Second Solar System

Technical Questions
1

Hi all, I’m getting a second (separate) solar system added to my house, would i need to buy another flex add on grip or would this not alter my current set up?

My guess is I’d need another grip to attach to the new solar system, but I’m not sure.

Appreciate any advice you can give.

2

@synbios88 , the Sense monitor can only accommodate a single second pair of CTs for solar. I have seen folks on the community forum do two things to enable Sense to capture the current from a second set of solar backfields:

  1. If the backfeed breakers are close together you can put each of the two backed wires connected to same leg through the same solar CT. You need to be careful to make sure that that both CTs have the same orientation to current flow through the wires. The recommended orientation from Sense.

Solar sensors
The solar sensors should be placed directly onto each leg of the incoming solar feed (A/C side only). They must be matching in the direction so that the polarities match up during the in-app solar setup. As a reference, the solar sticker should be facing toward the breaker, and the Sense logo should be facing towards the solar source.

  1. If the backfeed breakers/wires are too far apart, I have seen people who have constructed a 2 specially wired pairs (in parallel) of CTs using two sets of flex sensors.

There’s also the tricky big of whether you should go through solar calibration again. I’m guessing you can get away without it as long as you keep orientations and legs the same as your original (hopefully working) solar setup.

4 Likes
3

Im about to add 6 more panels to an existing 21 panel solar system. I have the Sense Solar and I am connected to the 21 panels with the Solar CTs that came in the box. My new 6 panels are gonna require me to use a new breaker that already exists and its just a real cost effective easy way to do it BUT I am now going to have to add two more Solar CTs to the new breaker and of course the Sense monitor has no more ports to add two more CTs so thats not going to happen. Im looking for any ideas or solutions.

4

@GetOutside , read my comments above. You have two potential options, given the CT limitations, depending on the physical layout of your new and existing solar backfeed breakers.

5

I have two inverters. Each goes to a common breaker box outside so you can turn them off individually if needed. Then that feed another box which has a breaker that feeds the house and one set of lugs for the combined solar feed. That is where my sense meter is. It sees full solar and still properly reads internal. Of course because the wifi in these units are so bad I had to run an antenna wire inside.

6

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.