pasadena_commut
DIY
While gardening yesterday an odd thought popped into my head. Mostly I'm just curious if it would work.
Our house has two panels on the back wall. It is wired like:
drop from electric company
down mast to electric company's meter above panel 1
through vertical conduit to panel 1
panel 1 (150A breaker)
100A breaker to panel 2 via horizontal conduit
50A breaker to AC unit
panel 2 (100A breaker)
all other house circuits (panel is full)
When the house was built panel 2 was the only one present. Some time before we moved in panel 1 was added, probably so that they could have AC. The mast for panel 2 was present but unused when we moved in, and was cut off and capped below the roof when the roof was last done 25 years ago. There were no wires in the mast at that time.
So the odd idea - could home solar be added by attaching it at a junction box of some kind in the middle of the horizontal conduit? That conduit is about 2 feet long. Normally when solar is added all the loads are "downstream", whereas in this case the large AC load is "upstream". Seems like it shouldn't matter though, since excess power in a system like this goes "upstream" back into the local grid, whereas here the AC unit would absorb it instead, at least when it was on. So it should work the same as if the solar was wired into Panel 1, which is presumably the way it would be done normally. If it would work electrically, would code allow it?
Our house has two panels on the back wall. It is wired like:
drop from electric company
down mast to electric company's meter above panel 1
through vertical conduit to panel 1
panel 1 (150A breaker)
100A breaker to panel 2 via horizontal conduit
50A breaker to AC unit
panel 2 (100A breaker)
all other house circuits (panel is full)
When the house was built panel 2 was the only one present. Some time before we moved in panel 1 was added, probably so that they could have AC. The mast for panel 2 was present but unused when we moved in, and was cut off and capped below the roof when the roof was last done 25 years ago. There were no wires in the mast at that time.
So the odd idea - could home solar be added by attaching it at a junction box of some kind in the middle of the horizontal conduit? That conduit is about 2 feet long. Normally when solar is added all the loads are "downstream", whereas in this case the large AC load is "upstream". Seems like it shouldn't matter though, since excess power in a system like this goes "upstream" back into the local grid, whereas here the AC unit would absorb it instead, at least when it was on. So it should work the same as if the solar was wired into Panel 1, which is presumably the way it would be done normally. If it would work electrically, would code allow it?
