Romex for DC run

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Zee said:
Depending on specific eaves windows etc......Consider running down other side of house and across crawlspace....., sometimes an option....., sometimes too much work.
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This first one is my house and there is just no easy way to do it. And the cold water entrance is on the other side of the house, living room with 24’ vaulted ceiling in between. It’s going to be a peach. The bright side though, the path runs right past my fishtank and I’m going to drop off 2 X 20 amp circuits for the tank while I’m running the DC and cold water ground.
 
five.five-six said:
This first one is my house and there is just no easy way to do it. And the cold water entrance is on the other side of the house, living room with 24’ vaulted ceiling in between. It’s going to be a peach. The bright side though, the path runs right past my fishtank and I’m going to drop off 2 X 20 amp circuits for the tank while I’m running the DC and cold water ground.
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Remember you're not allowed to run PV DC with other circuits. Optimizer outputs are a grey area.
 
five.five-six said:
I mean, If I’m running the PV DC in type MC, do I need to drill their own hole in the studs?

I should probably contact the AHJ.
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It's fine as long as you are in a different cable. The way you described it made me think you were perhaps planning to use a single conduit and pull multiple circuits.
 
Zee said:
For anyone wanting to run Romex or where conduit is difficult or ugly: I recommend a micro-inverter system.
No DC. All AC. You can run all the Romex you want.

E.g. new construction: rough-in romex in walls if home-owner wants no conduit visible.
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You still can’t, unless you mean after you penetrate the roof.

As for new construction, run pipe, not wires. I will never again build a house with non-permanent (read: the usual electric stuff that’s not changing until we have Mr. Fusion in the kitchen) wiring in the walls. I had a client 8 or 10 years ago who ran pipe all over the damned place and it was SO much nicer when he had solar put in than hoping the right sized wires went to all the right places for all the things he wanted.
 
tallgirl said:
You still can’t, unless you mean after you penetrate the roof.
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You can't run Romex outside, of course, but you can run microinverter output circuits in Romex inside the building envelope. We do it all the time in many jurisdictions in Texas and have never failed an inspection because of it.

Where've you been? It's been years.
 
ggunn said:
You can't run Romex outside, of course, but you can run microinverter output circuits in Romex inside the building envelope. We do it all the time in many jurisdictions in Texas and have never failed an inspection because of it.

Where've you been? It's been years.
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You're not going to fail an inspection ... after you've penetrated the roof ... but solar, wired network cabling, and "home audio" are three things I think belong in pipe. NM is definitely cheaper and easier, but pipe is SO much easier to change your mind about.

Let's see. I was working for a large solar company which imploded, after I was working for a solar manufacturer which got acquired, after I went almost broke trying to run my own solar company, and then I swore off solar. I forget which one of those things was when I stopped posting here. I also forget how many cool things I invented that are making electric grids work better there were since then. Okay, I don't know if any of them are being used, but I padded the crap out of my patent portfolio with things somewhere along the line.

After bouncing around companies which have nothing to do with "electrical" I wound up at a company which makes things that control things that run on electricity.
 
five.five-six said:
For C7 stuff, just use interduct. It’s a lot cheeper to run.
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That would also work. Mostly I mean that technology changes and replacing wiring which has been stapled to the insides of walls is a pain in the ass to replace.

Solar projects last for decades -- there was one European research company I worked with about 5 years back which had arrays that were over 30 years old. There's been a lot of change in power conversion in the past 30 years.
 
tallgirl said:
You're not going to fail an inspection ... after you've penetrated the roof ... but solar, wired network cabling, and "home audio" are three things I think belong in pipe. NM is definitely cheaper and easier, but pipe is SO much easier to change your mind about.

....
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If we're talking about this sort of thing ... (thread drift)...

Run all the loads in the house through a large gutter or j-box adjacent to the MSP. Then when I come to install a battery system with a backup loads panel, I can install a the backup panel off the gutter and easily and cleanly switch over the loads to be backed up. And then the customer can change their mind about it too, and I can come back (for more money) and change them all again.
:thumbsup:
 
jaggedben said:
If we're talking about this sort of thing ... (thread drift)...

Run all the loads in the house through a large gutter or j-box adjacent to the MSP. Then when I come to install a battery system with a backup loads panel, I can install a the backup panel off the gutter and easily and cleanly switch over the loads to be backed up. And then the customer can change their mind about it too, and I can come back (for more money) and change them all again.
:thumbsup:
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120 VAC has been a “standard” way longer than all the things I mentioned.

I built my last house in 1999 when everything I mentioned was completely different than it is today. All the indications are those technologies are going to change completely in the next 10 or 20 years. My current house was built in 1962 and is reasonably serviceable, in terms of having electricity in the quantities needed, where needed. There are issues, but technology has moved in a favorable direction, the same as it has for the past 20 or 30 years — more efficient appliances, etc.

There are some neat gadgets, but going from “stereo” to “quadraphonic” to “7.1 channel surround sound” was bigger than how many feet along how many walls. Dittos for how much network data a computer sucks down, or how many computers in a house. The trend is wireless, but “wireless” has issues, both with bandwidth and security.
 
yes, should have been clear: no Romex outdoors ever.
UV tears everything apart. Except PV wire.
 
tallgirl said:
120 VAC has been a “standard” way longer than all the things I mentioned.
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Things will be a lot more interesting when lighting circuits go to 12v or 48v DC-- LEDs don't -like- AC at 110 volts! (110.... we used to have 110....)
 
PaulMmn said:
Things will be a lot more interesting when lighting circuits go to 12v or 48v DC-- LEDs don't -like- AC at 110 volts! (110.... we used to have 110....)
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IMHO, lighting circuits will go PoE. Then you can buy luminaries with speakers or IR temp sensors or natural light sensors or whatever built into them and automating lighting title 24 things will evolve on a scale hitherto undreamt of.....



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