January 2023

Need for AC earth pits in solar installations?

By |2024-03-05T13:54:42+05:30January 24th, 2023|

For solar rooftop installations, it's often unnecessary to install new AC earth pits. Existing AC earth pits, if designed properly to handle fault current, are usually sufficient. In a solar setup, the overall AC current in the circuit doesn't increase. Before solar, if 10A flowed in the AC circuit, the entire 10A came from the [...]

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October 2021

Can DC, AC and LA earth pits be connected together?

By |2021-10-17T13:09:51+05:30October 17th, 2021|

Technically Yes. All earthing pits should be bonded together so that there is equipotential bonding amongst them thus preventing back-feed from earth. However, some DISCOMs insist that DC earthing pits, AC earthing pits and LA pits should be kept separate. Please have a read of Legrand's Protection against Lightning Effects guide (Page 8) which [...]

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July 2020

DC and AC voltage drop – Standards

By |2020-07-07T18:07:41+05:30July 7th, 2020|

DC Voltage Drop For Solar PV installations, the standard to follow would be from Australia called AS/NZS 5033:2014. It states, "For LV PV arrays under maximum load conditions (Imp), the voltage drop from the most remote module in the array to the input of the inverter should not exceed 3% of the Vmp voltage [...]

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June 2020

Can DC and AC cables run in the same conduit?

By |2020-06-29T11:58:08+05:30June 29th, 2020|

We have been asked a few times in the recent past as to whether we can run DC and AC cables run in the same conduit.The answer is No since the DC cables could induce a DC voltage onto the AC side. The AC sine wave should oscillate about the 0 volt axis i.e., the positive and negative [...]

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