<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:bookman old style,new york,times,serif;font-size:8pt"><div><font size="2">We use a high voltage coating to water proof splices, whether they be wire nuts (which I don't like to use on DC circuits) or the plastic coated terminal strips, which I prefer. That's left over from my days as a traffic signal technician and splicing loop detectors in below grade pull boxes, which, more often than not, fill with water in the rain. Joel, I used the metal boxes (with the weep hole ) in the desert, but here on the coast the plastic boxes seem to work fine, and I've had some installs that are 10 years old (back to the beginning of the ladwp program). What I saw to be a problem in the heat was the jobs I was called in to fix (other contractor's installs) where they used the plastic PVC conduit on the roof - always came loose in the heat. It's designed for
underground, not surface work.<br><br></font><font face="Bookman Old Style" size="1"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style'; font-size: 8pt;">Max Balchowsky<br>SEE Systems<br>760-403-6810</span></font><br></div><div style="font-family: bookman old style,new york,times,serif; font-size: 8pt;"><br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Joel Davidson <joel.davidson@sbcglobal.net><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Monday, August 24, 2009 1:25:36 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [RE-wrenches] raintite box mounting angle<br></font><br>
<div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div>I always drill a 3/16-inch weep hole in boxes that could fill up with water. Even properly vertically mounted boxes can get water in them. In Sacramento, I had some metal conduit homerun from the roof and then down a 25 ft north wall. The conduit was like condensing tubes that dripped water into the DC disconnect boxes at the bottom of the vertical conduit runs.</div>
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<div>Joel Davidson<br></div>
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<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Peter Parrish <peter.parrish@calsolareng.com><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Monday, August 24, 2009 1:11:49 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> [RE-wrenches] raintite box mounting angle<br></font><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: navy; font-size: 10pt;">Max,</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: navy; font-size: 10pt;">A cautionary tale. We used those puppies for a while until we had a call back from a customer with a ground fault / off line condition. We found that the box had warped, the seal rendered ineffective and the splices sitting in 0. 5” of water. After thinking about it, we decided that the 140+ deg F summer roof temperatures probably caused the plastic to warp under thermal stress. They probably would work just fine off the roof, but I can’t personally vouch for them.</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: navy; font-size: 10pt;">- Peter</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><img src="cid:1.1233315898@web201.biz.mail.re2.yahoo.com" align="left" height="80" hspace="12" width="67"><font color="navy" size="1"><span style="color: navy; font-size: 9pt;">Peter T. Parrish, Ph.D., President<br>California Solar Engineering, Inc.<br>820 Cynthia Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90065<br>CA Lic. 854779, NABCEP Cert. 031806-26<br><a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:peter.parrish@calsolareng.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:peter.parrish@calsolareng.com">peter.parrish@calsolareng.com</a> <br>Ph 323-258-8883, Mobile 323-839-6108, Fax
323-258-8885 </span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">From:</span></font></b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt;"> re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org] <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">On Behalf Of </span></b>Max Balchowsky<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Monday, August 24, 2009 12:48 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> RE-wrenches<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [RE-wrenches] raintite box mounting angle</span></font></p></div>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Bookman Old Style" size="1"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style'; font-size: 8pt;">We've been using the 6x6x4 plastic boxes with a gasket (electrical section of most home depot stores)- mount them on their side at the edge of the array. They are rated for electrical wiring and are water proof and have been accepted and passed by every electrical inspector we've had over the last few years. They are used alot by landscape contractors for j-boxes in the ground.<br><br>Max Balchowsky<br>SEE Systems<br>760-403-6810</span></font></p></div>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">From:</span></font></b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt;"> Bill Brooks <billbrooks7@yahoo.com><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> kirk@vtsolar.com; RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Monday, August 24, 2009 9:08:34 AM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [RE-wrenches] raintite box mounting angle<br></span></font><br><br></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="#1f497d" face="Calibri" size="2"><span style="font-family: Calibri; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size: 11pt;">Kirk,</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="#1f497d" face="Calibri" size="2"><span style="font-family: Calibri; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size: 11pt;">I’m fairly confident that if the manufacturer does not specify an angle for NEMA 3R (rainproof) that the default is vertical. In special cases (e.g. Outback PSPV), the NEMA 3R tests are requested at an angle, but this is fairly rare. Upshot is that NEMA 3R boxes normally cannot be mounted in the plane of the roof, while NEMA 4 and up can be mounted in the roof plane since many of these boxes can be mounted from vertical to horizontal.</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="#1f497d" face="Calibri" size="2"><span style="font-family: Calibri; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-size: 11pt;">Bill.</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">From:</span></font></b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt;"> re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org] <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">On Behalf Of </span></b>Kirk Herander, VSE<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Monday, August 24, 2009 8:26 AM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> 'RE-wrenches'<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> [RE-wrenches] raintite box mounting angle</span></font></p></div></div>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Can anyone give a recommendation for a minimum mounting angle of a raintite box? Ideally 90 degrees, but in this case I may be forced to mount it at the same angle as the panels – about 25 degrees, mounted off the roof about 6 inches. I don’t think there is any reference in the NEC to this. It will be off the roof about 6 inches in a mild climate, where they only get about 20 inches of snow a year. Thanks.</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Kirk Herander</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Vermont Solar Engineering</span></font></p>
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