Line-Side Tap

[emartin00]

Is anyone here familiar with Line-Side taps? What are the options for products that can accomplish this if you have a 100A service and more than a 20A system?

thanks,

[ButchDeal]

What kind of Main Service panel (MSP) do you have? Is there room for the taps?
is the bus 100A or more (sometimes the bus is more).

[emartin00]

Don't remember what the brand was. There's a little room where the service conductors come in, but not a ton.
As far as I can tell, it's only a 100A bus.

[peakbagger]

Some utilities allow the line size tap to be made into an adaptor that plugs into between the meter and the meter socket (some don't allow these). My local utility will not allow taps to be made in the meter box and requires the tap to be either in the line to the main panel or in the main panel. I have heard that installers get away with putting taps in the meter box so its very utility specific what can and cant be done.

[tyab]

Search your PoCo www site and see what you can find under the general topics of interconnection guidelines and look for line-side taps. Your PoCo is going to be in control of the rules associated with line side taps and the AHJ will enforce those rules. For those reading and wondering why this is an issue - when you have a 100 amp service NEC 230.79(C) prevents you from downrating the OCPD below 100 amps thus you are limited to no more than 20 amp backfeed OCPD. Depending on the rules you are under it may be that you just upgrade the service to 125 or 150 amps but that can get expensive.

Besides the meter approach described above, the 4 ways I know of for line side taps are three hole terminal blocks (bulky), parallel connectors (ex Polaris IPLD series), split bolts (sometimes bulky and labor intensive) and insulation piercing (lots of different kinds). As peakbagger stated, where you can do this is very PoCo dependent - like him where I am you cannot do any line side taps in the PGE area of the service and it requires engineering review by the PoCo (higher cost) and licensed electricians, etc.

[solarix]

Line side taps are rarely doable. Any modification to the listed use of a service entry has to be in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions and very few will allow it. There are some (known as farm style) that are made for it, but otherwise good luck getting the authorities to allow it.
One way we solve this dilemma (if you have a split service with a separate main breaker and an indoor breaker panel) is to insert a subpanel (use a 100 or 125A panel in your case) between them and put a 100A branch breaker in it to limit current to the breaker panel. Then you can backfeed all you want.

[inetdog]

Line side taps are rarely doable. Any modification to the listed use of a service entry has to be in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions and very few will allow it. There are some (known as farm style) that are made for it, but otherwise good luck getting the authorities to allow it.
One way we solve this dilemma (if you have a split service with a separate main breaker and an indoor breaker panel) is to insert a subpanel (use a 100 or 125A panel in your case) between them and put a 100A branch breaker in it to limit current to the breaker panel. Then you can backfeed all you want.

Let me qualify that:
Line side taps are rarely doable when the service equipment is a single unit "meter-main" enclosure where the connection from meter socket to main breaker is solid bus bars.
Meter-main combos are much more popular on the west coast, AFAIK, so in other parts of the country with separate meter socket boxes and main panels the line side tap is much more practical.
Although some POCOs still will not allow them. Not an NEC issue.

[sensij]

In San Diego, SDG&E offers a "renewable meter adapter" as an alternative to an msp upgrade in some situations. Not inexpensive, but maybe less than otherwise unneeded work.

http://www.sdge.com/environment/renewable-meter-adapter

[jflorey2]

In San Diego, SDG&E offers a "renewable meter adapter" as an alternative to an msp upgrade in some situations. Not inexpensive, but maybe less than otherwise unneeded work.

http://www.sdge.com/environment/renewable-meter-adapter

At least half of the recent installs in my area use one of these. It is often much cheaper than replacing the existing breaker panel.

[ButchDeal]

At least half of the recent installs in my area use one of these. It is often much cheaper than replacing the existing breaker panel.

I don't know about MUCH cheaper but replacing the MSP generally has other benefits.

[emartin00]

I don't know about MUCH cheaper but replacing the MSP generally has other benefits.

Agreed, when you have that option. A lot of the residential installs the customer doesn't want to front the extra $2-3k.