Reader, if you can run the solar AC side back to the meter socket you could use the "MILBANK K5022-INT HEX INTL TAP CONNECTOR". A lot cheaper (at $35) and faster than a panel upgrade. Milbank also has a solar ready meter base available.
Greg
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I suppose what they are worried about is pulling 35 amps from solar and then another 200 amps from the main breaker thus overloading the bus bars.
I'm really close to just abandoning my solar plans because the costs and work involved keep going up and up. It will cost me $300 plus a full weekend to replace my main panel and I have no power for three days. I will most likely have to replace the power feed to my detached garage as part of this and it will cost me several thousand for that. I have to remove a slab, remove a sidewalk, and remove a retaining wall to run a new power feed. I will need to bring in a contractor with an excavator to dig a trench as it will be five feet deep at one spot.Leave a comment:
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There are some silly things in the NEC but this has some merit. The bus in your main panel has an amp rating. In a situation where you are only feeding loads, a main breaker prevents more amps from entering the bus than it is rated for. If you now turn a load breaker into a source of amps, that bus can get more amps than it is rated for unless something is done to limit it. Count up the ampacity of all the other breakers in your main panel and you will probably find they they total more than the value of your main breaker, so there needs to be another limit on how much current can feed backwards into that bus.Leave a comment:
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This is just silly. I can run 60 amps of power to my garage subpanel without upgrading my main panel, but if I add in solar then suddenly my bus bar is too small even though I still can't run more than 60 amps on the same circuit to the garage subpanel?
This basically means I am going to be without power for an entire weekend plus Monday so I can replace the main load center. The electric company has to send someone out to pull the meter and then send someone out again to enable the power after the electrical inspector signs off. I have a whole house generator with a separate sub panel, but I don't think the neighbors will like me running it at night.Leave a comment:
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It applies - you have to protect all bus downstream of the utility service disconnect (probably your main breaker in your house).Leave a comment:
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NEC 705.12(D) - Does this apply to main panel if subpanel used?
I am planning to hook up my inverter to a subpanel in my garage. Does NEC 705.12(D) apply in any way to the main load center in the house since the main load center feeds the garage subpanel? I would ask the local electrical inspector, but I can't get in touch with him.
I will probably just put in a 175 amp main breaker in if I need to meet 705.12(D), but I might replace the load center with one with a 225 amp bus.
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