trying to monitor my Enphase iq7+ using a smart meter

[bcroe]

Not sure what you are referring to but every home has a grounded (neutral) conductor from the
transformer. I've never seen a residential property without 120V loads.

I said the METER has no neutral CONNECTION. But there is a neutral. Bruce Roe

[Ampster]

I found another manual for the GE meter that I have and it describes an error like mine and says its a dead battery. I'll leave this meter hooked up for 24 hours and see if that fixes things. If not, I guess that I will be hunting a battery.

Bingo, or at least I hope it is bingo. LOL

[merkurmaniac]

I found another manual for the GE meter that I have and it describes an error like mine and says its a dead battery. I'll leave this meter hooked up for 24 hours and see if that fixes things. If not, I guess that I will be hunting a battery.

[merkurmaniac]

So, oddly enough, I flipped the meter over when I got home. It reads the exact same, but upside down.

[Ampster]

Thing is, there is no neutral position on the meter. The GE information says that the meter is powered by the electricity that it is measuring. There are only 4 lugs on the meter, the two a/c lines in and the two out. No neutral, no obvious ground. Nothing else.

The meter socket looks like this:

Okay, so much for my theory about needing a neutral. Could it be something to do with the Zigbee protocol that most smart meters use?. Have you tried turning it around. It should measure power going both ways but maybe it is only looking for consistent power on one end. I am grasping at straws here. Someone with more experience with GE Smart meters is going to have to help. The only self installed meter I have is a very old one with odometer like wheel display if you understand what I mean.

[merkurmaniac]

Thing is, there is no neutral position on the meter. The GE information says that the meter is powered by the electricity that it is measuring. There are only 4 lugs on the meter, the two a/c lines in and the two out. No neutral, no obvious ground. Nothing else.

The meter socket looks like this:

[adoublee]

It is common for the PoCo meter to make no connection to the neutral. It just assumes that
the load is balanced, including power factor. Bruce Roe

Not sure what you are referring to but every home has a grounded (neutral) conductor from the transformer. I've never seen a residential property without 120V loads. I'm sure there is a balanced 240V meter available but I don't think this is what merkurmaniac has.

merkurmaniac - you say that the body of the meter is currently grounded to the sub panel ground. This is an Equipment Ground Conductor or EGC. This conductor is in large part for safety should there be fault to something metallic and should not normally carry any current. So you probably need to wire a neutral just from the subpanel to the meter neutral position, which would give it the 120V it might need for internal electronics. I'm not advising you to do it, but if one were to do a test before installing the neutral conductor they could consider tapping the EGC at the meter that does bond to neutral upstream and connecting to meter neutral to see if it makes the meter work (it would carry the current of the meter electronics back to the transformer which should be very minimal). If one were to try this I would definitely advise AGAINST leaving it with this connection that results in improper use of an EGC.

[merkurmaniac]

My subpanel is definately unbonded. On my main panel, have not ever modified the bonding or grounding. I assume that it is sound. I am attaching the GE manual page that covers 2S (power socket) requirements. They say its not a wiring diagram. Whatever. The meter power socekt for my solar system is literally floating on a sea of sheetrock and is not grounded by metal conduit or anything other than the wiring. The wiring enters the back. Its the two AC lines and the bare ground (lighting arrestor wire) Its pinched under a heavy plate and bolt in the back of the housing of the power socket. About a foot away, its grounded to the ground bus bar in my sub panel. So, I have no neutral.

I could pull the ground wire out of this meter socket and panel, and run it only to the ground bar at the main panel. Then, connect a 2 foot piece from my sub-panel neutral bar to the socket body. ? I may do this just as a test. I don't like the idea of ever being shocked by the socket body of course.

It seems that this whole system is engineered to be only really reading the main service entrance into the house. Most wiring discussion on the net is about the service entrance, etc... However, the two GE meters that I bought, one was labeled www.SUNRUN.com and the other was labeled www.solarpanelhelp.com or something like that. Both is/were set up with solar in mind.

[Ampster]

Yes you are correct about the connections for the ground and that is what I also implied. To be clear, the OP said his meter was three wire and I assumed it had a lug for the neutral and if his meter requires 120v to run his meter. He hasn't replied yet if that got the meter working.

[NewBostonConst]

You can't connect the neutral to the shell in the solar meter box. The body should be grounded and the neutral is pass through as you have stated. You can't connect them. The ground and the neutral can only be connected to in one place in your house which is called "bonding". It is likely "bonded" in your main breaker box. I would verify it is bonded there. It could be "bonded" in your incoming meter box but that isn't normal. If you are "bonded" in multiple places you can have the ground carrying current which isn't a good thing. Ground is for carrying current only in an fault condition, the neutral carries the current.

I would check the bond and other then that it sounds like you have it wired where the meter should work. This is for USA wiring methods, Europe is different.

[Ampster]

The IQ7+ microinverters that I have utilize a pre-made cable that only has two conductors, L1 and L2. No neutral nor ground.

Okay so the neutral will only have to go from the meter to the sub panel. Hopefully that gets your meter working.

The lightning ground has to bond the racking, the PV panels and subpanels to the main service panel ground. I am not sure it needs to bond the additional meter but it can't hurt and may very well be code. Best to check.

[merkurmaniac]

The IQ7+ microinverters that I have utilize a pre-made cable that only has two conductors, L1 and L2. No neutral nor ground.

[Ampster]

Some 240v appliances use a neutral to pull a small 120v current to drive electronics. That may be your issue. My old Enphase inverters used 4 wires, two hots, a neutral and a ground. If your cable is like that and your meter has a spot for a neutral they should all be connected to the neutral buss bar in your subpanel.
Q1= Both should be grounded
Q2= Yes neutrals to subpanel from Enphase cable and meter.

[merkurmaniac]

OK, so I talked with a meter specialist and he (even though its not his meter) told me that he bets the meter is fine, and that my wiring is the problem. He thinks that the body of the meter socket is acting like its not grounded properly.

I think that the issue may be with how I wired my system. I have 8 panels and 8 IQ7 microinverters. The 2 AC conductors are obvious. They come from the microinverters and feed my system thru a sub-panel, passing thru the smart meter on the way to the sub panel.. The sub panel has a separate ground and neutral, since I believe that they are NOT to be bonded in a subpanel. So then the question is the ground. The IQ7 system and solar panels has a bare copper wire (I used a #6 conductor) that I ran that back to my sub-panel. My understanding is that its for lighting protection, and is a ground. In my case, it would be different than a neutral. The smart meter power socket is called a 3-wire setup and uses 2 hots and a neutral. The body of my meter is currently grounded to the sub panel ground.

Question is: Should my "lightning ground" just run back to the ground only at my main panel instead?... or is the sub-panel ground fine ? Both ?

Question 2: Should I add a "neutral" from the neutral bus in my sub panel to the smart meter socket and have that be its only connection ??

I have complicated things by using a sub-panel and a smart meter.

[merkurmaniac]

The meter doesn't seem to have any other connections on the back of it either, so that's perplexing.