Newbie Looking For Advice

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  • PrinceLH
    PrinceLH Registered Users Posts: 18 ✭
    #32
    Re: Newbie Looking For Advice

    Trying to say: single 8AWG stranded. The stuff you folks stateside can find almost anywhere, but here in Canuckastan, you can't find the stuff. We can get the flat cable, but good luck getting the round cable, anywhere around these parts.
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  • Kamala
    Kamala Solar Expert Posts: 452 ✭✭
    #33
    Re: Newbie Looking For Advice

    Solid and stranded are both round. I don't know what flat means with regard to AWG #8. Your avatar is beginning to make more sense than your posts! ;)
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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,637 admin
    #34
    Re: Newbie Looking For Advice

    I think it is the difference between "flat" Romex type cable and SO type (and others) round cordage that you may find with more than 3 or 4 conductors (I think--it has been a long time since I looked at any of this type cable)...

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • johnl
    johnl Solar Expert Posts: 30 ✭
    #35
    Re: Newbie Looking For Advice
    PrinceLH wrote: »
    Trying to say: single 8AWG stranded. The stuff you folks stateside can find almost anywhere, but here in Canuckastan, you can't find the stuff. We can get the flat cable, but good luck getting the round cable, anywhere around these parts.

    Home Depot, Home Hardware, Canadian Tire, and Rona sell just the basics for residential electrical wiring. They aren't the stores that electricians go to. You'll want to look under "electrical equipment & supplies" in the yellow pages for one of the bigger supply houses like Eecol, Gescan, Wesco, or Westburne. They may not know solar, but they will have 50 varieties of single conductor #8 AWG.

    For racking and other balance of system stuff in Canada, these folks in St. Thomas (near London) seem to know their stuff: http://www.theresourcestore.ca/

    Of course, if you are close to the border, you can get NAWS to send what you need to the nearest shipping depot on the US side and drive over to get it. You'll pay GST & PST (or HST) on the way back...but as long as whatever you are buying is for personal use you'll save on the shipping and brokerage fees involved with having NAWS send it to your doorstep.

    Whatever you decide to purchase, make sure you know about microFIT.
    (http://microfit.powerauthority.on.ca/index.php)

    You may want to submit a microFIT application, and use "Ontario-manufactured" racking and "Ontario-supplied" "wiring and electrical hardware" and "on- and off-site labour and services" (ie your DIY labour + your local sparky that's helping you to hook this stuff up) so that you qualify to get paid 80.2 cents per kW from the province for all of your generation.
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  • solar_dave
    solar_dave Solar Expert Posts: 2,397 ✭✭✭✭
    #36
    Re: Newbie Looking For Advice
    johnl wrote: »

    You may want to submit a microFIT application, and use "Ontario-manufactured" racking and "Ontario-supplied" "wiring and electrical hardware" and "on- and off-site labour and services" (ie your DIY labour + your local sparky that's helping you to hook this stuff up) so that you qualify to get paid 80.2 cents per kW from the province for all of your generation.

    Man to get $0.802 a kWh here would be sooooooo nice. I could pick up a couple grand a year that way. I get $0.065 a kWh.
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  • PrinceLH
    PrinceLH Registered Users Posts: 18 ✭
    #37
    Re: Newbie Looking For Advice

    Have not posted in a few days, but I am getting everything together. I have a line on the cabling, and should have it in about 10 days. I went around this area, with no one carrying the 8 AWG. The stuff that I am probably getting is 8 AWG wire THHN insulation, rated at 45 amps. Before I buy, is this what is best for a 50' run, from the panels to the inverter? My 8 guage fuse holders have arrived, with 15amp fuses and the rest of the stuff, mostly MC4's and MC4 combiners are still in transit. I've also got most of the racking picked out, but can't decide between steel and aluminum, with the aluminum being twice the price, but lighter to work with. Opinions?
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