Grid tie in with Solar Panels and Off Grid with Solar Panels and Diesel gen.

[Tango Zulu]

She'd go in the kitchen and make me a sandwich. The way God intended.
Your reading comprehension skills are in severe need of improvement Sunboy.

[neweclipse]

So, did you see the BEST answer for your question, when it was put before you? It was not perfect answer, but it was the BEST.

[Mike90250]

Thanks for the responses.

Let me back up a bit and ask this: Would it be possible to have an offgrid system that runs on a diesel engine and solar panels alone? Without a battery bank?

Possible only with some very stringent engineering and load controls, and then it's quite likely the panels will fry the diesel generator anyway, as loads vary.

It'a actually the opposite of wasting of money. At least in my situation. I already have an MEP831A diesel generator. It is rated at only 3kw however. Not enough to power the whole house. I love the damn thing (yanmar diesel in a quite enclosure) and have no intention of changing it for a larger more expensive diesel unit or a larger cheap gas unit. That's why I was hoping I could power the whole house by increasing the installed power output through solar panels but not having to buy batteries. If its not doable then that's that - I am not going to spend the money to buy a larger generator only for convenience.

Just seems a little counter productive to have to shut down the solar panels during a power outage and run on the diesel alone unless I have a battery bank.

Sadly, that's the way it works. Technically, it could be done, but nobody wants the liability - your diesel fried my inverters.....