[RE-wrenches] SPI 2014

[David Brearley]

Daniel,

Here's some of what I learned about solutions for 690.12.

Residential rapid shutdown

SMA's TL-US series inverters can meet the 10 second requirement in 690.12 without further mediation. Therefore you can meet 690.12 with these string inverters by adding a ground-level rapid shutdown controller (an e-stop button) and a rooftop rapid shutdown box (a pass-through wiring box w/ contactors to open each source circuit conductor.) 

While SMA may be working on an in-house solution for these components, Bentek solar has a third-party solution that will be available very soon:

http://www.bentek.com/solar-products/disconnect-systems/rapid-shutdown-systems/

This same product works w/ ABB UNO-series inverters, which can also meet the 10-second requirement w/out additional mediation. 

It sounds like these products will run about $700 in the short-term, but are expected to sell for less than $500 as demand scales.

Commercial rapid shutdown

Many companies are leading with low-profile inverter skids that allow 3-phase string inverters to be located on a commercial rooftop w/in the array field. In some cases, these mounting products are offered from the inverter company (AE), but there are also many third-party providers (SolarBOS, Bentek, etc.) w/ solutions for ABB inverters, SMA inverters, etc.

The motivation to put string inverters on commercial rooftops is largely driven by the cost of arc-fault & rapid shutdown enabled combiners. If you want to use a central inverter, it looks like you'll have to spend 2X as much money on your source circuit combiners as you are now in order to meet these code requirements.

David Brearley
Senior Technical Editor, SolarPro magazine
NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional
david.brearley at solarprofessional.com
Direct: 541.261.6545

Check out this AMAZING music video tribute to SolarPro: http://bit.ly/1qfMCCh




On Oct 29, 2014, at 12:45 PM, re-wrenches-request at lists.re-wrenches.org wrote:

> 
> From: "Daniel Young" <dyoung at dovetailsolar.com>
> Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] SPI 14 Post Show Request for Comments
> Date: October 29, 2014 9:34:48 AM CDT
> To: "'RE-wrenches'" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
> Reply-To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
> 
> 
> I too am interested. Especially after the teaser from SMA that they would
> unveil their solution to the 2014 NEC 690.12 fiasco at the show. I see
> nothing on SMA's website as of yet.
> 
> With Regards,
> 
> Daniel Young, 
> NABCEP Certified PV Installation ProfessionalTM: Cert #031508-90
> NABCEP Certified Solar Heating InstallerTM: Cert #SH031409-13
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On
> Behalf Of Bill Loesch
> Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 8:21 AM
> To: RE-wrenches
> Subject: [RE-wrenches] SPI 14 Post Show Request for Comments
> 
> 
> Gentlemen & Ladies,
> 
> Anyone who went to the LAS show have any comments? Hopefully, not everything
> that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
> 
> Thanks for sharing,
> 
> Bill Loesch
> Solar 1 - Saint Louis Solar
> 314 631 1094

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