A friend of mine made up a solar trailer on his back yard. A large tandem wheel unit that has an inverter and a switchboard and battery pack, plus fold out arms for the solar array and it sits in his yard facing the sun. The local city had a fit when they saw it and asked him to remove it --he counted the argument by saying what about the person next door with his big motor home. Then they countered and said the trailer had no road permits. They lost the case as the city would have had every truck and car and trailer off the road removed from everyone's home in that city. He is considering making hot houses made aluminum frame with solar panels batteries and inverter for the home gardener-- Ha Ha Ha. Tied into the home via a light activated change over relay switch in the fuse box in the home for nighttime use. A brilliant system to bypass the bullshit.
Thanks for the great comment Pat! The best part about diy is you learned something and you know the in's and outs of the system to diagnose any issues down the road.
Thank you very much, I'm glad it helps you! I have some other solar videos as well and will have more in the future so make sure and subscribe to stay tuned!
After researching it, I think I understand it a little bit better. Before the PV install, if the total load (the sum of all breakers) exceeds the main breaker rating, then it will automatically trip the main therefore proctecting the busbar. When the PV system is install, there's 2 sources of power, therefore power being consume from the utility side will be less, therefore won't immediately trip the main, however, without applying the 120% rule, the busbar is risk of becoming a fire hazard.
@@Tommy-ci1if you nailed it! The panel receives the incoming power from the grid through the main breaker as well as through the breaker from the pv system.
@@Tommy-ci1if a cheat to go to a larger pv system is to put in a smaller main breaker. Aka if you have a 200a main breaker put a 175 or 150 in if you can manage.
This video is fantastic. I never would've figured out how to fill out both the Interconnection Agreement or the Standard Agreement form if I hadn't watched your presentation. Excellent and a huge thank you from all the DIY'rs out there. You got me through the Interconnection Agreement with my utility company with no problems. I'm about to submit the Standard Agreement form online, so fingers crossed it goes through as smoothly. Thanks you again.
It is important to also place some panels west to capture that Summer 4-9 pm Sun so that you are generating power during PG&E peak periods if you live in CA.
Thanks Kevin! Our rate is same all the time here in Kentucky. Good idea though definitely know your provider and what you might be able to do to optimize your savings!!
@@dustintrombly No, the utility company came and replaced my regular meter with a net meter. So it measures how much i consume, and how much i send back to the grid. Somehow it measures going both ways. You can check it out on my solar install video here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-C7TsHKWglBs.html
I’m Louisville and considering installing a solar pergola on my deck, it’ll have room for a 6-7kw array. Along with that maybe a central hybrid inverter and storage. KU offers ToU rates along with the flat rate I’m on now. Batteries would enable load shifting and could easily make me zero consumption during peak if i switched to the ToU plan (the peak periods are twice a day for four hours each), which would increase payback significantly. Now I need to find or make a calculator for this.
Thanks, great video. I’d like to do this same basic batteryless grid tied micro inverter system but then add AC or DC coupling with some old inverters and batteries I have laying around (our power goes out a lot). Need to look for some videos on this enhanced system.
@Neal ORussa i know this is like a 3 year old video, but man that’s awesome building your own system and doing it all yourself, i my area the town inspector only gives permits to contractors with special licenses etc.. well that’s what they told me anyways, my minor is electrical engineering and everything to know except I don’t keep up with the change in codes because my day job is network engineering I did not go the electrical route but still have the skills and degree to show for it, and yet they don’t want the home owner todo their own work, i am starting to feel i should get a lawyer to look into my case, anyways awesome job!
@@fullyelectric it's super simple to figure out and the wiring on them is easy, especially for you an electrical engineer. In my state/county homeowners are allowed to pull permits for the primary residence, but not rental property or other peoples residences/business etc. As far as a building permit I did not need one since this did not have a roof and was considered racking not an inhabitable structure. But I just did that to save permit fees and inspections of footings, etc. I could have pulled a building permit if I wanted to.
@@fullyelectric but I did pull an electric permit and got that signed off before my power company kenergy installed my net meter. Check out my solar playlist I have quite a few more videos on the install and yearly updates!
@@NealORussa checking out the rest of your videos, very detailed; your state is good to home owners, i did end up building my system its just not technically legal I guess but it they inspect it .. i know it will pass, so far no one seems to bug me about it.
To technically savvy home owners, the white collar portion of these projects is well within DIY territory. The trick is finding a contractor that's willing to take the job for labor only. The profit margins can be huge if you have an efficient operation and sell only a handful of pre-engineered solutions. When sales reps show up in 80k$ trucks it makes you wonder. My AHJ is the same, licensed contractors and master electricians need to do the work.
Hi Neal, great series of videos and really informative, I which I had been able to watch these before putting together my system here in the UK. I also went with Enphase and 335w panels. You didn't mention about the EnvoyS provisioning and grid profile selection. I'm not sure how many different profiles you have to choose between in the USA I went with zero export for my set up and due to my utility company requirements.
Chris thanks for the comment and watching the videos! I honestly don't recall anything special about selecting a grid profile, so maybe there weren't too many choices in the us. My system has been working well and I hope the same for yours!
First thing you're tutorial is great and very informative. My question is; My home has 2- 150 amp sub panels. Also It has a full house generator. My house would require 46 panels to operate. Would half of the panels have to be connected to each 150 amp sub panels? How would the 20% rule apply in my installation? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Brian Reed
Brian, do you not have a main panel before the sub panels? Something needs to split the power after the meter and before the two 150a panels. I would tie into that with all your panels wherever that is. Then the 120% rule would apply to that panel. Otherwise if you want to tie into one or both of the 150a panels, you need to look inside the panel at the rating sticker and see what it is rated for. I'm assuming you're calling them 150a panels because that is what the main breaker is. Chances are they are actually rated for 200a. Meaning the max power that can feed them is 200x1.2 = 240a. So you can put 90 amps into each of your subpanels (240 minus the 150a breaker currently in them). But double check the sticker rating on them. With that said, electricity follows the path of least resistance. So if you tie into one panel or the other of those two panels are tied together which they should be if you only have one meter, then the power would travel through both panels wherever it is needed before it flows out into the grid. Regarding your backup generator. I have heard there can be issues running a home generator with the pv system running. Basically when the backup gen runs, it is automatically switching off grid power so you don't electrocute a lineman fixing the grid. So at that point there is no grid to soak up excess power your panels generate that your home is not consuming. So the extra power could try to back feed into the generator and damage it. With that said, you would want to look at a secondary automatic switch that shuts off the pv breaker as well as the main breaker to the grid/meter when the generator runs. Unless you get into a large battery setup which would require a whole other topic of discussion!
Calculate of tax credit is not a " refund" it's a credit. When calculating how much you make on your solar you didn't figure for the power you are using each month.
Hey rob, yes the tax credit is credit, not a refund, but it basically provides you with a larger tax refund because you can credit the percentage of your system cost to offset the taxes you paid throughout the year on your paycheck. I'm not sure i understand your 2nd comment, at 17:30 i show the yearly value of power generated ($1,360 in this example) and I take my system cost, minus tax credit, then divide by the yearly power generation value and that gives you the number of years to pay off the system.
Solar permitting is a pain in the ass thanks to the Utilities that don't even follow the NEC rules the way they should and they always do what they want. Same goes to the AHJ who seem to be the same of making the application process and reviewing process needlessly complicated. But they love charging you 200 bucks each time you commit a very insignificant mistake just to pass the inspection and the reviewing process. They pick on the most insignificant things because that is how they make money.
Did you compare Enphase microinverters with other brands? Why Enphase? The IQ8 two panels into one microinverter sounds enticing! I hope they have a long warranty and hold up to lightning surges?
I did a lot of research in 2018 before I purchased these. The iq7+ was the best on the market in my opinion. I knew I didn't want to do a single inverter, I wanted micros because they're easy to install, maintain and expand. I haven't kept up on the new technologies but I'm very happy with enphase. Did you check out my solar install and 1 & 2 year review videos?
30:32 time mark mistake #1-garage subpanel should be fed from 100A breaker not 200A main breaker-I assume drawing mistake. mistake #2-garage subpanel is lug fed which means the feed wire is part of the bus bar and the bus bar rating must be lowered to match the AWG 4 CU wire rating after that wire has been de-rated for length and temperature ratings--per NEC table 310.16 If lugs are rated 75 Celsius its 85 amps without de-rating, if lugs are rated 90 Celsius its 95 amps without de-rating and either the 85 or 95 amp ratings really screw up your 20% calculations--A 100A rated main or back fed breaker at the garage subpanel would eliminate the de-rating of the panel bus bar, but the garage to house panel wiring is still undersized for a 100A breaker--I would suggest AWG 2 CU (with AWG 6 CU ground wire) between panels and converting the garage panel from lug fed to a 100A main or back fed breaker (Since you're back feeding the wires with solar, its better to protect it at both ends anyway). mistake #3-AWG 7 CU/AL carries less current than AWG 7 CU and AWG 7 CU is much smaller(less current) than AWG 4 CU--I assume someone put the wrong AWG size between the meter and the house panel on the drawing. I am not a licensed electrician and I found these. If you get a chance, show that drawing to licensed electricians and see what he says, about it and what I said, and ask him if the 2020 code rule is 20% or 25% of the bus bar ratings. Would love to know what they say.
Thanks for the comments Brian. Yes i do see the lines in comment #1 go to the wrong spot on my drawing, they go to the 100a breaker not the 200a main. For #2, the garage to house, wiring was already in place. I'll have to double check the wire size and look into that code you mentioned. I'm sure that wire isn't undersized for 100a breaker, maybe I misread it. For #3, the wiring between my main panel and meter is not AWG 7 or 4. My line diagram drawing shows "AWG ?". I was not able to get to this wire to check the size since it was all behind my panel and wall. The inspector & myself figured it was sized sufficient for the 200a panel.
Fantastic video! Subscribing! My only problem is, my city wants wet-stamped plans from a "design professional". How can I find someone who can review and wet-stamp my plans for some fee?
Most suppliers will do the electrical design for you and stamp it. Tandem solar systems was going to do mine but I did it myself. As far as the structure, if you buy racking system like ironhorse it usually comes with engineered plans. If you do a wood structure like me you might check with an architect that at a lumber or building supply house such as kight building supply.
Neal I Just received my Application from the Utility company I'm confused by some of the question, were any of these on your application or if you know the answer I would appreciate it. 1. Metering (voltage, location, losses adjustment due to metering location and other: 2. Facilities to be furnished by cooperative. 3.Facilities to be furnished by DG owner/operator. 4. Cost responsibility. 5. Control area interchange point. 6.Supplemental terms and condition attached. 7. Delivery voltage. Thanks
Greg, I'll try my best, but you probably want to call someone with your utility company for assistance completing your application. Mine had a net metering liaison who was very helpful. 1. Probably just write how you are metering, if you have to add an additional meter for your PV system or if the utility adds it, or if the existing meter can be changed out to a net meter. You wouldn't expect any losses unless a second meter was mounted very very far away from the main meter. 2. I would say the coop needs to furnish a new net meter or an additional meter to measure the amount of PV power sent back to grid. 3. I assume this would be details on the equipment you are supplying/installing for your PV system before the meter. 4. I assume this would be the DG Owner/Operator would be responsible for costs for the PV install. 5. I assume this would be the location of your shutoff or emergency disconnect switch for the PV system? 6. n/a 7. Most likely 240v if you're in the states and using Enphase inverters.
@@McCEi somewhere or another I was able to find a video and documentation that was training for professional enphase installers. I can't seem to find it now but I'll keep looking. I may have posted the link in the comments a while back I can't remember. It really broke things down clearly. Otherwise just reading a lot of instructions, nec codes, and otherwise just general knowledge of how electricity flows.
@@McCEi ahh I found the link but it no longer works. Maybe try looking throughout the installer site. It's not like a basic homeowner sales video. It's about a hour long installer course. enphase.com/en-us/support/gettingstarted/design#pv-generation
Excellent video!! I have been looking for how the NEC code applies to my situation and yours was the same as mine in layout. I will be bringing my solar panel production into an existing subpanel that is in a shed with the same rating as yours. I was concerned that the subpanel was 100 Amp and I was bringing a 40 amp breaker into it which would exceed the 120% rule even though the upstream main panel is rated for 400 Amp (2 x 200A). I was also unsure how the produced AC from my inverter would be tied into the existing system. Did it tie into the main panel, or did it have to be connected directly to the grid? You did a great job explaining this and showing your line diagram to illustrate your situation. Much appreciated.
My main panel is tied into the grid and my pv power goes through the sub panel and into the main panel which is tied to the grid. So yes my excess pv power goes onto the grid. I have a net meter and it measures how much power I use and how much power I send back. Check out my solar install video to see more wiring details specific to my system! I have a whole playlist of my solar videos on my channel. Check them out & subscribe!
Hi Neal, It’s me again, I posted on you other video too and once again an excellent video, it good people like you who take the time to make video like this, that gives confidence to people like me that I can also do it myself, so thank you. I have a question about grounding, my understanding is any metal component needs to be grounded, so that would include my panel and racks, am using pvc pipes for the wires and no junction box, so the only other thing is the shut off box and the combination box, is that correct
Everything needs to be grounded. I didn't ground each individual panel because they are all mounted directly to metal unistrut with metal fasteners. I did ground each of the unistruts, as shown in my install video. Every panel or shutoff box you use should have a ground bar or lug in it.
Great series you've done. I want to do the same by using Pergola instead of put it on the roof of the utility building or house. I am wondering if you can share whether or not you bought a solar kit from some vendor or you just picked out the parts and order them separately.
Thanks for the great comment Hai! I did not buy a solar kit, i sourced parts individually. I found cheaper prices for different items on different sites. Tandem Solar System was where i bought a majority of the equipment. I found the IQ combiner on ebay for cheap, around $500. The Unistrut racking and all wiring i got from a local electrical supply house. I found this experience to be kind of fun, and I also learned a lot in the process, not to mention saving a little $$$.
Great Video, exactly the info I have been looking for! The panels I am looking at are 72 cell 355w JA panels. Do you think the IQ7X can handle this? I live In Arizona so very good sun!
Thanks for watching, I'd imagine you'll get good use out of a system in AZ! The IQ7x is only for 96 cell modules. You want the IQ7A or IQ7+ for your 72 cell panels. The 355w is in the acceptable range for either the A or +. Though if you're going to wait a bit, the IQ8's are supposed to be able to put two panels into 1 microinverter. Check out the enphase family here: enphase.com/en-us/products-and-services/microinverters/family Subscribe to my channel and check out my playlist on Solar power for more helpful info!
Go to Enphase website as they have an inverter selection section where you enter the specifications from your solar panels and it will match the correct Enphase inverter to use.
Hey Neil, I don't think you talked about the permit of your ground mount system? Your drawings were great, did you have to get the design "stamped" by an engineer for approval? Thanks.
Hey Nolan! No I didn't need stamped drawings for my ground mount. Since it didn't have a roof or sides, my zoning commission did not consider it to be a habitable structure and therefore did not require any engineered drawings for the mounting frame/structure.
Though I am a registered PE in Kentucky and did do some calculations for my application. You could also probably take your drawings to a lumber yard that does home plans and framing design and show them what you're doing and they would properly size the lumber and provide you a stamped drawing. Around here the place that does that is called Kight Home center. I think I they are a chain.
That is correct, for my county and utility requirements a pe stamp was not required, though the website where I bought my panels (tandem solar inc) was going to do a pe stamped one line diagram for me for around $150. I was able to cancel it after I found out I didn't need it and I got $100 back I think.
I am Senior PVdesigner and can provide this type if plans set , in which i will follow all nec , ifc , irc codes and set backs , and will provide designs only in 70$
Hello. Thanks for putting these videos together. Incredibly helpful. I will be tackling a DIY install this summer and would very much appreciate it if I could also take a look at your excel file as a rough template to go off of. Just sent you a message via email. Thanks again.
Hi Neal, thank you for your video it helped a lot. I have just found out that our city: Plano, Texas required minimum #6 AWG Grounding wire ( bare copper ) to be used, yet I have used #8. Did you have any issue with using #8 in your inspection ?
Question? Im hooking up 20 - IQ8M to 20 - 450 watt solar panels to a ground mount 200 ft from juction box at array to combiner 4 box inside home. What type and gauge of wire would you recomend to keep my voltage from dropping too much?
That depends how many strings you are going to run to the combiner box? I believe the iq7's could only be in strings of 13 so that would mean you need two strings if that still applies. But maybe the 8's are different. And do you know how many amps each of the iq8 put out?
Oh way you're saying you're going to put a junction box at the array. Then run one heavy cable from array to combiner 4? Can the combiner 4 take that many amps in one wire? The iq combiner I used only could take 20 amps per string (which was the 13 iq7's in a string).
@@NealORussa A 5.0KW inverter running at 240V will input 20.83Amp to the panel. Is it code compliant to run the array at a higher voltage to not face this limitation? i.e. running at 260v which generates (5000w/260v=19.2Amp)? My other option is to upgrade my main panel from 100A to 200Amp.
@@sarfarash1 I'm not a code expert but I don't that will work. First the 260v is much higher than the rest of the system that normally runs at 240v. Normal voltage variation is +\- 5%. Second I'm not sure what inverter you have but the enphase inverters you cannot change the output voltage.
I came back to thank you again. I got my permit approved also my NEM interconnection submitted and got some sort of approval from my utility company. Your video has helped so many out there.
Thanks for informative video. My house has twin 200A breakers. Would it be acceptable to split a 18KWH pv system input towards two each breakers but still be under the 240A? I was thinking 9KW in each breaker. Would be there any issue with this configuration?
Hmm, i'm not sure, i'd have to see how the panel is split between the two breakers. Assuming there are two separate legs (one leg for each 200a breaker) that seems like that would work. You may also want to check the panel rating and make sure you're not over 120% on that as well. If you have the ability to add a panel between your meter and the house panel, that would be ideal. If i didn't already have wiring going from the garage to the house, i would have ran wiring direct to the meter and put a box between meter and house panel and you could basically install unlimited kw capacity.
I'm not familiar with the solar ready system. A way to bypass the 120% rule all together is to run conduit and cable from iq combiner all the way to your meter. Then put a solar disconnect and junction terminal between the meter and your home's main panel. That way you aren't tying into any panel. That's what I will do if I ever decide to add more panels.
It's 15 watts per square foot of panel. Pretty much all panels have that output per square foot. Take the dimensions of any panel and divide the total panel wattage by the area of the panel. You'll get 15 watts per square foot.
Hey Doug, I'm not quite sure what would be required for off grid since you aren't tied to a utility. If you are in city or county limits that has a building inspection division you may give them a call. They may require a structure permit and/or electrical permit.
Hey Denise, I don't quite understand your question. Are you asking if you can reduce your theoretical income from PV Watts? You can really use whatever percentage you want. I think that 25% is a pretty safe assumption figuring panel degradation and it being cloudier than what PV watts estimates throughout the year.
It's my understanding that enphrase increases efficiency by 25% more than a string inverter. Im asking do I reduce the 25kw to 19kw since they are do much more efficient.
@@deniseterry6156 I'm thinking that's more of a marketing or sales pitch. The 25.92kw value is derived from the square foot of solar panel area you have, and you will never realistically reach that power output because that is in perfect laboratory conditions. Pv watts estimates the power you can anticipate based on your location's # of sunny days, your array tilt and azimuth angle. It has nothing to do with the inverters at this point. Listen closely at 18:10 and beyond for the reasons I reduce the pvwatts estimated value by 25%.
Anyone know if there is a minimal amount of solar generation that needs to be installed to qualify for the Solar Tax Credit? I really just want battery backup on my house, as my property is pretty shaded. I don’t think I’ll be able to install more than about 1kW of panels.
I don't think there is any minimum. None of the requirements on this page have a minimum generation requirement. www.forbes.com/advisor/home-improvement/solar-tax-credit-by-state/
@@NealORussa I agree, I couldn’t find it in any of the IRS requirements, however, I’d read somewhere that at least 75% of your battery capacity had to be charged by solar. Not sure what needs to be even submitted to the IRS and how it would be evaluated. I’d be pushing it to get over 1kW of solar and would want over 10kWh of storage (which would mostly be Grid charged)
@@danksu04 no problem! I did not submit anything to the irs. My tax lady asked me how much the system cost and I gave her a number. I had receipts etc, but they never went anywhere.
