Solar elecric panels are located on the roof of the house and garage. The solar electric panels are illuminated as shown in this simulation (electric panels are blue panels).

The electriity can be used for anything -- heating (via heat pump), cooling (ground loop and heat pump), baseline house electic needs, or for selling back to the grid.

The neighborhood is known for occasional power outages. The local building code requires a generator to ensure power for sump pumps in the basement. To minimize the operation of the generator, the house electrical system includes load-shedding. This drops lower priority loads to enable infrequent but heavy loads (e.g. sump pumps) to operate while keeping the total power draw to within reasonable bounds -- so the generator can stay off and the house can draw power from the solar intertie (and batteries), until the batteries run low.

This single line diagram for electrical power feeds shows how power comes in at the garage, where the solar intertie and code-mandated generator are located. Three feeds from the garage (grid, generator and intertie) go to the house, where an automatic load shedder allows house loads to be divided into:

• Critical loads, powered from either intertie or generator
• Infrequent Critical loads, powered on demand from either intertie or generator, at the expense of medium priority loads
• Medium priority loads, powered from generator (if opertating) or from intertie if no infrequent critical loads exist
• Non-critical loads, powered from the grid only