Any 400A Solar Ready panelboards available?

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ggunn

PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
Location
Austin, TX, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
He described the service as having two 200A service disconnects, which fits every 400A residential service I've ever seen (admittedly only a handful). And in the 2014 code the 120% rule only applies to busbars in panelboards, and not to conductors or feeder taps. If you are misunderstanding you should review the changes to the 2014 code.
In the original post, he said, "Doing a larger Residential job in Vegas. The resident currently has a 400A MSP w/ 2, 200A Disconnects (going to their own 200A Panelboards)." Nothing about the 200A discos being service disconnects. If they are and what he said implies that, that's what I didn't get. If the MSP doesn't a 400A main breaker, that's obviously a different situation. He did say that the AHJ doesn't allow line side connections, though, and any connections on the line side of the discos (if they are service discos) are obviously line side connections. I work with an AHJ near here that has that policy, and the method of connection (tapping conductors or landing on busbars) is not the issue.
 

GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
In some cases the AHJ may simply be stating and enforcing the policy of the POCO.
If the main disconnect is also the service point, POCO has jurisdiction upstream of that point.
Their policies on what can be connected there does not have to be limited to either the NRC or the NESC.
 

Smart $

Esteemed Member
Location
Ohio
...Their policies on what can be connected there does not have to be limited to either the NRC or the NESC.
When did the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) get involved in this stuff. They're usually way, way, way on the other end of the picture here. :p
 

jaggedben

Senior Member
Location
Northern California
Occupation
Solar and Energy Storage Installer
In the original post, he said, "Doing a larger Residential job in Vegas. The resident currently has a 400A MSP w/ 2, 200A Disconnects (going to their own 200A Panelboards)." Nothing about the 200A discos being service disconnects. If they are and what he said implies that, that's what I didn't get. If the MSP doesn't a 400A main breaker, that's obviously a different situation. He did say that the AHJ doesn't allow line side connections, though, and any connections on the line side of the discos (if they are service discos) are obviously line side connections. I work with an AHJ near here that has that policy, and the method of connection (tapping conductors or landing on busbars) is not the issue.

I suppose you could be right but in my experience two 200A service disconnects is the most common configuration for a 400A residential service, so that's why I made the assumption.
 

BillK-AZ

Senior Member
Location
Mesa Arizona
Consider a Sun Valley Electric service entrance www.sunvalleyelectricmfg.com

Their products include 400A service entrances with two 200A pull-out fuse blocks and factory installed or field retrofit kits for supply side connection of PV systems in addition to the two pull-outs. Use of their kits on their service entrances maintains the UL listing of the service entrance. With these kits the backfeed can be up to buss rating.
 

ggunn

PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
Location
Austin, TX, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
Consider a Sun Valley Electric service entrance www.sunvalleyelectricmfg.com

Their products include 400A service entrances with two 200A pull-out fuse blocks and factory installed or field retrofit kits for supply side connection of PV systems in addition to the two pull-outs. Use of their kits on their service entrances maintains the UL listing of the service entrance. With these kits the backfeed can be up to buss rating.
In post #16 the OP said, "The municipalities also do not allow Line side taps." Depending on how they are defining the term (physical taps of the conductors or any line side interconnections at all), this may or not be a viable solution. I have a client whose solution to a similar situation was to upgrade the MDP from 100A to 200A while keeping the original 100A main breaker. The utility initially balked at it but eventually passed it when the installer demonstrated compliance with 220.87.
 

zman990

Member
Location
US
I learned this recently that the solar ready panels from square d actually come with a field installed line side tap kit for 50bucks it has been awesome takes less than 30minutes to install tap no extra box to tap in or fussing with large conductors or worries about bending radius awesome

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
 

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
If you are installing a new panel, you can use a MLO panel with 400 amp bus and 3 breakers. That makes the solar connection a line side connection and you could install two 200 amp breakers for the loads and up to a 400 amp breaker for the solar connection.

Can you point to an actual product that fits this description? That was the OP's question, essentially. FWIW, I googled for 20 minutes and could find no such thing.

This would be easy enough to get in a day or two in this area.

We would ask a supply house (or three of them) for a quote on a 600 amp MLO panel with two 200s and whatever breaker size needed for the PV was.

We do a fair amount of services with MLO panels.
 

jaggedben

Senior Member
Location
Northern California
Occupation
Solar and Energy Storage Installer
This would be easy enough to get in a day or two in this area.

We would ask a supply house (or three of them) for a quote on a 600 amp MLO panel with two 200s and whatever breaker size needed for the PV was.

We do a fair amount of services with MLO panels.

A 600A panel was what the OP was trying to avoid, but point taken. I guess a lot of these products may not be on the web or hard to find.

View attachment 13882

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

Can't read your attachment, resolution too small. But I found this and this on Schneider's website.

I guess you have to use a fused disconnect if you need to use the lug kit on these. Nice they can go to 70A without that.

I was going to post about how on the Square-D panels I've seen the extra service disconnect is not field installed and the extra service disconnect is only rated 50A. Thanks for making me look again and finding these. (Newer product.)

Not that any of this speaks to the original question in this thread, either.
 
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