[RE-wrenches] Enphase and Romex

August Goers august at luminalt.com
Thu Oct 25 09:02:14 PDT 2012


Jason,



Glenn's point below sounds correct to me. We've run several microinverter
projects with romex, but always have to do the transition in the attic
because romex is not rated for wet locations. Some of the local
jurisdictions around the Bay Area are onto this point.



Also, NEC 250.64(B) deals with "securing and protection against physical
damage" for the GEC. You're probably fine running a bare 6 or 4 AWG, but
anything smaller than 6 AWG "shall be in rigid metal conduit, intermediate
metal conduit, rigid nonmetallic conduit, electrical metallic tubing, or
cable armor." So no bare 8 AWG allowed.



I believe you can also use 4/3 romex which should have a #8 ground in it
already but that might increase your wire cost.



Best,



August



*From:* re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:
re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] *On Behalf Of *Glenn Burt
*Sent:* Thursday, October 25, 2012 8:37 AM
*To:* 'RE-wrenches'
*Subject:* Re: [RE-wrenches] Enphase and Romex



Soladeck on the rooftop places it in an environment that is considered
‘wet’.

I don’t think Romex is listed for use in a wet environment.



This would force you to use the proposed jbox in the attic for the
transition location.

I also understood that you could combine the EGC and GEC into a single
conductor as long as it is continuous or irreversibly spliced, as part of
the ’08 code.



-Glenn Burt



*From:* re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org [
mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org<re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org>]
*On Behalf Of *Jason Szumlanski
*Sent:* Thursday, October 25, 2012 9:13 AM
*To:* RE-wrenches
*Subject:* [RE-wrenches] Enphase and Romex



I'm sure this has been covered, but I could not find it in the archives.



We are considering using Romex in the attic for the first time. My plan was
to use the new Enphase coupler to connect the trunk cable to Type TC-ER,
enter a Soladeck passthrough box on the roof into a junction box in the
attic where I would make the transition to 10/3 Romex. I'm hung up on the
GEC going back to the service panel. Any suggestions?



By the way, we are on NEC 2008, and in most cases there is also a
requirement for an additional grounding electrode per NEC 690.47(D) (that
shouldn't really relate to my issue).

*Jason Szumlanski** *

*Fafco Solar*
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