400a main panel needed?

[Subestile]

Yes that solar breaker clearly goes into the same position as a line side tap based on the wiring diagram you shared from the panel. We went over this (I think hedges and me) back on page 2 of this thread.

Thank you for your patience with me as I figure all of this out and all your insight its been very helpful. I will do a manual test on the loads on the house tomorrow night. I have referenced the diagrams from previous in the post, though its still a little greek to me as I expand my knowledge base. I am still struggling to find someone locally for the electrical side I thought I had a source for a solar installer to help with the DER and final hookups but that has fallen through so I am likely to initially hook up the system offgrid initially and then complete the DER to grid tie the system so I can backfeed, that being said I want to make sure I have all the necessary requirements already in place for the backfeed capabilities so I do not have to drastically change the system when that time comes. the original solar installers did not leave me much room to work with as they put much of the equipment on both sides of my main panel. I will post a picture shortly of what I am referencing. my thoughts are like mentioned before in adding a 125a subpanel which I believe would give me the required backfeed capabilities overall but I may be misunderstanding something still.

 

[Subestile]

 

[rmacgurn]

I agree, the solark 15k is leading for the momnet as a viable option. also available locally and I dont pay sales tax in AZ on solar equipment so that vs waiting on shipping paying out of state taxes its close enough in cost to be a wash for me. Is there a good app/website for drawing up the electrical diagrams to submit to SRP? with changing the inverter its become significantly more complex than just the additional panels/inverters into the original combiner box that it was before.

i have the EG4 18kpv there is no tax if you buy and have it shipped to AZ unless AZ sales tax applies. i have played with both and no issues setting up or using mine in self-consume mode solar/Battery/grid nothing extra to buy just intercepted the 3/000 from street meter use as inputs to the AC on inverter, added the batteries (with 3 5kw discharge is 300amps at 48 v 14,400W) output but never seen more than 9.5KW and added the DC connected to the trackers in the inverter MPPTs and then connected the output to input buss bars in the main 240v panel up and running in a few hours.

 

[rmacgurn]

Not to hijack this thread but i am now doing a large house in Arizona for a friend and planned on using Enphase. the home has a 400amp service entrance and the panel is full including two 100amp 2 poles going to sub-panels in a casita and a game room/entertainment area with 4 car garage. The goal here is to use as much PV as we can generate during the day to reduce consumption (last month over $700) on APS cheapest rate TOD/w Demand (avg about 15-17cents). Have room for approx 14.5-15.5KW (of if i get creative maybe can push to 18kw) depending on which panel size from 420 to 460W. I don't want to have to spend a ton on the electrician but was thinking another approach might be to use 2 SolArc or EG4 15kw inverters and run the panels DC in either case owner wants 14K battery or more. limited on ground space due to HOA and set backs so 34 panels looks like my limit. I'm pretty far along with Enphase using IQ8A or H (depending on available stock) and a 10T and 3T battery with a system controller 2. just not sure i can get what i want in running home loads from PV first before selling back and paying more to buy again. Seems they don' have a true self-consume that uses PV and Battery before hitting grid and no peak shaving (both easy to do on hybrid AIO units. Batteries and two inverters much less than same from Enphase too. but how to wire up two string inverters has be baffled. i know one way or another i will need to put an outdoor rated 200amp panel next to the 400 amp service and move one of the 2 pole breakers to that panel and leave rest for solar.

anyone done something like this with w AOI's or Enphase before please chime in.
thanks

 

[Subestile]

Not to hijack this thread but i am now doing a large house in Arizona for a friend and planned on using Enphase. the home as a 400amp service entrance and the panel is full including two 100amp 2 poles going to sub-panels in a casita and a game room/entertainment area with 4 car garage. The goal here is to use as much PV as we can generate during the day to reduce consumption (last month over $700) on APS cheapest rate TOD/w Demand (avg about 15-17cents). Have room for approx 14.5-15.5KW (of if i get creative maybe can push to 18kw) depending on which panel size from 420 to 460W. I don't want to have to spend a ton on the electrician but was thinking another approach might be to use 2 SolArc or EG4 15kw inverters and run the panels DC in either case owner wants 14K battery or more. limited on ground space due to HOA and set backs so 34 panels looks like my limit. I'm pretty far along with Enphase using IQ8A or H (depending on available stock) and a 10T and 3T battery with a system controller 2. just not sure i can get what i want in running home loads from PV first before selling back and paying more to buy again. Seems they don' have a true self-consume that uses PV and Battery before hitting grid and no peak shaving (both easy to do on hybrid AIO units. Batteries and two inverters much less than same from Enphase too. but how to wire up two string inverters has be baffled. i know one way or another i will need to put an outdoor rated 200amp panel next to the 400 amp service and move one of the 2 pole breakers to that panel and leave rest for solar.

anyone done something like this with w AOI's or Enphase before please chime in.
thanks

for 18kw of panels you only need 1 solark 15k (19200w max input pv per spec sheet), batteries are where I am thinking ill be limited with one solark but will be going likely with the eg4 or ruixu 30kw rack in addition to my tesla batter from the original system.

 

[Subestile]

Thanks for all the help, system is up and running, peak production I have seen is in the 17-19kw production (I have east and west facing panels so we will see what summer holds) first bill after getting the system completely active and running properly was negative was only active for 3 weeks of the month and programmed correctly for for only 2 weeks (the batteries were not helping with peak use for the first week) going to add the extra 10 (3.7kw) panels to my enphase system since I have them and make a nice cover for my bbq area that gets full sun a majority of the day, just have to source some iq7A or iq7+ inverters. Thanks again for all the help