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Yes it would trip, my solar panels are wired into my panel through a 30A breaker.
My 4Kw system will produce 18A maximum in theory.
The inverters will cut off the supply if the power fails, and will not go back online for 5 minutes after they "feel" the power returned. Power companies get real twitchy about a back feed.
Also, if you were to hook something up like this, its much better to do it the correct way with a transfer switch. Lots of bad stuff can happen if your load is not connected correctly. as you have a huge power sink of adjacent houses to pull the power.
Power company workers can be injured or killed and if they find out its coming from your house, they will cut you real quick and you will have to do lots of work to get power back on.
The interlock mentioned previously by Chet is a cheap and safe solution, it physically prevents the main power from being on if the breaker you are backfeeding is on. This will only work for generator obviously since the solar is whole other ball game.
To be perfectly clear, I have no plan to actually do such a thing. And if I did I'd cut the main to the power lines to keep everything "in house" so to speak.
For other people reading this, electrical systems need to be designed for *everyone* to use, not just those who understand that the electrical link to the outside needs to be shut off.
So if the "man of the house" is gone and the wife or a teenager tries to get the generator (or whatever) going, to power the house during an outage, the electrical system should have a design which will keep them from doing anything dangerous to themselves or other people. Like the lockout above or other devices which keep things safe.
Also keep in mind that no one lives forever. So also for the next people to own the home.
Blake, you can do the work yourself on a single family house without an electrician, as long as you apply for a permit and have it inspected.
I think that varies from location to location. In our area, a homeowner is allowed to do work as long as he is the legal owner of the house. There are other requirements - I think the owner of a duplex can do work, but not any larger buildings (triplex, apt, etc).
Blake, you can do the work yourself on a single family house without an electrician, as long as you apply for a permit and have it inspected.
When I finished a basement in PG County, MD I had to submit plans (not professionally drawn, just "correct" in scale (which I chose)). In addition, because I wanted to do the electric myself, I had to take an open-book test at a county office to prove I had a handle on the requirements; the test was as easy as one could expect.
The actual construction required a couple inspections (plus approval of the plans). The first inspection was after all the framework was done, the ductwork was finished, and the electric wired all the way but not "to" the breaker box. The inspector for the first inspection climbed a ladder and ensured the ductwork was sealed and made sure the electric was using the proper gauge wires, etc; he also "inspected" the plumbness of the framework to make sure walls wouldn't be leaning here and there. He then signed off and said I could "close up". The second/last inspection was not so much a safety inspection but was to ensure the work was done "well" for some ephemeral definition of "well"; the inspector DID go around to a lot of the outlets and test them to make sure the three-wire connections were all correct, however.
Be sure that you have a disconnect switch so if you use solar or generator you don't back feed power to the grid. You will either need a automatic switch or a manual switch.
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