Passing your Electrical inspection, Items the electrical inspector found

[mgdean]

I installed and wired my solar system myself. Great DIY project and I learned a ton along the way. The one thing that had me on edge was passing my state's electrical inspection. After taking about 4 weeks and burying my head in the NEC 2020 code book I scheduled an appointment and let the chips fall. The inspector was very specific but cited every code violation I made. Needless to say, I failed the first time. Yhe things he found I would have probably never noticed regardless of how many times I read the code book. Below are the findings;

250.32 a grounding electrode system is required for each separate building or structure. My house only had one grounding rod. I had two new grounding rods at my distribution panel where the solar connects, 25 feet from my house, Correction added two more rods to my house and connect to my main panel

250.58 the grounding electrode system will need to be common for all services or feeders installed to the structure. The PV arrays were mounted on my roof, the PV connection was made in my yard. I did not trench the power to my house, but when they did it was not code to have ground wire. Correction I added ground wire to my house main panel, that was connected to the same spot as my solar invertor.

690.31(B) the AC and DC wiring is not allowed in the same wireway. Barriers can be installed to separate the AC and DC circuits. I had a wireway under my inverter where all of my DC and AC conduits were terminated . Correction installed flexible conduit through the wireway for my AC circuits.

Allow though I had what like a hundred stickers he found the following:
Attic of the garage will need the warning sign installed required by 690.31(G)(3) that states “PV Power Source” no more then 10 feet apart. 690.53 the DC Power Source Maximum DC Voltage will need to be labeled at the inverter location.

The plaque or directory is not installed. I forgot to write in the four circuits in the distribution panel. He allowed me to fix it at the time of the finding.

In the end He said I did a good job and after I made the corrections he passed me on the second inspection. He did ask a lot of questions about wire size, length of runs, why I de-rated my breaker in my distribution panel and questions about the rapid shut down system. Probably seeing if i had a clue and if I really preformed the work. But all in all it was not as bad as I thought it would be. Hopefully someone can learn from my mistakes.

 

[Jennifer]

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[400bird]

The one that got me worst was bonding all the possible grounds.
I seem to remember needing two ground points. The most common source would have been one ground rod and the water main.
Well, the water main is 70 feet away. So not inexpensive to run the copper, plus that 70' is nearly all in the crawl space.

So instead I added a second ground rod 10' away from the first. I failed because I had to connect to  all that were present on the possibile ground rod list.

I had the opposite issue with the inspector on the stickers. He checked for the placard, that was easy. I had 4 stickers I was looking for his input/clarification. He just said "put them wherever the plans call for them" and signed off on the inspection, me standing there with a handful of stickers.

 

[Jennifer]

I think if I was going to do it I’d hire an electrician for an hour to do a pre inspection for you, walk through everything ahead of time, would be good value.

 

[Danke]

I think if I was going to do it I’d hire an electrician for an hour to do a pre inspection for you, walk through everything ahead of time, would be good value.

That might help with something obvious. But I view this as dealing with the legal system or a cop. If they want to find something, they’ll find something.

So the inspector finds something and you fix it. They’ll probably be happy (justifying their job), even though there might be other things that technically could be found wanting.

 

[Jennifer]

That might help with something obvious. But I view this as dealing with the legal system or a cop. If they want to find something, they’ll find something.

So the inspector finds something and you fix it. They’ll probably be happy (justifying their job), even though there might be other things that technically could be found wanting.

Yea good point.

 

[mgdean]

That might help with something obvious. But I view this as dealing with the legal system or a cop. If they want to find something, they’ll find something.

So the inspector finds something and you fix it. They’ll probably be happy (justifying their job), even though there might be other things that technically could be found wanting.

I completely agree, if I would do it again I would just call them in and save the month. Now I did learn a lot wiring to code, but he was finding something and the second time through did not cost anymore. It was all covered under the one permit. SO my advice to anyone else is make sure basic wiring is to code and just call them. Regardless what they find once you correct it your done!

 

[oldmaninsaline]

If I'm reading this correctly, you don't have any sub panels?