Vines
Member
- Location
- Santa Cruz, CA
I have a couple inspectors in San Jose and Fremont that are now enforcing a requirement that I hadn't seen before.
According to the 2014 section 705.12 (D) (1) the inspector is saying that all of our PV circuits must be able to be disconnected by a single means. In this case, we have 2 strings of AC-PV modules terminating right into the main service. The inspector is calling us out saying we need a subpanel to combine all the circuits and a single dedicated means of disconnect (Breaker or Bladed AC disco), instead of the 2 breakers we currently have.
With the prior generation of enphase, we always put in a subpanel to combine the PV circuits and to reduce the noise in the subpanel so the motioning would work smoothly.
Now that we are using Sunpower AC-PV we aren't having noise issues so want to land our circuits in the Main panel where possible.
For the last year or so the number of disconnects hadn't been an issue, but now 2 inspectors in the same day have had the same comment, so it was likely in a recent training that they learned this.
Looking through my code book I am trying to challenge this, if it is a reasonable challenge. I am curious as to the experience of others. So far looking at 690.17, seems to indicate that up to 6 Circuit Breakers is ok, though it seems to be talking about DC conductors. 690.13 (D) indicates we are ok using molded case circuit breakers.
According to the 2014 section 705.12 (D) (1) the inspector is saying that all of our PV circuits must be able to be disconnected by a single means. In this case, we have 2 strings of AC-PV modules terminating right into the main service. The inspector is calling us out saying we need a subpanel to combine all the circuits and a single dedicated means of disconnect (Breaker or Bladed AC disco), instead of the 2 breakers we currently have.
With the prior generation of enphase, we always put in a subpanel to combine the PV circuits and to reduce the noise in the subpanel so the motioning would work smoothly.
Now that we are using Sunpower AC-PV we aren't having noise issues so want to land our circuits in the Main panel where possible.
For the last year or so the number of disconnects hadn't been an issue, but now 2 inspectors in the same day have had the same comment, so it was likely in a recent training that they learned this.
Looking through my code book I am trying to challenge this, if it is a reasonable challenge. I am curious as to the experience of others. So far looking at 690.17, seems to indicate that up to 6 Circuit Breakers is ok, though it seems to be talking about DC conductors. 690.13 (D) indicates we are ok using molded case circuit breakers.