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Water ingress into Powerwall+ inverter in garage
- Thread starter kairojya
- Start date
Oooooo if they did the passthrough raceway on my load center which I presume is an OCPD enclosure... then I would have to get another baller-azz placard.
But yeah... seems way simpler than some stupid-azz-u-shaped-conduit-run. And it wouldn't need drainage
I polled all the people in the office and all that were available had the same wrong knowledge that I had regarding this issue. I love learning the code backwards and forwards. Before long I will take my California Certified Residential Electrican test, might as well since all this code is bouncing around in my head.Oooooo if they did the passthrough raceway on my load center which I presume is an OCPD enclosure... then I would have to get another baller-azz placard.
View attachment 702252
But yeah... seems way simpler than some stupid-azz-u-shaped-conduit-run. And it wouldn't need drainage
Lol wwhitney probably got a perfect score on the exam...
So for my system assuming the big-azz disconnect, TEG2 (with internal panelboard as a generation panel), Load Center, and Enphase Envoy were part of a design... you guys would have done something like Sunrun and put some U-conduit from the TEG2 to the Envoy?
Since you wouldn't raceway the load center... or maybe you'd just put a gutterbox under all of this and skip the conduit altogether?
We usually install a gutter box with our PW systems as it's cleaner looking IMO than an octopus of conduit.
But imagine how clean the installs are gonna look once you use load centers as gutterboxes (with an extra baller placard of course).
Lol @kairojya is probably like "wtf what does any of this NEC crap have to do with water in my Powerwall+".
Back on his thread topic... I'm surprised so much water and debris got into his home run conduit to begin with. I was looking at my home run conduit with a endoscope that I pushed up on a stick to look at the conduit/flashing coming off my roof. Water would literally have to flow upwards to make it into my home run conduit (or there would need to be a hole in the conduit/flashing).
Electrph
Member
what could possibly make you think any of us want to hear about your holes ?!?Oh dang, I forgot to update on myholes too....
So Sunrun came out to my house and they agreed the LB for the conduit housing the rooftop home run needs a drain hole on the LB.
But on the big U-shaped conduit, they came up with a novel way to interpret 2017 NEC 225.22. @wwhitney will appreciate this.
So here's a pic of a "conduit" between my TEG2 and backup loads 200A load center. (PS, those are some damn sweet azz placards).
View attachment 702186
And here's the big U shape that goes from the TEG2 to the Enphase Envoy.
View attachment 702189
According to Sunrun's the NEC expert dude... he says there is no fundamental difference between the conduit in the first picture or the second picture. Since the first piece of conduit doesn't need any drain/weep holes, then the longer U-shaped conduit is also exempt from needing drain/weep holes.
I said "ok... but the short/stubby conduit is 'arranged to drain into both the Gateway and Load Center'... and both of those have weep holes in the bottom. So that means gravity at its lowest point will have drainage. However, the U shape has no drainage at its lowest point."
He countered saying this rule was meant to only encompass long-run conduits... and since the conduit between two sub panels is short there is no drainage requirement. That's why your outdoor AC condenser could have a conduit putting power to the compressor and there is no special drainage.
The guy took out his code book and it said for 225.22:
He said this language clearly exempts the U shape from needing drainage since the U is not a "raceway" it is just a short connector. He said Sunrun has installed conduit like this hundreds of times and never put in drainage for the U. He left after putting a hole in the LB next to the Envoy.
Edit: the expert also came to the conclusion I have too many disconnects on my house. He cannot fathom why I have 3 ways to disconnect energy coming from PG&E all sitting within 6 feet of one another. He said he has not seen Sunrun have to put a 200A big azzz disconnect on an install this tiny (7 kWp DC) in the Bay Area before. And he was like "wtf you have like 3 disconnects on each of the 3 batteries this is stupid." He counted that I have 9 more disconnecting means than what would be necessary to be code compliant. So at least he and I agree on something
nah I enjoy learning about more and more things having been done wrong with my install.The crew lead today told me that the conduit on the roof is supposed to terminate in a U shape under the panels like you described. Where water would have to flow up the surface of the roof to enter the conduit. The exact entry point of the water wasn’t shared with me, if it even was identified. I haven’t been up there to see myself and I should have asked him for a picture. Im not all that interested in accessing my roof myself - 2 story, heights, etc
As it happens, we had a 20~ min thunderstorm blow through today a couple hours after they left. First time it’s rained here in 3 weeks which is crazy for my area. No water in my inverter yet.
