[RE-wrenches] BOS equipment

Sat Jul 26 19:50:27 PDT 2025

Yep, EG4 is definitely listening to installers and building out a complete
line of products. There is no denying that. I was an early detractor for
this DIY focused manufacturer, but that has quickly changed.

Even the modern and venerable Enphase has their ridiculous System
Controller with a tapered enclosure and 1" offset backplate from the wall.
It's infuriating trying to get in and out of that thing.

I do like the Midnite AIO prepunched holes, but the plastic bushings they
provide don't work with my knockout punch set. They are too big. I have
resorted to carbide bits to match the hole size, but getting those lined up
/ centered is not easy.

Jason Szumlanski
Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group
NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)
Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956
Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208

On Sat, Jul 26, 2025, 6:57 PM MDElectricSolar via RE-wrenches <
re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:

> The Discover Helios battery can be purchased with a pre-built gutter box
> that mates it together with a Solark 15 K. The problem is most of our
> installs are at least two of the Helios batteries.
>
> Michael D Nelson
> MD Electric & Solar, Inc.
> 707-684-0064 mobile
> 707-884-1862 office
> www.mdelectricsolar.com
> www.facebook.com/mdelectricandsolar
>
>
> On Jul 26, 2025, at 2:56 PM, jay via RE-wrenches <
> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
> 
>
> What to me this thread shows is the lack of complete engineering from
> these OEM's to be able to  actually install their equipment to NEC
> specifications by not providing the needed BOS equipment.
> I respect the ingenuity that has been shown here in creating the products
> the OEM’s should have available.
>
> Whether it’s OEM conduit bodies/box to fit specific batteries or inverters
> or how to run cables or even mount cables to their batteries or battery
> combiner box/breakers etc improvement is way overdue.
>
> I mean in the 90’s Trace had a fully integrated power panel with all the
> parts, or Outback, or Magnum or Midnite.
> Why have we gone backwards such that we the installers are having to do
> custom work to create  products to install the  system?  These companies
> can buy expensive equipment from china but can’t supply a conduit box that
> has the same KO pattern as the inverter or integrate to the battery?
> I don’t know about you all but I always install a bypass switch, why don’t
> they have one that integrates into the system?
>
> It’s one of the reasons i’ve been buying EG4 products.  They are providing
> a complete set of parts all from 1 OEM:  inverters/batteries,conduit
> bodies, battery cables. For example they have a mounting jig that comes
> with the battery so you can mount the inverter bracket exactly where it
> needs to be so they can be attached together, that is slick.  It saves me a
> ton of time/hassle and the customer money.  They have touch safe quick
> connect battery connectors and they sell the parts to make them yourself, I
> like that.
> Oh believe me there is any number of things I’d have them
> change/modify/upgrade but to me they have been thinking like an installer
> with providing all this equipment.
>
> In the mean time I”ll wait for the others to bring the parts that make it
> easy  and code to install.
>
> Jay
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Jul 26, 2025, at 8:18 AM, Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches <
> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
> I use 10x10 gutters for Midhite AIO and 12x12 for Sol-Ark. It works great.
>
> I attached a pic of a recent Midnite installation. Note that the hack job
> flex conduit is not mine. That was the builder's electrical contractor.
>
>
> Jason Szumlanski
> Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group
> NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)
> Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956
> Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208
>
> Jason Szumlanski
> Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group
> NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)
> Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956
> Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208
>
>
> On Fri, Jul 25, 2025 at 6:43 PM Zeke Yewdall via RE-wrenches <
> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
>> I noticed this on a SolArk job -- I think I bought out all of NW montana
>> of 1" offset nipples to get 3 of them mounted to an 8" gutter once.
>>
>> On the Midnite AIO's a 10" gutter is perfect to not need any offsets.
>> But you can mount smaller gutters on various levels of unistrut to space
>> them off the wall.  An 8" gutter on standard unistrut works fairly well,
>> and I think you could space a 6" off with two or three levels of unistrut
>> to get it to line up well.  Of course then the gutter is too far from the
>> wall to easily mount other equipment on top of it, and it can be harder to
>> do rear entries into the gutter from the wall.  That's where the 10" gutter
>> is nicer, because it can catch the front of the inverter, as well as an AC
>> panel or such mounted off to the side of the inverter, and catch pass
>> throughs into the back of it.  I'm not sure about the SolArk and Fortress,
>> but I imagine they'd be pretty similar.
>>
>> Zeke
>>
>>
>>> Message: 1
>>> Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2025 15:19:29 -0700
>>> From: William Miller <william at millersolar.com>
>>> To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>>> Subject: [RE-wrenches] Knockouts far from the backplane.
>>> Message-ID: <12d27fd24ffa361c26a5955f888d098e at mail.gmail.com>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>>>
>>> Friends:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I have noticed increasingly that inverters I have been using (Soul-Arc
>>> and
>>> Fortress Envy) have knockouts that are far in front of the backplane on
>>> which the inverter would be mounted.  Connecting conduit from these
>>> inverters into standard gutters, load centers and pull boxes is quite a
>>> hassle:  Offsets can eat up a lot of vertical space.  Pulling elbows
>>> (LBs)
>>> don?t really work in this situation.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> See diagram below:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> One solutIon is to stack pull boxes or gutters, althouigh this eats up
>>> vertical space and increases the labor and parts count:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> How are the rest of you handling this backplane problem?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> William Miller
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Miller Solar
>>>
>>> 17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422
>>>
>>> 805-438-5600
>>>
>>> www.millersolar.com
>>>
>>> CA Lic. 773985
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Zeke Yewdall
>> PV Engineer
>> NABCEP #031508-89
>> zeke at darkforestsolar.com
>> 303-523-3592
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