Seeking for advise for a new solar project

[1qqq]

Hello everyone,

I'm a newbee regarding installs. We haven't installed yet but the plan is to line side tap so we can avoid an mpu. My questions are as below:

1. Would we need to service upgrade this for line side tap?
2. Does the meter need to be relocated or just the AC unit can do?
3. What else can we do to pass this in inspection soon? My apologies as I'm not really sure what the violations are for this one.

Hoping for suggestions and advises here. Thank you.

 

[jaggedben]

Wow, what a gnarly location. The line side tap questions would be practically the least of my concerns. How close is that air conditioner to the service panel? If less than 3ft who allowed that and will it be trouble for the homeowner? (Also do any cable guys ever take any pride in their work?)

As far as your questions, you haven't really provided enough information. Panel bus rating, inverter rating, and a picture inside the panel would help us comfirm if a line side tap indeed avoids a panel change. But generally one does a line side tap (where legal and feasible) because it avoids a service upgrade.

Just from the look of it, I would want to know if the conductors coming down from the weatherhead through the meter socket are rated for 125A. The service riser and meter look older than the panel which makes me ask; the panel could have been replaced without a permit. This is not important for doing a compliant line side tap but if a inspector will hold up approval because the existing installation is non-compliant and never approved you would want someone to be committed to paying to fix that.

Aside from that concern, the meter does not need to be moved to satisfy the NEC, although the utility could have a different opinion.

 

[1qqq]

Thank you @jaggedben for your thoughts. We're doing a 6.8 kW 17 x 400W Canadian mods with 5.9 kW hoymiles micros. Panel labels are not there anymore. Yes unfortunately, the service conductors from the weatherhead to the meter socket are not rated for 125A so yeah. Bad thing is that AC Unit is less than 3 feet. Homeowner just said he forgot , oh well. So this calls up for a utility service upgrade and moving the AC Unit to somewhere else, right?

 

[PWDickerson]

I believe that meter base is only rated for 60A. You could load side connect and land on a breaker if you reduced the main breaker to 100A. There almost certainly is no bussing behind those knockouts, or someone would have used the space, which means you would need a sub-panel. But with gear that old, I would replace it all and either move it to a new location or move the AC unit.

 

[1qqq]

@PWDickerson Thank you. Yes the AC unit will need to be relocated, Will have to upgrade the meter base as well. Utility said it doesn't really concerned them but the City or AHJ does.