[RE-wrenches] New Construction Enphase Romex / NM

[William Dorsett]

Makes sense, Jason. We always use standard metal Romex clamps. It would be nice if SolaDeck made a box that actually is sized for a couple branches. Like working on an old Ford, with these you can crawl in under the hood. And I remain a little skeptical that the foam gasket actually seals the down hill side.

 

Bill Dorsett

Manhattan, KS

 

From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Jason Szumlanski
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2016 2:46 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] New Construction Enphase Romex / NM

 

August,

 

That's exactly what we have been hit with before. I just got good news a few minutes ago that one major jurisdiction here made the exception to allow Romex into a Soladeck, and they will even consider Romex in a short piece of conduit to a roof mounted PVC box. In fact, the person I spoke to cited the outdoor electrical outlets as a prime example of where Romex is traditionally allowed into the back of a box in a wet location.

 

Logic prevails!

 

Jason

 

 

On Tue, Jul 26, 2016 at 2:56 PM, August Goers <august at luminalt.com> wrote:

Hi Jason,

 

We’re in a territory where we can’t run Romex (NM) directly into Soladecks because of the wet location issue. I actually think inspectors are easing up on enforcing this particular code grey area, but nonetheless we haven’t run NM directly into Soladecks. I imagine that using a regular NM cable clamp connector would work.

 

When we do run NM, we terminate it in indoors in a permanently accessible box typically located in the attic or on the ceiling or wall by the roof penetration location. Then, we run EMT through the roof and to our rooftop J-box. THWN-2 is run between these two boxes. Then, the microinverter (or ACPV) wire is spliced to the THWN-2 at the rooftop J-box. Yes, this means three wire types for each install! We’re using splice cap crimp connectors for all of our splices which we’re very happy with: http://www.idealindustries.ca/products/wire_termination/terminals_crimps/crimp_connector_splice_cap.php - ferrules are available for fine stranded conductors.

 

August

 

From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Jason Szumlanski
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2016 9:08 AM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: [RE-wrenches] New Construction Enphase Romex / NM

 

It seems like most jurisdictions are now allowing a transition to Romex in a Soladeck box where the Romex enters the attic immediately and runs in protected space all the way back to a load-side interconnection or combiner panel. Two issues:

 

*	How are you bringing the Romex into the back of the Soladeck? Standard metallic strain relief or strain relief with rubber compression gasket or other means?
*	Assuming you can't use a Soladeck due to the roof type and are using a standard PVC roof junction box mounted to a rail with conduit to get into the attic, are you transitioning from Enphase cable to THWN-2 in the j-box, then installing a PVC or metallic pass-through box in the attic to transition to Romex? Even though it's a short distance from the j-box to the point where the conduit penetrates the roof plane, it's still a wet location so Romex isn't allowed. In fact, some jurisdictions are requiring this even for Soladeck boxes because they consider the Soladeck an enclosure in a wet location so the inside must also be considered a wet location, making the transition to Romex improper in their opinion.

 

 

Jason Szumlanski

Florida Solar Design Group

 

 

 


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