First a little background. I’m a retired (for 10 years) General Contractor, licensed in 1979. I’ve lost contact with most of my subs, so I’m posting here.
I installed a grid tied 5250w solar system about 20 months ago. Since then I changed my propane water heater to electric and am about to do the startup on a quad mini split system (in lieu of propane). Thus the added solar. Last year my system covered all but $165 of my electrical usage.
I added 2280 watts bringing my array to 7530w. Here’s the issue. The original array installation is located about 110’ from the main panel. I live on 26 acres and did not want the array in front of the house. I used #10 wire for the feed to the main panel, which was good for the original installation. But now the array is putting out 28 to 29 amps at peak for this time of the year. I know that my peak outputs occur in March thru May and I suspect it will exceed 30 amps by an amp or 2.
The solar breaker in the panel is located in the bottom position as required by my approved plans. When at 29a the “free air” side of the breaker is running nice and cool, but the side adjacent to the next breaker is running at about 50C on an IR gun.
Since there are no surges from solar is this setup likely to hold at 31a or should I just order the #8 and 40a breaker.
Being retired, I’m hoping to avoid the couple of hundred cost.
Thanks for your help.
I installed a grid tied 5250w solar system about 20 months ago. Since then I changed my propane water heater to electric and am about to do the startup on a quad mini split system (in lieu of propane). Thus the added solar. Last year my system covered all but $165 of my electrical usage.
I added 2280 watts bringing my array to 7530w. Here’s the issue. The original array installation is located about 110’ from the main panel. I live on 26 acres and did not want the array in front of the house. I used #10 wire for the feed to the main panel, which was good for the original installation. But now the array is putting out 28 to 29 amps at peak for this time of the year. I know that my peak outputs occur in March thru May and I suspect it will exceed 30 amps by an amp or 2.
The solar breaker in the panel is located in the bottom position as required by my approved plans. When at 29a the “free air” side of the breaker is running nice and cool, but the side adjacent to the next breaker is running at about 50C on an IR gun.
Since there are no surges from solar is this setup likely to hold at 31a or should I just order the #8 and 40a breaker.
Being retired, I’m hoping to avoid the couple of hundred cost.
Thanks for your help.
