Hello everyone, Just joining in today so I'm not sure how this works so forgive me in advance if I flout any rules in my question below.

I just had a solar installation done in my house and I need a socket which can turn on at a particular time of the day e.g 8am to 4pm when on Solar energy. I also need same socket to turn on automatically if power from the grid enters the house at any other time and go off if power from the grid goes off anytime not within 8am to 4pm.

Right now, I have isolated a line which connects to a socket from the solar inverter, which means that only power from the main grid triggers that line to come on. Once power from main grid goes off, that socket goes off even when the other parts of the house immediately switch over to solar energy from the inverter.

I plugged a fridge on this socket so only the main grid powers this fridge. Main grid is epileptic in power supply. Now I want this fridge to come on irrespective of which is on (Main grid or Solar) by 8am to 4pm. Also, I want the fridge to be on if there's power from the main grid at anytime during the day automatically. So lets say this fridge comes on by 8am on solar energy but the main grid supplies power to the house by 2pm and power goes off by 7pm, I would expect the fridge would be on between the hours of 8am - 7pm.

I don't know if there's any solution out there as I have searched but seen none. Or if anyone can give direction on how to go about programming this e.g on andruino or anything else, I'd be happy.

Thanks..

 

Certainly there are ways to switch loads between power sources, but your description gets a bit confusing. Also, it is not clear why you would want the loads of any kind powered from the mains when solar power is available. (Unless you want to maximize charging batteries.
So I am going to suggest that just letting us know the goal as far as using solar power versus using mains power and how that relates to charging batteries, if there are batteries being charged. There is a whole lot of expert knowledge and experience available, but most of us are very poor at mind-reading . So the explanation of the goals instead of a proposed solution will help get good answers instead of guesses.

 

Hello everyone, Just joining in today so I'm not sure how this works so forgive me in advance if I flout any rules in my question below.

I just had a solar installation done in my house and I need a socket which can turn on at a particular time of the day e.g 8am to 4pm when on Solar energy. I also need same socket to turn on automatically if power from the grid enters the house at any other time and go off if power from the grid goes off anytime not within 8am to 4pm.

Right now, I have isolated a line which connects to a socket from the solar inverter, which means that only power from the main grid triggers that line to come on. Once power from main grid goes off, that socket goes off even when the other parts of the house immediately switch over to solar energy from the inverter.

I plugged a fridge on this socket so only the main grid powers this fridge. Main grid is epileptic in power supply. Now I want this fridge to come on irrespective of which is on (Main grid or Solar) by 8am to 4pm. Also, I want the fridge to be on if there's power from the main grid at anytime during the day automatically. So lets say this fridge comes on by 8am on solar energy but the main grid supplies power to the house by 2pm and power goes off by 7pm, I would expect the fridge would be on between the hours of 8am - 7pm.

I don't know if there's any solution out there as I have searched but seen none. Or if anyone can give direction on how to go about programming this e.g on andruino or anything else, I'd be happy.

Thanks..

I've made a powered relay to auto switch power to solar when the solar plug has line voltage. You need to switch both the neutral and line from both power sources (the solar inverter being a separately derived source) to the load to keep the single utility main panel earth/neutral bond secure and correct.

I use one of those TP-link remote controller plugs as the control point to the switch box. It has a relay inside to handle mainly resistive surge loads.
https://www.tapo.com/us/product/smart-plug/tapo-p125m/
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/tp-link-tapo-mini-smart-wi-fi-plug-p125m

Indicator and manual disable switch.

Solar is connected to the relay coils, when solar is energized it switches the lineout source. When solar is off then utility is routed through the relay. No idea where you could buy one commercially
but it's easy to build. I'm likely to modify it slightly to install a seperate energized utility interrupt relay to delay the switching slightly to reduce the possibility of arcing contacts on the transfer relay.

 

The wiring diagram is a challenge to follow, and the collection of little bits of circuit blocks makes following the function tedious.
If you are unwilling to create an actual circuit schematic drawing, I am even more unwilling to spend any time with tiny blocks of circuit elements.
For those who believe this is an acceptable way to provide circuit information, you have my pity, but no sympathy.

 

The wiring diagram is a challenge to follow, and the collection of little bits of circuit blocks makes following the function tedious.
If you are unwilling to create an actual circuit schematic drawing, I am even more unwilling to spend any time with tiny blocks of circuit elements.
For those who believe this is an acceptable way to provide circuit information, you have my pity, but no sympathy.

If that's a challenge then all I can say is, Wow, my bad for thinking most people could mentally connect a few clearly labeled lines with their electrical function names. Really, nobody asked you to follow it or spend time on it and where is your much superior diagram?

It's a simple transfer relay eagle cad design that a high schooler should be able to follow. It took longer to make the box cutouts for the switch, indicator and cords than to connect the internal wiring.
It's simply how most people design using PCB cad programs with very simple circuits. You modularized components with label netlists so you can move them around the schematic without a lot of interconnect wiring making it messy to place new components.
https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/pcb-3d-modelling-software.199442/post-1892489

If this was an actual electronic circuit (instead of a VERY simple electrical circuit), I would have used interconnect lines like on this PCB design.

 

OK, I see the issue, which is:"" It's simply how most people design using PCB cad programs " I NEVER EVER design circuits using PC board cad programs. Not EVER! But thanks for mentioning how these drawings come into existence.

The thought process is quite different in putting a circuit on a PC board. I have designed quite a few product PC boards, and in every case the circuit was thought out and designed prior to any board work. The random arrangement of snippets does not imply any signal path or flow. Using that drawing for service and diagnostics would be much slower.

Certainly the information required for an autorouter is quite different from the information needed to create a circuit to provide a specific set of functions. In addition, not every circuit is depicting items installed on a PC board. Think about how a panel builder would work from a drawing that required locating which components were connected. It would be slower and there would be omissions.

That circuit schematic shown in the example is not a very good example of a good circuit drawing either.

 

OK, I see the issue, which is:"" It's simply how most people design using PCB cad programs " I NEVER EVER design circuits using PC board cad programs. Not EVER! But thanks for mentioning how these drawings come into existence.

The thought process is quite different in putting a circuit on a PC board. I have designed quite a few product PC boards, and in every case the circuit was thought out and designed prior to any board work. The random arrangement of snippets does not imply any signal path or flow. Using that drawing for service and diagnostics would be much slower.

Certainly the information required for an autorouter is quite different from the information needed to create a circuit to provide a specific set of functions. In addition, not every circuit is depicting items installed on a PC board. Think about how a panel builder would work from a drawing that required locating which components were connected. It would be slower and there would be omissions.

That circuit schematic shown in the example is not a very good example of a good circuit drawing either.

Thank you Capt. Obvious. I'm still waiting for your superior drawing. There was absolutely no need to redraw that simple PCB one relay, plug and socket design into a pre-schoolers good circuit drawing with lines.

Your limited or NO experience in automated PCB design means you should have kept your non constructive comment to yourself.
I get that you were well meaning in your response but:
Please don't do it again on things you either don't understand or don't have experience on. It's a waste of space and time to reply to why your response(s) is a mostly invalid criticism.

 

Thank you Capt. Obvious. I'm still waiting for your superior drawing. There was absolutely no need to redraw that simple PCB one relay, plug and socket design into a pre-schoolers good circuit drawing with lines.

Your limited or NO experience in automated PCB design means you should have kept your non constructive comment to yourself.
I get that you were well meaning in your response but:
Please don't do it again on things you either don't understand or don't have experience on. It's a waste of space and time to reply to why your response(s) is a mostly invalid criticism.

Certainly posting disconnected snippets is not the best way to get help when one is trying to understand how a circuit should be functioning. Certainly a well organized circuit drawing will make it easier for even the very wisest and must experienced engineers to follow the flow and logic of a design. Much as language with grammar has conventions that facilitate understanding of the intended meanings, consider that not everybody finds it easy to immediately grasp the speaking of YODA.

There are actual advantages gained from conveying a question in the clearest and most concise way possible.

 

Certainly posting disconnected snippets is not the best way to get help when one is trying to understand how a circuit should be functioning. Certainly a well organized circuit drawing will make it easier for even the very wisest and must experienced engineers to follow the flow and logic of a design. Much as language with grammar has conventions that facilitate understanding of the intended meanings, consider that not everybody finds it easy to immediately grasp the speaking of YODA.

There are actual advantages gained from conveying a question in the clearest and most concise way possible.

Parsing the OP questions asked here is a chore I love. I don't see the OP complaining about it, only you my padawan.

 

I'm just going to say I'm not a fan of those PC board layouts. Don't run traces between pads if it can be avoided, and keep a reasonable if not generous spacing between pads/vias and non-connected traces if there are higher voltages or a need for isolation. I'll often sketch portions of the layout on paper first to optimize the orientation of components. Try turning off non-essential layers in the CAD to see a clearer view of the layout. Sometimes that will reveal misplaced segments of trace.