This is what the 120 rule is protecting against.
Solar 120 rule sub panel.
The bus will overload overheat and fail possibly catastrophically.
That 50a breaker in the main panel that is supplying the power to the sub panel is located in the middle of the main panel.
Practice problems are presented to.
The 120 rule also known as 690 64 b 2 is explained.
In a previous article the 120 rule explained 2011 nec 705 12 d 2 we clarified the philosophy of the 120 rule for load supply side interconnections of solar pv systems.
If i have to apply the rules to the main panel i have to follow the 120 rule unless i upgrade that panel.
The loads are able to pull much more current than the bus is rated for but the main breaker doesn t see it.
The inverter breaker in the sub panel is the breaker to use in the calculations.
The solar is acting like a backdoor allowing additional current to feed the loads.
In the 2014 national electric code 705 12 d 2 was expanded to describe how to do a load side tap on feeders buses.
That sub panel can have a 40a breaker added to it for the 7600w inverter as 100a 40a 140a which is under the 150a.
How to wire grounds and neutrals in sub panels all the neutrals and ground wire and terminal bars must be separated from each other and your sub feed should be a 4 wire cable that has a separated insulated neutral wire and a separate ground wire.
However if we add our pv breakers into a sub panel that is dedicated to only the pv breakers we can land the sub panel into a 40a breaker in the main panel board 10 4a 21a 31 4a x 1 25 39 25a.
For example picture a 200a main breaker box feeding a 125a sub panel through a 100a breaker with a 100a main breaker in the 125a sub panel.
Examples are given to illustrate how it works in real situations.
The 2011 code was clean understandable and easy to safely apply.