Recent content by Mjs

13kW output from 16kW (STC rating) of panels seems pretty good to me. I'd say that is about maximum output. Does anybody regularly see output that approaches the STC rating for your panels? I usually allow 20-25% of the STC rating for system loss.

Industrial Metal Supply or any other large metal supply company.

Many years ago I imported a pallet of product from China to Los Angeles. While everything worked out it was time consuming to deal with. Once the goods were released from the customs warehouse they needed to be picked up immediately or incur storage charges. Only I could not get a release date...

You have it right. 2 parallel strings of 5 panels in series. Only one 10-amp PV breaker needed.

If you're being inspected anything over 600 volt will probably require an EE to draw the plans. You could do a 240V step up to 480 volt and then down to 120/240 on the other end. Benefit being the inverter will only see 240 so no imbalance if using a HF inverter. Drawback is the expense of a 600...

Bought 21 JA 540 panels back in June. Working well for me.

One thing I can't see in your pictures is the ground connection from the panel to ground rod. Looks like plastic (?) flex into the side of an LB. I'd clean that up and make sure it complies with local code and standards. Where I was it was typically required to run the ground conductor in metal...

You only need grounding bushings or lock nuts if the conductors are over 250 volt to ground and the conduit enters through a concentric knock out. Use a regular lock nut on each side of the box and return the grounding bushings.

Most consumer grade jumper cables are thin wire surrounded by thick insulation. This is a great marketing strategy as it makes the cables appear to be heavier wire then they are. It works fine for jump starting a car since the load on the wire is short duration (typically a few seconds if a car...

I would be concerned about water intrusion into the box at the panels. And then flowing down thru the "conduit" and into your basement. Always a good practice to have cables exit from the bottom of an outdoor junction box especially when waterproof hardware is not available.

You can unbrick with the Conext configuration tool. I believe that the Insight Gateway can also do this with later firmware.

Starlink speeds will vary as the satellites are moving quickly overhead and handing off the connection between satellites as they move out of or in to your cell. Your wisp connection will always have a more stable speed. Our Starlink speeds have increased as more satellites come online but they...

Four 1.5T (Mirage and Midea) units in mstr Bdrm, kitchen, living room and garage; two 1T (Midea) in guest bdrms and one 2T (York) in garage. All are 240V inverter heat pump except for the 2T and one 1.5T garage units. We don't run them all at the same time usually 3 or 4 at once during the day...

I've seen this happen with a neighbor. Washer (and its replacement) wouldn't run with an old Trace inverter. Ran fine on generator power. Runs fine now with the new OutBack inverter. We have our Samsung washer connected to an APC Line-R power conditioner. Don't know how much it really helps...

The inspector is not going to tell you how to fix / install anything. Not his job and he and his employer (the AHJ) probably prohibit it as they would them create liability for themselves. NFPA, the publisher of the NEC, is a private standards organization. They only write their best practices...