Is a fence needed around an old residential PV array

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RandyRho

Member
Location
Seward, PA
Occupation
Engineer
Hi All, I live in a rural area of PA, at the end of a gravel road, surrounded on 3 sides by PA Game lands. My homeowners insurance is threatening to cancel me if I don't install a 7' fence around my smallish, 43 panel SolarEdge ground mounted array. It was installed back in 2019, and is properly underground conduited to the house. I've looked through the NEC and can't find much on these small residential installs. Does anybody know if this is a requirement now? Thanks in advance, Randy
 
690.31(A) may require the conductors between panels and optimizers to be 'guarded'. A fence is one way, but not the only way, to comply with that. It's often not enforced.

But to agree with Jim, this doesn't sound like an NEC issue.
 
The insurance company can have their own requirement that all ground mount PV has to have a fence. Keep in mind they can do pretty much what they want because you can just go to a different insurance company. I've had people around me have their insurance renewals denied because some drone saw moss on their roof.
If they were to provide an NEC justification it is 690.31(A) that requires readily accessible wiring over 30V be guarded.
 
RandyRho said:
My homeowners insurance is threatening to cancel me if I don't install a 7' fence around my smallish, 43 panel SolarEdge ground mounted array
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The fence may also address copper theft, climbing hazards, wet drainage trip hazard, and remind you to ask for insurance requirements before altering the property with additional hazards.
 
Thanks for all your efforts, guys. It turns out that no amount of reasoning or proof is enough for bureaucrats at insurance companies. They do as they want. I'll be looking for new homeowners insurance now, as Traveler's is cancelling mine. My mistake was following Amazon and Walmart , and not placing the panels on the roof . After reading about how faults in the system can burn the mounting structures to the ground, I thought that was a safer option. After my inverter caught fire a year or so ago, I felt vindicated. Now I'm annoyed. Anyway, thanks again for the help. One good thing that came out of this mess: I found this board.
 
RandyRho said:
After my inverter caught fire a year or so ago, I felt vindicated. Now I'm annoyed.
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Insurance wants documentation; contractor GL policy, responsible builder, or perhaps permits.

You were fortunate, most insurance collect premiums as long as possible, then non-renew and cancel casualty claims, leaving a total loss.

If it wasn’t for the solar array, it may have been a total loss from defective smokes, remodel hazards, missing permits, or making fraudulent statements during the recorded phone interview.
 
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RandyRho said:
Thanks for all your efforts, guys. It turns out that no amount of reasoning or proof is enough for bureaucrats at insurance companies. They do as they want.
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Well, yes, of course they do. They are heavily statistics driven and they do whatever they think they need to do to protect their investments, like any other company.
 
RandyRho said:
Thanks for all your efforts, guys. It turns out that no amount of reasoning or proof is enough for bureaucrats at insurance companies. They do as they want. I'll be looking for new homeowners insurance now, as Traveler's is cancelling mine. My mistake was following Amazon and Walmart , and not placing the panels on the roof . After reading about how faults in the system can burn the mounting structures to the ground, I thought that was a safer option. After my inverter caught fire a year or so ago, I felt vindicated. Now I'm annoyed. Anyway, thanks again for the help. One good thing that came out of this mess: I found this board.
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I have herd of this what they seem to be concerned about is if the panels can get stolen, vandalized/ looted or damaged by something like a impact from a vehicle.
How high are your panels off grade? Can you raise the ground mount hardware higher?
A farm we worked on had to have the panels some distance above grade I think it was 6' on average, the lowest edge of the tilt was probably 5' because I hit my head on them.
I am not sure how the new insurance AI decides a property is more at risk, but I have seen a huge uptick in random home insurance cancellations for strange and specific reasons.
 
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