Off Grid Challenges and Issues

[Juan Sostheim]

Hello everyone,

I live and work in Costa Rica and am the founder of Rancho Margot a completely off the grid resort/community.

Power source: Hydro (inverted Canyon Pump); Gen. Marathon 60kwh; 3 phase. equipped with velocity controller.

Power enters the "main panel" 3 Hot and 1 Neutral, Main Panel is grounded with rods. From here we use 2 and 3 phase breakers to go to "other boxes" connecting Hot wires to the and running a Neutral wire along with the Hot wires to the next "other box", ALL "other boxes" have a ground rod attached so they are grounded.

Mi question is: Must I have a ground wire between the "other boxes" if each is grounded and the Neutral connection is correct. If I need a ground wire connected between boxes, then they would be "sub panels" but if I can avoid the connection then my second question is if I still take the Neutral wire to the ground ONLY at the Main Panel or would each box be considered now a Main Panel and ground and Neutral are bonded at each box.

I think it can be connected without a ground wire if all boxes are grounded but the Neutral wire should only be connected to ground at the Source Main Panel. In essence this would create a Grid were each of the "other boxes" represents a dwelling. Code is not the issue here, safety and functionality of the equipment are.

Any thoughts?

 

[Marvo]

Can you give more details about the layout? You have the main panel (main DB), other that supplying the SubDB's, what other circuits does it supply? Are the SubDB's all in completely separate buildings? How far apart are the buildings? Are there common services running between the buildings such as electrical circuits, alarm cabling, comms cabling?

I've given you full forum permissions so you can attach pictures as long as they're not too big (<500KB)

 

[PEG]

Hi dude,is your generation plant,driven by the hydro? What control system is employed,and does it include earth monitoring?

I feel we could "point" you in one direction or another,but you are definitely going to need direct,on-site assessment,to conclude aspects of distribution,post-generation.

Have you already installed the hydro part? If so,consideration must have been given to equipment downstream (forgive the pun:bow

We need much more information,mainly because it sounds so interesting!