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interconnection aside, i want to issue a strong, strong warning against generac's current solar, don't know if that image was just for demonstration. i spent a long rear end time at my previous company chasing issues, 85% of the 50-site fleet had hardware and software issues affecting production. the batteries themselves work pretty well but the solar has an inline switch to achieve rapid shutdown that had a 40% failure rate. they've issued a new version but i saw plenty of those ones go bad too, to the point where generac took over the responsibility of replacing them. i saw those things cook panels, found panels with holes cooked right into them! i can speak a little more freely about this now e: the switch is called 'snapRS' so you can just take a quick google to see the lawsuit-level dissatisfaction
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Oct 23, 2023 09:56
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option a: a receptacle serving as a disconnect for the cost of installing it once option b: a solid wire cable that makes for a horrible cord getting yanked around with its disconnect located in a panel somewhere and its connections made in a tiny little box located in the worst place on the appliance regional market conditions for solar installs and the annoyance of residential work have me looking at what else i can do in the field. i cannot stand fire alarm but i do enjoy programming/configuring things. i'm thinking commercial systems that require training and technical knowledge would be good to work on, but i have no idea how to break into that as a business
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Dec 15, 2023 18:42
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Danhenge posted:Out of curiosity would you be willing to say more about what regional conditions for solar installing make you want to avoid it? states change their incentives (mainly tax rebates), utilities change the payout, interest rates rise. when one state has fewer installs coming in, generally another has more. there's only so many viable roofs to install on, so between the number already installed and the number who won't get it because the math no longer works (see above), this has made installing pretty nomadic. not really up to traveling for this work, especially as margins contract. shame on an IGA posted:if you want to get into big integrated industrial building management installs look at the big commercial HVAC manufacturers and Siemens Desigo thank you for giving me a starting point in my research!
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Dec 15, 2023 19:56
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metal wiremold might be easier, it's tighter inside the boxes but it's ideal for single romex runs. if you start running this in emt, changing over to mc cable or flex you're going to need the right fittings and tools. i have seen plenty of exposed&hardwired romex installations that were safer than unprepared conduit and metal cable installs. the plastic wiremold is really only good for tv cords and poo poo
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Dec 16, 2023 05:34
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https://www.kyleswitchplates.com/gap-filler-wall-plate-depth-extender-rings/ haven't used these personally but is that what you're looking for? e: wow that's the same exact site. my bad. Extant Artiodactyl fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Dec 21, 2023 |
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Dec 21, 2023 22:11
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utilities have their own rules about who owns what, so you should check on that. with some, the customer owns just from the connection to utility (taps at the pole or handhole for underground) onward to their service equipment, some go further back and say the customer owns the service drop or lateral, some want a disconnect before the meter, some don't allow splices of any kind in the meter enclosure, some take 6 months to switch the service to a new location, it's all local conditions. probably won't change too much about the price of adding this on to a service upgrade, but it could really slow down your schedule.
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Dec 23, 2023 14:50
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that's a nice set for enphase batteries. hoping you're getting the battery only version, their generator integration is so janky and i haaaaated every second of the battery + generator install i did. until one of these companies is making the battery, generator and solar...and is not the current gen of generac products, i don't think it'll work worry free. e: i've complained in this thread before that enphase had wireless comms between the equipment but the 5p system is thankfully, finally hardwired Extant Artiodactyl fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Dec 25, 2023 |
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Dec 25, 2023 04:17
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you're right, it's not immediate. definitely avoid adding circuits to that thing though. a kitchen reno with 4-6 new circuits would justify a subpanel next to it but anything more just go for total replacement
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Dec 26, 2023 19:56
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H110Hawk posted:Speaking of being an easily excitable nerd... I got a copy of the stamped engineering stuff from my solar install, including the roof loading. Sorry aw yeah!! so there's a lot of disconnects but primarily, it's going to be the low volt rapid shutdown switch in the center. be sure that's protected, if that shorts, it fucks up critical relays in the system controller and you're plainly hosed. if the system controller is outside (it is on the plans but...y'know.), that'll also be an outdoor main panel disconnect because that 200A breaker at the top is just an Eaton CSR. the difference between a disconnect and a shutdown here being that just slapping that CSR will not turn power off but instead put into battery backup, hitting the rapid shutdown will kill the batteries and the PV. e: also, just to be clear, any one of those disconnects downstream of the system controller main will turn off either the PV or the batteries. the main panel actually isn't a disconnect as listed since it's fed downstream of it. also the comms are NOT wireless (this is a good thing, trust me) Extant Artiodactyl fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Jan 3, 2024 |
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Jan 3, 2024 18:47
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(I'm not anonymizing the whole document or pages for the roof stuff there's too much to do.)
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H110Hawk posted:
the comms to the microinverters are powerline communication, not wireless but not a dedicated wire either. because they're AC lines...this sometimes presents issues when there's electrical noise. the iq8's have been better and more responsive but if you have a "noisy" grid, sometimes they just straight up will not produce or communicate, especially at distance (ran into this most often with ground mount installations). for PV only installs under 64A continuous? just slap a "line filter" into the system for a few hundred in material and a couple hours install. for whole home backup like this, definitely over 64A? oh man. the next size up in line filter is a commercial 3-phase one, you need a cabinet to fit it and the listed price for the thing is over 2k. probably won't happen in 99% of cases though, rooftop installs in relatively standard conditions rarely pop something like this. never saw any configurations for the shutdown, just many, many warnings about installing the rapid shutdown switch correctly increasing as the months went on. it went from emails to tooltips in the installer app to physical pieces of paper taped onto the equipment to pre-wiring the shutdown switch with 4 different color wires. still had one with the pre-wire break at commissioning and enphase tried to blame us devicenull posted:the envoy this is no longer the name for this piece of equipment. before, everything started with en-. envoy, encharge, enpower....but then they decided to go with more descriptive names that have 'iq' slapped on them. so it's 'iq system controller', 'iq communications gateway' 'iq battery (model number)'. bonus: tesla calls their system controller the 'gateway'. really confusing model conventions. 'powerwall' and a number is the battery model, powerwall+ is the one with an inverter on top for PV. the 'backup gateway' is the equivalent to the system controller, so somewhere to feed in and feed out but ALSO! there's a backup switch which is just a meter interrupt, allowing you to literally install 2 pieces of equipment and have battery backup...with like 50 conditionals. yes, the powerwall and powerwall+ ship in literally the same size and color box. you can guess how i know Extant Artiodactyl fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Jan 4, 2024 |
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Jan 4, 2024 17:14
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H110Hawk posted:
the internet connection is mainly for everyone's favorite thing, software updates. enphase support referred to one as "the big nasty" which caused a lot of nuisance calls. you're also required to have a cell kit so enphase can do support when it's off-grid. there's a lot of codes and commands that are just not accessible to the installer for troubleshooting. i can't remember if it's enphase or generac that reduces the warranty if you go without internet. H110Hawk posted:
i installed enphase, generac, and tesla systems for a couple companies, stupidly i was the only one willing to learn the systems at one of the companies so i was there from planning, install and the many, many servicing calls (especially on ones i didn't plan or install myself). i'm between electrical paths in my career right now so maybe i'll end up installing these regularly again. i mainly want to take the learned skills of troubleshooting and configuration and see that through to industrial controls instead of standing in front of a misbehaving battery waiting for phone support to reset it
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Jan 4, 2024 22:38
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H110Hawk posted:
what if i told you "the big nasty" update i mentioned earlier happened before a tropical storm and several sites failed to go off-grid... i'm not really familiar with the customer-facing settings but i know it will still try to download updates over cellular, even at the scale of days and that a system not connected to the internet will flag errors to you, your installer (in the likely case they are the ones monitoring it) and enphase. i've probably been paid for a month solid of travel to plug in ethernet cables and update wifi credentials.
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Jan 5, 2024 06:27
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FISHMANPET posted:I'm curious what kind of torque screwdrivers professional electricians would carry around. The EVSE I'm getting says that the wires should be torqued to 1.2 Newton-Meters, which comes out to about 10 inch-pounds. I also for the heck of it looked what the torque rating is on a QO breaker, and that was 50 inch-pounds. I found a torque screwdriver at Home Depot that does 8-40 inch-pounds, and another at Menards that does 10-80 inch-pounds. First of all, 1.2 Newton-Meters seems like an absurdly low torque value. But I'm wondering what kind of torque range a pro would keep in their toolbox. I'm guessing that the torque needed on the service cables is higher than either of those tools can provide, so there probably isn't a "one size fits all" tool that they can use in all cases. i use a capri for my 7 to 50in-lbs and a klein torque wrench up to 250in-lbs. anything larger and i'm asking the shop to get out the automotive sized wrenches. service equipment in residential is generally 250 to the rare 60 (dual or >200A meters might go to 300 and higher), breakers 50-20 and devices well under 20. not gonna pretend this is common practice...the reactions to breaking the tool out would range from 'yeah, i should do that too (but won't)' to 'i've never torqued anything, just tug test it'. the clicks are satisfying and torquing very regularly will get you the same sense for torque that you can get for weight with portioning food with a scale. ie, 'that felt like 20in-lbs' or 'that's a 6oz chicken breast right there'. Extant Artiodactyl fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Jan 8, 2024 |
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Jan 8, 2024 21:56
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Shifty Pony posted:All wired: nice work, the clips you're looking for are the 3/8ths flex ones  klein meters take a beating and are reasonably priced. i've heard iffy things about fluke meters since the company changed hands. haven't used one of Ideal's meter and i'm not willing to take the coin flip on milwaukee's non-power tools.
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Jan 12, 2024 22:44
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the sheer amount of nuisance calls and equipment that just did not god drat do the one thing it's supposed to do with generac service calls...my god. if you had helpful support techs or field techs/engineers they were gone within months. they gave installers a complete run-around on the PV issues and never issued a recall. take your chances elsewhere imho
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Jan 13, 2024 03:16
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kastein posted:Man, all they gotta do is this but put a status page on a basic webserver on the device so you can poke it with a cell phone browser if you don't have Wi-Fi available. If only they gave enough of a poo poo to do so. their clean energy stuff works like this
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Jan 18, 2024 03:52
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frogbs posted:I was recently without power for 4 days and never want to go through that again. I'm researching options to at least run our gas furnace off of our small portable generator (basically a Honda 2200i clone). I'm assuming that if my furnace is on a 20 amp breaker that i'll also need a 20 amp transfer switch? the transfer switches that do like 4 to 10 circuits are generally all 30A inlets. might be worth getting a second one of those generators with the parallel kit or selling it to get the next size up. that amazon listing...is strange. that's an off the shelf pro/tran switch being sold as part of a portable battery backup system? furnace is likely much less than 1000w so if it's on a 20A breaker then it's likely due to other things on that circuit so you wouldn't want to kick it down to 15A to fit the transfer switch's breaker. Extant Artiodactyl fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Jan 18, 2024 |
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Jan 18, 2024 23:12
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right arm posted:just get an extension cord for the furnace to run to the gen. you can probably fit it under the weatherstripping for the door. I ran mine through my cat door as a test before I wired my interlock and inlet since I wasn’t sure if my ng meter would feed both my 13000w gen and my furnace the issue with installing a cord for the furnace is that it runs up against code for flexible cords and of more immediate concern is when it's on the generator, it'd be bypassing the thermal cutoff and any emergency shutoffs. if your pipes are at risk of bursting and the family's freezing you do what you have to do but since this is a 'paying a guy to install' situation, it should remain hardwired and have the generator feed it at the panel. interlock kits are definitely economical, there's just risk from someone down the line not understanding it's just a piece of metal to ensure both breakers aren't on. how much you want to try to fight this fundamental risk...i'm not sure. if a standby genny is in the future it should be fine.
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Jan 19, 2024 23:41
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Motronic posted:What what what? How or why would you be bypassing limit switches because you put a plug on your heater? Or plugged that plug into the outlet of a generator?  i'm thinking about it like this, for oil or natural gas furnaces. you'd have to install the cord over by the panel to make sure the switch and the cutoff still work the way they're supposed to
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Jan 20, 2024 00:03
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Motronic posted:Where exactly do you live that this external device is a thing installed in front of a residential furnace? Where I live the furnace is required to have it's own safety systems. new england, we use external cutoffs above the furnace that go at 165 degrees  and toggle switches located at the top of the stairs, outside the crawl space, outside the garage etc  once again i am learning that things are very local when it comes to heating...
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Jan 20, 2024 00:11
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usually the electrician will handle all the permitting and utility things. i deal with a utility that is now a PPL company and if it's an overhead service we just tell them we are upgrading it so st some point in the near or distant future they upsize the service drop if needed. keeps a lineman busy for a little bit anyway. if it's underground service they won't let us touch the taps in the handholes so it needs to be scheduled and you had better hope there isn't a miscommunication or anything short of clear skies because they may not come and may not even tell you. still better than central maine power, i saw a new service on the side of the house that had been ready to be connected for 6 months, cmp said they had to be the ones to do it. whole home surge protectors are actually required as of 2020 code, i also recommend a 225 amp panel for solar ready and as for afci's...not required for a panel upgrade unless the circuit is new or gets extended more than 6 feet. go with god on this one, they absolutely are safer but if someone hosed up their wiring or there's knob&tube on some circuits, you could get inconsistent trips from shared neutrals. it is easier to swap out regular breakers in place of arc faults when this happens but you'd still be caling a guy out e: this is also work that electricians generally love to get, so you might be able to shop around. or just go with the first reliable guy whose price you don't hate, that might save you insane amounts of headache. don't know the local market Extant Artiodactyl fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Jan 30, 2024 |
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Jan 30, 2024 05:01
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SyNack Sassimov posted:I haven't posted much about the final days of my panel upgrade mostly because going back over the insanity that PG&E put us through would make me smash my keyboard, but once I replaced the main subpanel it turned out I had some troubleshooting & breaker replacements to do as I hadn't fully grokked the stupidities of the old wiring and one of those stupidities was exactly what you describe. Specifically that the dishwasher/disposal are on an MWBC, which was apparently all the fuckin' rage back in the 70s/80s (as far as I know it was common until the early 2000s). So because of the shared neutral on those I had to buy a QO215CAFI, two pole 15 amp combined arc fault breaker, and those things are loving impossible to find. I eventually ended up buying it from a place in Virginia which would only deliver locally, having them drop it off at my brother's house as he lives there, and having him ship it across the country, because they were the only place that was selling for around real street price ($120) - the places I could find that would ship to me wanted a minimum of $250 for this loving thing, with one place quoting $500. there is a specific exception in the code (250.140) for ranges and dryers to use an existing 3 wire connection but if and only if it's SE cable and goes all the way back to the main service, not a subpanel; among a couple other provisions. it's meant to give a pass to situations like this until that 4 wire can get run
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Feb 5, 2024 04:24
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ah the 5p batteries...looks nice! they don't get joined like the previous model, the 3 and 10t i think it's a little unusual there's a disconnect between the controller and batteries when there's a breaker in there that will serve as a disconnect as well as a separate rapid shutdown switch but that's AHJ's for you
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Feb 25, 2024 05:33
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ROJO posted:
hoping for a good outcome. when i did an install with an enphase tech/engineer for a unique setup, he had us set up a relay the wrong way and it ended up frying a transfer switch board i also had one system controller be completely dead on arrival in a similar way, during commissioning it went into shutdown and never came out. thinking there's something up with whatever they're using for that low volt rapid shutdown initiation.
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Feb 25, 2024 18:05
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H110Hawk posted:
the shutdown mode still lets line voltage through to the loads, it just renders the solar and batteries inoperable. theoretically i guess it could fail in a way that has it trying to power the loads from empty battery but i haven't seen it. there's a tiny switch underneath a "don't touch this without talking to support" sticker that i think toggles it between on and off grid mode without the installer app getting involved. compared to generac, whose failure modes were more "you're up a creek", the enphase issues i've seen were usually limited to the initial install window and were more annoying than anything else. costly to the installer and not the customer
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Feb 25, 2024 22:08
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the poor bastards who had to raise those ~110lb units that high
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Mar 3, 2024 01:28
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H110Hawk posted:8am yesterday: all the time i had the warehouse pick gen 1 for gen 2 (or powerwall 2 for powerwall+), but honestly mounting the thing is too far along in the process to not put some blame on the electricians. they had to ignore tons of papers taped on to it talking about incompatibility and the the fact that there aren't hardwire comm ports anywhere in the gen 2. it's something you should pick up on as you're planning the runs but all's well that ends well. it's up now. they just have a pre-drilled gen 2 controller
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Mar 10, 2024 02:38
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never saw it in action but enphase does have a way to do "sunlight backup" in iq8 systems without batteries to power circuits through a relay that kicks on and off with available power. i think it was limited to 1/10th or 1/6th of the system's continuous current. something like that. you basically have to have all of the battery equipment to do this so its a really strange use case
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Mar 13, 2024 13:43
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that's a big gently caress-up. it probably cascaded from the equipment mistake leading to redoing all the connections of the system controller. it's easy to sit here and go "i never did that" but any time i touch service equipment and especially with these systems i am putting the meter on everything, taking pictures, physically touching each wire after the torquing to see if there's something to miss on the insulation or the way the lugs lined up ... two things i remember slipping through these checks: 1) a lug on the main breaker was crossthreaded from the first day it was installed, in 1989. only found out when it came time to land its new feeders. somehow lucked out on a replacement breaker, power only stayed off for a couple more hours 2) an exhaust fan circuit was fed from two breakers in the original main panel and the coin flip worked out in the hack's favor, the breakers were on the same phase causing no perceivable issues. when i moved the circuits to a protected loads panel, the coin flip did not work out in my favor, the breakers were on different phases so all the switches got 240v. 4 devices replaced, only a smart timer died, the fan was fine
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Mar 14, 2024 18:41
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that's putting the self-consumption mode to good use! only ever dealt with flat rate markets on battery systems here and while it was definitely not my job to properly communicate how ineffective discharging and charging the battery is when it's xx cents buying or selling at any time, i'd still have to answer calls asking why the battery "isn't doing anything". some sales guys absolutely did not understand this and just gave the customer the expectations of time of use markets so in turn they did not listen to anything i said and would just empty the battery at night and fill it during the day as if it was doing anything to their bill that letting the battery sit charged wouldn't. as an incentive here, you participate in utility programs where they will discharge the battery to the grid during predicted high demand times and cut you a check (or credits? i mainly saw the checks) at the end of the season (between and 1 and 2 thousand with maximum participation)i get the idea but i'd have to see more research about how effective this is at actually reducing enough strain on the grid to justify the checks as anything other than manufacturer and installer subsidies
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Mar 25, 2024 21:58
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H110Hawk posted:
in this area, summer always beats winter for production. enphase had specific training for installers in the cali market but i never took it. all our battery installs were in garages, outbuildings and basements except for exactly 1 where we had the customer sign a waiver. it just wouldn't charge below freezing and it wouldn't do much of anything below 0. it never got hot enough here for long enough to have any overtemp service calls
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Mar 27, 2024 13:37
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