Laying wire from solar to house.

solarvic · April 2017

I still have my cband satellite dish,s and found the satellite wire today. I wanted to know if the solar wireing could cause interference with my satellite signal. The satellite wire is not buryed very deep and I want to run the solar wire underneath the satellite wire.It will not be that hard to get the solar wire under the satellite wire as I will only need to get about 35 feet length of solar wire under the satellite wire. Should I put anything between the solar and satellite wire that would keep any interference with the satellite signal. I have a lot of scraps and pieces of double bubble insulatiom left from the steel roof I had installed last year. The double bubble is like 2 layers of bubble wrap with one side aluminized coloring to help reflect the heat badck away from the house roof to make your home cooler. I say I really like the steel roof and am going to get my garage done when I can afford it. Even I will probably put pieces of the scrapp double ion top of the wire so it c ould help if I ever need to dig up the wire. All ideas would be appreciated. Solarvic

DanS26 · April 2017

I have this exact situation.

I crossed the high voltage PV DC conduit with DISH TV satellite feed. PV conduit 24" buried and DISH cable in conduit buried 18" above but 6" below ground surface. I made sure the crossing was at 90*. No problems encountered.

I had read earlier to avoid running these two circuits in a physical parallel way. Do not parallel these circuits...just asking for trouble (ie interference). I would not run these two circuits in a 35' parallel run. Dig a second trench. Better safe than sorry.

mcgivor · April 2017

Assuming the solar is DC there would be no magnetic induction, as would be the case with AC, the rationale why a transformer won't work with DC, the magnetic field is constant. The satellite cable is coaxial with the outer shield grounded to bleed any induced signal to ground, so in my opinion there should be no cross induction problems.

solarvic · April 2017

Thanks Guys! Looks like I have nothing to worry about then. The satellite is DC and the Solar is DC. My solar wire runs about 335 feet of #2 urd burial wire and the wires cross each about 180 degree other about 35 feet from the house. I still think I will put some of the scrap double in the ditch for a marker.

westbranch · April 2017

Looks like I have nothing to worry about then.

What about Lightning?

solarvic · April 2017

I have not figured how to tell God how to keep the lightning in the clouds. The satellite dish is grounded and the solar panels are grounded. The double bubble scrap pieces I wanted to mark the trench are like plastic packing material with one side shiney colored . I don,t think that will draw lightning.

Vic · April 2017

Hi Vic,

It is not exactly clear (to me), but, if the PV and Satellite cables do NOT run parallel, then there should be no real issue.

In general, the PV cables to MPPT CCs (and IIRC, you have one or two OB FM CCs) can often carry NOISE from the switching activity of the Buck Converter in the CCs.

These noise currents can be reduced with filtering, BUT, while the PVs do only put out DC currents, the CCs can/will conduct noise currents on the PV cables. These currents can induce and/or radiate noise.

IF the cables only cross each other at a nearly right angles, then, any coupling between the cable should be very, very slight.

Even shielded cable (as in Coax) can conduct noise currents on the shield, that can impact the operation of some electronic devices ... "it all depends".

IMO, FWIW, etc. Good Luck, Vic

Estragon · April 2017

Somehow the notion of burying scraps of sharp edged steel roofing with wire doesn't appeal to me.

cow_rancher · April 2017

Estragon said:

Somehow the notion of burying scraps of sharp edged steel roofing with wire doesn't appeal to me.

True, if that was what he was going to do, however if you re-read post #1 again you will see that he is planning to bury the bubble insulation that has an aluminized layer between the cables. Just from my 35 year career as an Electrical Engineer, doing EMP resistant comm centers, I would say that the bubble wrap will have no beneficial results, and to either run the cables in conduit, or hope for the best, copper or aluminum conduit would be the best for lightning or EMP.

Rancher

solarvic · April 2017

Some people go buy rolls of colored plastic so if someone sees it when they go back to dig again they know there is cable under it. This is all plastic scraps I have that can never be used on a roof again. There is no metal involved. When used on a steel roof you put furring strips over the shingle roofing that is bad. This double bubble is just like the kind you use for packing materials, 2 layers thick with one side having a shiney reflector color. It comes in 6 or 8 foot rolls and you cover the whole roof with it to reflect the heat back to the sky so to help insulate your house more and reflect the heat. I guess it also serves as a sound barrier. My original 30 year roof only lasted 12 years. Most people in my area are replacing their shingles with metal roofs. Glad I did as I know I will never have to replace the roof again. I wish I would have had some kind of marker on my satellite wire as I spent a lot of extra time trying to find not to cut the satellite cable. Yes cow rancher I know from everyones comments that I do not have too much benefit in burying the double but I think it might be a good way for me to save a few bucks on the wire marker tape and get a good recycle use from otherwise garbage that would go to the land fill. I do appreciate everyones coments. Thanks all. Solarvic

westbranch · April 2017

I used 1 x 10 that came from the old building about 1 foot above my 6 foot deep water line as a marker, with some old 2 inch x 4 foot styrofoam sheets just below that for frost protection where we drive over it to get to the lake...
Use what you have that works for you... CAn you get some ' Accident Yellow tape' , should be 18 +- inches above wires to mark it ... better than nothing.

Estragon · April 2017

I put metal on the cabin as well so I never have to do it again. The bubble wrap thing is new to me though. Does it go between the old roof and the furring strips, or between the furring and the new steel?

solarvic · April 2017

The double bubble goes over the whole roof on top of the furring strips. I just went thru the first winter with no problems. I got a preety blue roof. There are Amish in my area that keep preety busy. There were 4 amish and the dxriver. The amish hire people to haul them around and they call us English. I worked in a foundry that used Styrofoam to make patterns with. It was very flammable. When you lite it with a match it burns like gasoline. The niebor insulated his attic with it and 1 day it caught on fire. There was so much smoke and heat that the house burnt real fast. After I saw that I took all the styrofoam out of my garage that I was using for insulation. I used it to insulate the pipi that goes to the well and I suppose it might be safe as it has a lot of dirt on top of it.

Laying wire from solar to house.

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