New member questions

[JitteryJoe]

Hello all, new member here in greater Cincinnati. I recently became interested in solar and am in the beginning stages of researching / planning / deciding on whether a grid tie system would be a good idea. I feel like I have a decent enough understanding of wiring and the whole process except for the actual connection to the grid. I believe the easiest way is to connect through a breaker in the panel box but I am unsure of the best way to get the wiring from the outside down to the panel box.

My meter is conveniently on the south side of the house and then there is a large PVC conduit running down from it to the basement where my panel box is but that area of my basement is finished so its difficult to see exactly what's going on there and if it would be possible to run additional wire through that conduit or if I'd have to drill another hole through the foundation to run another wire through.

According to the power company (Duke) the smart meter they installed a few years ago is already capable of net metering. Is it possible that it already has a spot to tie in solar panels? (I heard they made meters like this I'm just not sure if it's common for the utility to put them in.) If so is there something specific I should look for?

Where do I go to find out if I need any permits to install a ground mount? I feel like I read that I don't need a building permit but may or may not need an electrical permit? From the utility side it seems like I just need to send them a line diagram of the system and proof that the inverter is UL1741 compliant but if anyone with personal experience could weigh in that would be much appreciated.

Thanks in Advance

 

[JitteryJoe]

I forgot to add, when I had an electrician come out to quote installing an EV charging outlet I was told that according to the load calculation I could not add more than an ~30amp circuit as my panel was already quite full. by adding a tandem breaker I could free up enough space for another 2 pole breaker for the solar but I'm not sure if I should be concerned about the panel capacity? It currently has a 150 amp main breaker the panel says that each stab on the bus bar is capable of up to 200 amps.

My question here is basically does the incoming solar amperage net against what the house is using vs adding to it? Completely made up numbers for examples sake but say my house it using the full 150 amps and I have 50 amps coming in from the solar. in this case would there would there be only 100 amps of power coming from the grid through the main breaker and I'm ok because I'm not exceeding the main breaker or bus bar / stab rating of the panel? Or is there some way that 200amps could flow through the main breaker and trip it?

 

[JitteryJoe]

Making a little progress on my own. It looks like the conduit is actually the line coming in from the street as there is a second line coming out the meter and Into the house. I was also reading that in order to do a supply side tap i would need a 60 amp breaker and the sum of the breakers could not exceed my service rating which I assume is already maxed out with the 150amp main panel. So that only leaves me with running a wire into the house to connect at the panel. I assume the 120% rule applies here which would give me a max of a 30 amp circuit for my 150 amp panel (I don't think the 200 amp per stab is the Busbar rating but I don't see any other ratings other than the panel saying it's 150 amp.) 30 amps would give me 24amp continuous for about 5700 watts max on an inverter. Am I thinking about this right?