[RE-wrenches] transformerless inverters and conductor colors

[Ray Walters]

200.6 allows  3 continuous white stripes to identify the grounded 
conductor on wires smaller than #6, so All cable's marking would 
qualify, we just can't field tape it. (which makes sense: if the white 
tape falls off, and you're left with 2 black wires, you're in for 
trouble...)
Second, we are allowed to tape wires all we want for our own purposes 
(like DC polarity, or circuit ID)  I love my 3M and Brady wire label 
makers. I could even put a label on a white wire that said: "DC 
negative, grounded conductor"
We just can't use tape all by itself to identify the grounded conductor.

R.Ray Walters
CTO, Solarray, Inc
Nabcep Certified PV Installer,
Licensed Master Electrician
Solar Design Engineer
303 505-8760

On 9/24/2013 6:05 PM, Chris Mason wrote:
> Just brought it up with AEESolar and they can supply red and black PV 
> Wire.
> In reference to marking the conductor polarity with tape, wouldn't 
> that fall foul of the NEC rule that only allows wire colouring on 
> conductors larger than #6?
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 2:17 AM, Ray Walters <ray at solarray.com 
> <mailto:ray at solarray.com>> wrote:
>
>     All Cable and probably other companies can add striping and
>     marking to any wire you need.
>
>     R.Ray Walters
>     CTO, Solarray, Inc
>     Nabcep Certified PV Installer,
>     Licensed Master Electrician
>     Solar Design Engineer
>     303 505-8760  <tel:303%20505-8760>
>
>     On 9/23/2013 10:57 PM, don at energysolarnow.com
>     <mailto:don at energysolarnow.com> wrote:
>>     Marco- You should not transition to THHN wire at all for the DC
>>     run. The PV wire is double insulated for a good reason- the
>>     transformerless inverters are such suckers for a ground fault
>>     that they need the extra protection. That's why the NEC specifies
>>     PV wire.
>>     I recently did an installation like you wrote, with a transition
>>     at the j-box. This developed an intermittent ground fault when
>>     wet, and when the P1 inverter failed it was deemed out of
>>     warranty.  Learn from my mistake-- use PV wire all the way to the
>>     inverter.
>>
>>     That said, does anyone know where to get 1000 volt PV wire in
>>     colors other than red, black, and white?
>>     It would be nice to color code the positive runs like is possible
>>     with colors of THHN.
>>     I'm thinking of buying spools of white and spraying plastic paint
>>     on them for a striped color coding.
>>
>>     Don Barch
>>     Energy Solar
>>
>>
>>         Message: 3
>>         Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 09:27:30 -1000
>>         From: "Marco Mangelsdorf" <marco at pvthawaii.com
>>         <mailto:marco at pvthawaii.com>>
>>         To: "'RE-wrenches'" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>>         <mailto:re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>>
>>         Subject: [RE-wrenches] transformerless inverters and
>>         conductor colors
>>         Message-ID: <000001ceb892$f3e41470$dbac3d50$@com>
>>         Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>>
>>         Hi all,
>>
>>         We're doing more and more installs with TL inverters (SMA and
>>         P1).
>>
>>         I'm using double-insulated wire from the array string to the
>>         first
>>         enclosure, as in j-box, and then transitioning to standard
>>         THHN/THWN wire.
>>
>>         --------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>
>>     _______________________________________________
>>     List sponsored by Home Power magazine
>>
>>     List Address:RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org  <mailto:RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>>
>>     Change email address & settings:
>>     http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>>
>>     List-Archive:http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>>
>>     List rules & etiquette:
>>     www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm  <http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm>
>>
>>     Check out participant bios:
>>     www.members.re-wrenches.org  <http://www.members.re-wrenches.org>
>>
>
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     List sponsored by Home Power magazine
>
>     List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>     <mailto:RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>
>     Change email address & settings:
>     http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
>     List-Archive:
>     http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
>     List rules & etiquette:
>     www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>     <http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm>
>
>     Check out participant bios:
>     www.members.re-wrenches.org <http://www.members.re-wrenches.org>
>
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Chris Mason
> President, Comet Systems Ltd
> www.cometenergysystems.com <http://www.cometenergysystems.com>
> Cell: 264.235.5670
> Skype: netconcepts
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Home Power magazine
>
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>
> Change email address & settings:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List rules & etiquette:
> www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>
> Check out participant bios:
> www.members.re-wrenches.org
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20130924/650a9f8b/attachment-0004.html>