Adding an outlet to a solar sub-panel

[Candguy]

I have an 8.6kw system using enphase microinverters. My system is used solely for selling electricity to the ontario government, and as such all microinverters are wired in to a sub panel on the exterior of my house and then wired to a seperate bidirectional meter and up to the transmission wires. I have an envoy r gateway that plugs in to an outlet inside my garage, and has been working for years, just by being close to the exterior sub-panel, however recently I had to replace 2 m215 microinverters with iq7 micro's that are specifically made for replacing older generations. The problem is that they will not report to the gateway, and in addition since adding them other microinverters do not report all day long, and then in the last hour of the day they suddenly report everything. I am wondering if it has to do with the envoy not actually plugged in to an outlet connected to the solar output. Is it possible in the sub panel to install a 15 amp circuit and wire an outlet to it so the envoy can be plugged to the same panel that the microinvertyers pass through?

[sdold]

That's what I did. When I installed my M215 system, I had unreliable communication between the microinverters and the Envoy, which was plugged into another branch circuit off of the main panel. It was only about five feet from the main panel, but I suspect that the signal was attenuated at the panel before it went to the branch circuit. I had installed a sub panel for the solar next to the main panel, so I put in a receptacle behind it, inside the garage, wired to one leg of the 240V.

I also put 2" diameter ferrite toroids in line with the line and neutral conductors between the sub panel and the main panel, looped through maybe three or four turns each. This created an RF "island", with the microinverters and Envoy on one side, and the main panel and rest of the house on the other. I don't remember what mix they were, probably 31 since that's common, but I would have used 75 if had a choice. But all of this worked and I never had any problems after that.

Another thing that screwed up the communication was using a pair of ethernet devices that plug into 120VAC receptacles. I think the communication between them was interfering with the Envoy system. I had to plug the Envoy directly into my router using Ethernet instead of using those devices.

I don't know if what I did meets code, but I didn't see any technical problems with it. If you try it, let us know if it works.

[Candguy]

Put in a circuit today and all my microinverters are now reporting, including the 2 new ones that had never been discovered. Honestly, I really don't understand how the envoy was working for the last 10 years. My solar system has never been a part of the houses electrical panel. The way the installer described it was that it just need to be plugged in near the panel on the outside of the building, but I still don't understand how the envoy got communication over lines that were not a part of the system. Can it be transferred just because the house wiring is only a few feet away from the solar wiring?

[sdold]

My solar system has never been a part of the houses electrical panel.

It sounds like your microinverters are connected to the line side of the meter and panel, and therefore would have had electrical continuity through the panel to the branch circuit feeding the Envoy. Glad it works now.