I was looking at 210-19(a) FPN No. 4, although 215-2(d) FPN No. 2 might apply depending on the situation.
Need some Advice on Solar Heater / New Pump
- Thread starter geekyguy
- Start date
Those are not NEC codes. Those are fine print notes. They are not enforcable under jurisdictions that use NEC guidlines. NEC does not consider voltage drop a safety issue per se. The only reason you take it into account is if the equipment (i.e. load) you are putting on the feader would be adversly affected. A 5% drop on a 240 volt line on a 60 amp circuit would not adversly affect the loads on that circuit. No inspector would flunk #6AWG to a subpanel on a 60 amp breaker at 240 volts. If they did, i would challenge it. Using #4 is hard to work with, more expensive, and not needed in this case. While voltage drops might be a pain and cause lights to flicker, etc, its not a safety issue. What the OP wants to hook into his subpanel, ~6000 watts with 14,400 to work with, it's not an issue.
I think we beat this to a pulp and is way beyond what the OP was asking
I think we beat this to a pulp and is way beyond what the OP was asking
No way guys - I love it! 
I'll let you know what I end up doing. My neighbor is a commercial electrician that's coming over tomorrow to check out the scene. Thanks for all the help!
I'll let you know what I end up doing. My neighbor is a commercial electrician that's coming over tomorrow to check out the scene. Thanks for all the help!
GG...sorry for reviving this thread... 
...what set up did you end up going with?...i am about to embark on the same project and plan on doing most of the work...just having the electrician show up and bless it.
Thanks!
Bo
...what set up did you end up going with?...i am about to embark on the same project and plan on doing most of the work...just having the electrician show up and bless it.Thanks!
Bo
Happy to help out - this forum gave me a lot of advice and I'd love to give back.
I ended up going with the intelliflo VS3050 and several 2'x20' subgrabber panels. We ran the electrical and plumbing in the same trench, but we put the electrical in conduit. We control it all with a pentair easytouch panel... one of the easytouch models comes with the three solar sensors (sunlight, air temp, water temp), so you install the three sensors, wire it up to the intelliflo and an automated valve (we have a Jandy valve) and then tell it what temp you want the pool to be. It then takes care of deciding when to open the valve to go through the solar panels or just bypass and go straight the pool.
Word of advice: if you go with the 20' horizontal panels they give you enough straps to strap it down in three places (middle and the two ends). I HIGHLY recommend you buy some extra metal straps and use 5 straps over the 20' span. We had a high wind come in and blow half my solar system off the roof. They basically turn into big sails once the wind catches them.
Oh and BTW, the VS3050+easytouch lets you dial in exactly what RPM (in increments of 10RPM) you want the pump to run at, so you can keep messing with it until it's the lowest possible RPM while still pushing water through the solar. You can also have it run at night when you know the solar will be off and push it to even lower RPMs.
HTH - feel free to keep the questions coming.
I ended up going with the intelliflo VS3050 and several 2'x20' subgrabber panels. We ran the electrical and plumbing in the same trench, but we put the electrical in conduit. We control it all with a pentair easytouch panel... one of the easytouch models comes with the three solar sensors (sunlight, air temp, water temp), so you install the three sensors, wire it up to the intelliflo and an automated valve (we have a Jandy valve) and then tell it what temp you want the pool to be. It then takes care of deciding when to open the valve to go through the solar panels or just bypass and go straight the pool.
Word of advice: if you go with the 20' horizontal panels they give you enough straps to strap it down in three places (middle and the two ends). I HIGHLY recommend you buy some extra metal straps and use 5 straps over the 20' span. We had a high wind come in and blow half my solar system off the roof. They basically turn into big sails once the wind catches them.
Oh and BTW, the VS3050+easytouch lets you dial in exactly what RPM (in increments of 10RPM) you want the pump to run at, so you can keep messing with it until it's the lowest possible RPM while still pushing water through the solar. You can also have it run at night when you know the solar will be off and push it to even lower RPMs.
HTH - feel free to keep the questions coming.