an old video however during a power outage you can also backup your main panel with your main backup power source it just needs to sense power coming from the grid side of the CT’s, so you can setup a transfer switch to like a generator source even if its a small 240v power station to trick the system, your main backup power source will backfeed the main panel as long as it detects power coming in for it to sync to that power source, OR another easier way is to setup an interlock kit on the main panel and backfeed the main panel from the sub panel (thats what i did), however its not a legal setup (well no electrical codes for sub panel feed main) the first way is more involve but they are codes for transfer switch, the sub backfeeding main was much simpler and it works.

Good morning. What size conduit did you use? Thanks.

Which camera and lens are you using? Congratulations on the video

Do you think you could use the home power panel without a sub panel and put the backup side wires back to your main panel?

I'm confused by Anker's instructions, it says to point the Current Transformer clamps towards the source of the power, like in your video, but if you look at their instruction manual all 3 are pointed down, or towards the panel. Wouldn't L1 and/or L2 point up towards the power source?

What happens if my main panel has a 200a breaker? what do I need to do?

So I have a question... Why did you choose to use stranded wire instead of solid wire? I am getting ready to install an inlet box for my generator and I picked up solid wire. I chose to use 10 gauge solid for the 30 amp circuit I'll be running. Are you supposed to use stranded?

Good idea electric emp Shield for your circuit breaker,😊

I believe they use the 100 amp feeding the home panel is if you use two F3800 units. 🤷‍♂️

Its an awesome system so far from what you've shown. The concern I have , is app based management systems get outdated, or the vendor bankrupts / stops supporting version X of the app. Not compatible with Android/Iphone version XYZ.

Unless it has an open-source app, or a dedicated web interface that is available regardless of devices, its a no from me, regardless how cool it is.

Nice presentation. What size conduit did you use to run the 3 awg wiring from the main panel to the HPP to the sub panel?