What would happen if you plug this into a Rivian vehicle 120v outlet?

[VandalSibs]

In that case, it really is JUST A PIPE. There are no electronics in the grid, meaning anything more complex than a transformer. As long as no DC is involved at all, transformers are 100% bidirectional. A transformer is a coil for the low voltage side that is near/around the coil for the HV side. They can go flow in both directions.

Microinverters generally don't work in power outages nor off grid, because they need to sync to the grid power. You can buy some made to stand alone, but not the common ones.

So even the plug-in solar systems/panels feed into the grid? For such a system to be powering my home first, would more equipment be needed?

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[SwampNut]

So even the plug-in solar systems/panels feed into the grid? For such a system to be powering my home first, would more equipment be needed?

I believe you're misunderstanding something, not sure what, but let me try this...

The backfeed systems ALL depend on incoming power, before providing power. There are a ton of reasons for this, safety is a top one. I can go into details if someone cares. You don't need any more equipment in order to supplement your existing grid power. But if you want power during outages or off grid, you need OTHER inverters or a system to trigger your microinverters. I don't have knowledge of the practical uses of the latter, just theory.

Make sense?

 

[VandalSibs]

I believe you're misunderstanding something, not sure what, but let me try this...

The backfeed systems ALL depend on incoming power, before providing power. There are a ton of reasons for this, safety is a top one. I can go into details if someone cares. You don't need any more equipment in order to supplement your existing grid power. But if you want power during outages or off grid, you need OTHER inverters or a system to trigger your microinverters. I don't have knowledge of the practical uses of the latter, just theory.

Make sense?

Enough, I think...

I'll never turn down a detail explanation from someone with more knowledge than me, but I also don't want to take a person's time away from them if they need it for something else (and the hardest place to see if someone has free time or not is on the internet!).

 

[SwampNut]

I often post her while waiting for servers to do things, or while on a boring call. This one of those days.

Really it comes to three things:

"Suicide plugs" are super dangerous if they are left live. This is a male plug end with power, so the exposed metal is live. When you unplug the balcony systems, they cut power. The plug ends have no power.

Linemen have been killed by backfed power. You never want the load side of the grid to have power. When these systems lose power, they stop adding power, no backfeed.

The frequency and sine wave sync on the line is critical and having an offset frequency is very bad. The grid doing a black start has some real challenges, this being one of them. Having your solar go from off grid to on is challenging. The entire premise of our residential split-phase power (outside of NYC) is that the voltage is the differential of the wave offset. Also many AC motors sync to the sine wave, an offset would be all sorts of awful.

 

[BCondrey]

I think this is a "balcony solar" question about the standard that allows you to plug in a small solar array directly into a 120V outlet. I think count can try it and report back.

 

[tbinmd]

Who let the smoke out?

 

[Tim-in-CA]

I'd expect this .....

 

[dogwind]

Two pages of posts. It would be great for someone smarter than me to summarize?
What is the OP trying to do?
Why is OP trying to do dat?
What is the direct answer and why?
Bob

 

[SwampNut]

Two pages of posts. It would be great for someone smarter than me to summarize?
What is the OP trying to do?
What is the direct answer and why?
Bob

This is where you use AI, or even better, an agentic AI-native browser.



Summarize and simplify this entire thread
Here's a plain-language summary of that Rivian forum thread.

What the OP was asking
Count Orlok posted a picture of a "plug-and-play" balcony/plug-in solar panel (the kind that plugs directly into a wall receptacle) and jokingly asked what would happen if you plugged one into a Rivian's 120V convenience outlet, presumably hoping to trickle-charge the truck's battery. The tone was tongue-in-cheek from the start ("it's all pipes, what's the difference?"), and most replies leaned into the joke rather than treating it as a serious how-to.rivianforums

The direct answer
Nothing useful happens — you cannot charge a Rivian's battery this way, and the most likely outcome is simply that nothing occurs because both the panel's microinverter and the vehicle's onboard inverter will "self-protect" and refuse to pass power in the wrong direction.

 

[slillie]

Not only is this configuration (plugged into home electrical) against code, but you stand a decent change of electrocuting a lineman during power outages.

 

[SwampNut]

but you stand a decent change of electrocuting a lineman during power outages.

Zero chance. Read the thread, and I explain why. Don't just make shit up and post it as fact.

 

[slillie]

Zero chance. Read the thread, and I explain why. Don't just make shit up and post it as fact.

As I stated in my post, I was referring to the diagram that was posted (supplying power to the home without an automatic cutoff switch)…No — it's not legal. A disconnect isn't optional, it's a core code requirement, and skipping it creates a real safety hazard.

• NEC Article 690.13 requires disconnect means for all conductors in a PV system because solar arrays continuously generate voltage whenever light strikes the panels — they cannot be "turned off" like conventional electrical sources. — the panels don't stop producing just because you want to isolate them.
• Without proper disconnects meeting NEC requirements, the system cannot be legally energized.

To be compliant the system needs multiple disconnects, not just one: a DC disconnect at the array output, an equipment disconnect within sight of the inverter, and an AC disconnect at the utility interconnection point.

Feeding continuous 120V from panels into a house circuit with no cutoff to line voltage would create a shock/fire hazard for anyone servicing the panel, and specifically endangers utility linemen and firefighters who assume a de-energized line is actually dead (this is also how "backfeeding" accidents kill people).

Maybe we were just saying the same thing in a different way.

 

[SwampNut]

but you stand a decent change of electrocuting a lineman during power outages.

No — it's not legal.

Two different claims.

Feeding continuous 120V from panels into a house circuit with no cutoff to line voltage would create a shock/fire hazard for anyone servicing the panel, and specifically endangers utility linemen and firefighters who assume a de-energized line is actually dead (this is also how "backfeeding" accidents kill people).

As I explained before, nearly all microinverters stop delivering power then the power goes out.

 

[Count Orlok]

Not only is this configuration (plugged into home electrical) against code, but you stand a decent change of electrocuting a lineman during power outages.

power is only sent to the system when the inverter is powered by the grid. power goes out, so to does the plug-in solar inverter. Same set up as 99.99% of all residential solar installations.

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