I have several panels in my house (5). The main line splits in 2 from the meter and I think I have identified the 2 panels that receive those lines. One of those panels feeds a further 2 panels but that meant I wasn’t sure how the last panel was fed. I installed sense in Panel A as that had the loads I was most interested in tracking. Given I couldn’t combine 2 Sense’s into 1 account I have not purchased a second Sense.
Meter → Panel A
Meter → Panel B → Panel C → Panel D
?? Panel E ??
So I looked a bit closer at Panel A (where Sense is installed) and it looks like the incoming feed is connected to another set of wires that leave the box and possibly feed Panel E (have not tested this as not sure how). This seems somewhat unusual - see picture below. But also, does it complicate things with Sense as thought the CT clamps had to be positioned a certain way (the direction of the load) and in this case the load is coming in from the meter in one direction but going out the opposite way to the sub panel (panel E)? Apologies for my basic understanding of electricity!
Picture shows 2 black wires and 1 white wire coming in the bottom and attaching to top of the breaker/bus. Then another set of black and white wires leave the fuse box going upstairs (to Panel E I think).
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Since there is no MAIN breaker in panel A the wires that feed this panel should have a breaker “higher up”.
Can’t you install the Sense unit there and basically have all the loads in the house at one location ?
That would give you Panels A-E monitored by your sense.
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Thanks. None of the panels have a main breaker. There is one below the meter (see attached). I have spoken to an electrician and he said that is sort of OK for where I live (outside the US).
Picture 1 is the meter with the breaker circled
Picture 2 is the other side of the wall showing the line from the meter being split into 2.
Can you read the wire size of the cables from the breaker to the individual panels a-e?
They should be all the same.
What is the breaker size under the meter?
Can you open the splitter box of the other side of the meter and share a photo?
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breaker size is 200amps under the meter
inside of box (can see the CT clamps that were recently installed by solar team)
inside of panel with sense
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I don’t want to sound to negative but in the USA this is absolutely against all electric codes.
In fact, if it were my house, I wouldn’t sleep well thinking about all the things that could go wrong.
As you pointed out with the arrows, the top of that photo goes to the 200 amp breaker.
According to this chart:
You would need a 3/0 wire size to carry 200 amps
As clearly can be be seen, your wire from the breaker is only 2/0 , according to the table rated for 175 amps at 75C (because of multiple wires together in same conduit).
But because that is a short run, i wouldn’t be too worried about that.
But the split after that is totally illegal/worrisome.
If all wires from there would be 2/0 i wouldn’t be so on the edge. But you can clearly see there are wires that are significantly less in diameter.
Breakers are there to protect the wires from catching fire.
The fact that you are now also feeding solar from behind this junction means that your 200 amps from the breaker plus whatever amount of amps from your solar could go through those smaller diameter wire.
Recipe for disaster. It will burn down your home and when the insurance sends an inspector, you won’t get paid a cent !
I know this is not what you want to hear, but this setup is really unsafe and should be corrected.
Instead of this box, install another load center with breakers and use appropriate size breakers for each ot the cables going to the sub panels.
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OK thanks for your advice!
The electrical company is coming out anyway to replace the meter box as it’s rusty at the bottom. When they come out I will ask them to inspect the set up. Worringly, to get solar installed they had to approve the connection so they may already think it’s “OK”
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