Hi,
About a year ago, I completed a basement remodel project. Part of which included a breaker box relocation/expansion. My Philly home has 100 amp service which was fine at the time, so I moved the main panel about 20 feet away from it's original location.
To accomplish this, I replaced the main with a 100 amp 4 circuit breaker box and put in two 100amp breakers and used 0/1 aluminum wire to serve the new 100amp 30 space sub-panel.
I'm now looking to install solar panels on the roof to the tune of 5kw. The first inverters I looked at output 26amp, so I need a 32.5amp breaker to serve the solar. My solar will exceed the 120% rule for the busbar, and derating to a 90 or 80 amp service doesn't seem ideal.
What I was thinking was I would change the main panel, to a 200amp 4 circuit box, and still feed my subpanel with the 100amp breakers, I can then use two additional breakers in the main to deal with the possible 26/32.5 amps of input from the solar.
My question revolves around the service drop(It's a skinny one that was likely sized to 100amp service). If my subpanel with all my circuits is still only 100 amps, do I need to change any of the service drop wire, or the wire from the meter to my main?
I read code requires that the solar ties into your circuit in the opposite end from your supply on the busbar, but my circuits are controlled by a subpanel. Does solar code require that the solar be tied into my subpanel, or can I tie into the main, like I describe above?
Thanks in advance!
About a year ago, I completed a basement remodel project. Part of which included a breaker box relocation/expansion. My Philly home has 100 amp service which was fine at the time, so I moved the main panel about 20 feet away from it's original location.
To accomplish this, I replaced the main with a 100 amp 4 circuit breaker box and put in two 100amp breakers and used 0/1 aluminum wire to serve the new 100amp 30 space sub-panel.
I'm now looking to install solar panels on the roof to the tune of 5kw. The first inverters I looked at output 26amp, so I need a 32.5amp breaker to serve the solar. My solar will exceed the 120% rule for the busbar, and derating to a 90 or 80 amp service doesn't seem ideal.
What I was thinking was I would change the main panel, to a 200amp 4 circuit box, and still feed my subpanel with the 100amp breakers, I can then use two additional breakers in the main to deal with the possible 26/32.5 amps of input from the solar.
My question revolves around the service drop(It's a skinny one that was likely sized to 100amp service). If my subpanel with all my circuits is still only 100 amps, do I need to change any of the service drop wire, or the wire from the meter to my main?
I read code requires that the solar ties into your circuit in the opposite end from your supply on the busbar, but my circuits are controlled by a subpanel. Does solar code require that the solar be tied into my subpanel, or can I tie into the main, like I describe above?
Thanks in advance!
