[RE-wrenches] Rapid shutdown for pole mounts

[Dan Fink]

Hi Aaron, boB, Wrenches;

I think Aaron brings up a good point, and it's certainly confusing to me.

The boldface type heading of 690.12 is "Rapid Shutdown of PV Systems on
Buildings"

The body of the 690.12 text begins with "PV system *circuits* installed on
or in buildings shall....."

690.2 defines "Photovoltaic source circuit" as "Circuits between modules
and from modules to the common connection point(s) of the DC system"

and "Photovoltaic output circuit" as "Circuit conductors between the PV
source circuit(s) and the inverter or DC utilization equipment."

"PV system" from the heading of 690.12 is not defined in 690.2, other than
that the definition of "Photovoltaic system voltage"  specifically includes
both PV output and source circuits.

To me the confusing part of 690.12 is "PV Systems on Buildings" is that
"system" is not defined, and tends to imply rooftop arrays. But "PV system
circuits installed on or in buildings shall....." is pretty clear. I
interpret it to mean anything DC and PV stuck to the side of building like
conduit, etc, or running inside....which means it applies to ground-mount
arrays too if they terminate outside or inside the building.

What I'm seeing as the easy work-around for us off-grid folk is the old
"power shed" idea containing battery bank, balance of system, inverter
etc....just build it within 10 feet of the PV array and you're fine.

Any thoughts?


Dan Fink,
Executive Director;
Otherpower
Buckville Energy Consulting
Buckville Publications LLC
NABCEP / IREC accredited Continuing Education Providers
970.672.4342




On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 3:30 PM, boB at midnitesolar.com
<boB at midnitesolar.com>wrote:

>
> Bill Brooks should probably respond to this also, but reading the NEC, it
> looks like if the wires
> do not go inside the building to run more than 5 feet (as the crow flies),
> the the rapid disconnect
> does not apply.    OR, less than 10 feet from the array IF the PV is
> mounted on that building.
>
> boB
>
>
>
>
> On 4/18/2014 1:34 PM, Aaron Mandelkorn wrote:
>
>> The rapid shutdown language is so confusing. When looking at the rapid
>> shutdown language, does PV systems "on" a building refer to only situations
>> where the array is on a building; or does it include DC conductors as well.
>> For example, if the DC conductors from a pole mounted array run up the side
>> of a building before punching in to the inverter, does this require rapid
>> shutdown?  Is this PV system considered "on" a building?
>>
>> Aaron
>>
>> Aaron Mandelkorn
>> Owner/Solar Specialist
>> Renewable Energy Outfitters
>> 719-221-5249
>> 970-596-3744
>> www.reosolar.com
>> reosolar at gmail.com
>>
>>
>>
> _______________________________________________
> 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/20140419/aa33d6c6/attachment-0003.html>