What is a good strategy for sizing the neutral wire in a PV system? Especially when the system size and feeder length require significantly large sizes.
As an example, consider 160A worth of inverter (200A of breaker) at 277/480V. Due to distance, I have to upsize from #3/0 to 500 kcmil on the phase conductors, and correspondingly ground from #6 to #1. I know that neutral cannot be smaller than ground.
Does it do anything for me, if I increase my neutral to 500 kcmil?
Or would it be better if I left my neutral at #3/0?
Out of ignorance, I usually make it equal to the phase/line wires. But is this overkill?
What if I have a lot of voltage drop and distance to accommodate? Voltage isn't going to drop through the neutral, when you have a balanced inverter setup. It's going to drop through the phase/line wires.
How much current does a neutral wire carry, when the inverter current is balanced across all the phase/line conductors?
As an example, consider 160A worth of inverter (200A of breaker) at 277/480V. Due to distance, I have to upsize from #3/0 to 500 kcmil on the phase conductors, and correspondingly ground from #6 to #1. I know that neutral cannot be smaller than ground.
Does it do anything for me, if I increase my neutral to 500 kcmil?
Or would it be better if I left my neutral at #3/0?
Out of ignorance, I usually make it equal to the phase/line wires. But is this overkill?
What if I have a lot of voltage drop and distance to accommodate? Voltage isn't going to drop through the neutral, when you have a balanced inverter setup. It's going to drop through the phase/line wires.
How much current does a neutral wire carry, when the inverter current is balanced across all the phase/line conductors?
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