Finally permit plans submitted!

[HX_Guy]

Hey guys, if you remember, I've been working on figuring out a system for our house and finally after literally a few months we have plans submitted to both the city and electric company. Decided on SolarEdge optimizers (P350) with the SE11400US inverter and (39) Canadian Solar 310W panels. There are a couple errors in the plans, one being that I specified for the inverter to be mounted outside, not in the garage and the other that they specified only 2 strings in the plans but we need 3 since the max wattage per string is 5250w with SolarEdge and we have a 12,090W system. My installer said the inverter can be changed at the time of install, it doesn't have to be exact on the plans and on the stringing, he said he talked to the city and they said it's fine to leave it as is on the plans and change it on install. Hope that's correct.

[prhamilton]

I moved my inverter to a different location then the plans specified and there was no issue during inspections.

[HX_Guy]

Good to hear.

[Dumbcluck]

Am I reading this correctly? They allowed your pc disconnect to be installed inside? I thought it had to be accessible le to fd. Maybe I misread as I am reading this on iPhone.

[HX_Guy]

Am I reading this correctly? They allowed your pc disconnect to be installed inside? I thought it had to be accessible le to fd. Maybe I misread as I am reading this on iPhone.

In the plans, theres a disconnect inside and outside, which is what the city requires if you put the inverter in the garage. We're actually going to mount the inverter outside so will only end up having one disconnect.

[Ian S]

Glad to hear. Hope all goes smoothly from here!

[Dumbcluck]

Ok. Gotcha.

[Rdjntx]

In the plans, theres a disconnect inside and outside, which is what the city requires if you put the inverter in the garage. We're actually going to mount the inverter outside so will only end up having one disconnect.

I looked at putting my inverters inside my garage as well but I would have lost too much shelf space. so we put them outside. the nice thing is the side of the house we put them on getsvery little sun ... I am hoping that will extend their life some.

[HX_Guy]

I'm wanting to put the inverter outside because the garage gets too hot inside. I've put a thermometer in there to test temps and seen it get as high as 126º in the afternoon and the specs say it starts to derate at 122º so I think it would be better outside where ambient temps will be lower.

[Rdjntx]

I'm wanting to put the inverter outside because the garage gets too hot inside. I've put a thermometer in there to test temps and seen it get as high as 126º in the afternoon and the specs say it starts to derate at 122º so I think it would be better outside where ambient temps will be lower.

yeppers .. always a consideration. I put a split AC unit in my garage that I turn off and on as I need it. going to run it a few days straight and see just how much of my over production goes away while I am home on vacation next month

[HX_Guy]

UPDATE: Our permit was finally approved today, 3 months after initially submitted. It was denied twice and finally approved on the 3rd submittal. We had to had another panel, so now there will be a total of 40 panels (12.40kW system) to do 4 strings of 10 and also needed a separate permit to derate the electrical panel to 175A. Hopefully things start moving at a much faster pace now, we need this up on the roof by the end of the year to claim the tax credit for this year.

[HX_Guy]

Solar inverter and optimizer came in so hopefully install starts in the next week or so, though with Thanksgiving next week it'll probably be the week after.







This ended up being the final setup which I designed myself.

Overall design...


Racking layout...




Electrical diagrams...






All the labels that have to be put on the equipment...


Some misc items...




The shade model/analysis I did months back to try and figure how much the neighbor's house would shade our south roof actually ended up being very accurate now that I can walk outside and see it for myself so I'm glad I ended up going with the SolarEdge system.

[russ]

Christmas came early!

[Ian S]

Really glad to hear it's all coming together!

[HX_Guy]

Install started today, they were out here about 4 hours. Got the meter box, disconnect box and inverter mounted and wires ran (gonna need to paint those tubes...not the most finesse looking install but shortest/easiest route I guess).
They also got up on the roof and started prepping for the rails by removes roof tiles and pre drilling holes in the rafters.