I recently, today, had my inverter and panels connected. Im still waiting on the city to put a new meter in but my question is where do I connect the Sense solar leads? I had assumed they would attach the solar system to my electrical panel in my basement but they never accessed the inside of my home at all. I attached a couple of pictures hoping for some help. Thanks!
Looks like the solar “backfeeds” your mains in that box just below your current meter. In my case solar does the backed via a breaker in my main breaker box, but code may be different for you. Not sure how your power is router to your basement breaker after that. But you’ll need to probably locate the solar CTs in the “backfeed box”.
Yeah I had assumed there would be a breaker in my main box too but they never place it there. So your thinking it is located in the box directly below the main meter? I was comfortable hooking up the main Sense unit, this will most definitely be an electrician messing with it.
There is probably a line side tap in this box that comes from the inverter and attaches to your mains. The Sense Solar CTs would connect in that box. You could do the Main Sense CTs in there too. This issue is getting the CT feeds to the Sense box that is attached to a breaker in your panel. There’s no panel outside that I see.
Ill have to have an electrician look. The connection directly below that box runs right to the electrical panel in my basement, maybe 5 foot away. Hopefully its something as simple as running the Sense Solar CTs through that and up to the box above. Distance definitely isn’t an issue.
An electrician should be able to make short work of this. Just run the CT wires through the conduit and connect it all up.
1 Like
For the record, where the feeds are further apart, there are CT extension cables available:
1 Like
I also have a line-side tap directly at my main meter. I can confirm you may install the Sense Solar CTs anywhere you have access to the AC wires from your inverter, so it’ll work in the inverter itself, in the PV meter box, in the AC disconnect box, or in the box containing the tap below your main meter.
However, there may be code or utility regulations against modifying anything between a meter and the electric lines, so I would recommed trying to install the CTs in your inverter. There was plenty of room in the DC disconnect box below my SolarEdge inverter (the one with the circular switch), and there are screw-off ports on the bottom of that box for exactly this thing.
I ran a bit of extra conduit from my inverter to my electrical panel for the Sense Solar CTs
While I was in there, I also ran an ethernet cable to replace the SolarEdge cellular kit. That cell kit only updates data every 4 hours, while an ethernet connection is every 15 minutes. Yes, my Sense solar updates waaaay faster than that, but I still like having 2 sources of somewhat real time data.
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.