{"id":116709,"date":"2015-02-17T08:20:22","date_gmt":"2015-02-17T07:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/?p=116709"},"modified":"2020-12-10T21:56:45","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T20:56:45","slug":"properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Properly sizing a PV inverter breaker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Believe it or not, code references for determining the calculation to adequately size a PV inverter breaker are longer than the calculation itself. Don\u2019t be intimidated into making a costly mistake when designing a customer\u2019s solar system.<\/p>\n<p>The calculation is simply the maximum output current of the inverter multiplied by a 125 percent safety factor, then rounded up to the nearest breaker size.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h5><strong>Two standard PV breaker examples:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>A maximum output current of 16A multiplied by a 125 percent safety factor equals 20A. This happens to be a standard breaker size.<\/p>\n<p>A maximum output current of 22A multiplied by a 125 percent safety factor equals 27.5A. The next standard breaker size is 30A.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>An odd PV breaker example:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>A maximum output current of 24.1A multiplied by a 125 percent safety factor equals 30.12A. If you rounded up, the next standard ampere rating is 35A. However, if you have a decimal fraction that is smaller than 0.5 the fraction can be dropped. Therefore you would only have 30A, which happens to be a standard breaker size.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>NEC Code References<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>NEC<sup>\u00ae<\/sup> 2014 690.8 (A)(3) Inverter Output Circuit Current.<\/p>\n<p>NEC<sup>\u00ae<\/sup> 2014 690.9 (B) Overcurrent Device Ratings.<\/p>\n<p>NEC<sup>\u00ae<\/sup> 2014 240.6 (A) Standard Ampere Rating.<\/p>\n<p>NEC<sup>\u00ae<\/sup> 2014 220.5 (B) Fractions of an Ampere.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"kk-star-ratings kksr-auto kksr-align-left kksr-valign-bottom\"\n    data-payload='{&quot;align&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;id&quot;:&quot;116709&quot;,&quot;slug&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;valign&quot;:&quot;bottom&quot;,&quot;ignore&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;reference&quot;:&quot;auto&quot;,&quot;class&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;count&quot;:&quot;7&quot;,&quot;legendonly&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;readonly&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;score&quot;:&quot;3.3&quot;,&quot;starsonly&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;best&quot;:&quot;5&quot;,&quot;gap&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;greet&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;legend&quot;:&quot;3.3\\\/5 - (7 votes)&quot;,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;22&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Properly sizing a PV inverter breaker&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:&quot;75.4&quot;,&quot;_legend&quot;:&quot;{score}\\\/{best} - ({count} {votes})&quot;,&quot;font_factor&quot;:&quot;1.25&quot;}'>\n            \n<div class=\"kksr-stars\">\n    \n<div class=\"kksr-stars-inactive\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"1\" style=\"padding-right: 1px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 22px; height: 22px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"2\" style=\"padding-right: 1px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 22px; height: 22px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"3\" style=\"padding-right: 1px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 22px; height: 22px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"4\" style=\"padding-right: 1px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 22px; height: 22px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"5\" style=\"padding-right: 1px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 22px; height: 22px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n<div class=\"kksr-stars-active\" style=\"width: 75.4px;\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 1px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 22px; height: 22px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 1px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 22px; height: 22px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 1px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 22px; height: 22px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 1px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 22px; height: 22px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 1px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 22px; height: 22px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n                \n\n<div class=\"kksr-legend\" style=\"font-size: 17.6px;\">\n            3.3\/5 - (7 votes)    <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<div class='printomatic pom-default ' id='id5214'  data-print_target='article'><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Believe it or not, code references for determining the calculation to adequately size a PV inverter breaker are longer than&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":116710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1715,1324],"tags":[1445,1372,1370,1392,1444,1325,1315],"class_list":["post-116709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solutions","category-technology","tag-inverter","tag-pv","tag-pv-design","tag-renewable-energy","tag-sma","tag-sma-america","tag-solar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Properly sizing a PV inverter breaker - Sunny. SMA Corporate Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Properly sizing a PV inverter breaker - Sunny. SMA Corporate Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Believe it or not, code references for determining the calculation to adequately size a PV inverter breaker are longer than...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sunny. SMA Corporate Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/SMASolarTechnology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-17T07:20:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-10T20:56:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Breaker-Image-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"648\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"445\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Dyke\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SMAsolar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SMAsolar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Dyke\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/\",\"name\":\"Properly sizing a PV inverter breaker - Sunny. SMA Corporate Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Breaker-Image-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-17T07:20:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-10T20:56:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/#\/schema\/person\/5958a1d7eb0d546d0c549fb58c0f5bbc\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Breaker-Image-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Breaker-Image-1.png\",\"width\":648,\"height\":445,\"caption\":\"PV Inveter Breaker - SMA Inverted\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Startseite\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Properly sizing a PV inverter breaker\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/\",\"name\":\"Sunny. SMA Corporate Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/#\/schema\/person\/5958a1d7eb0d546d0c549fb58c0f5bbc\",\"name\":\"Justin Dyke\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/justindyke_img_0484-avatar.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/justindyke_img_0484-avatar.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Justin Dyke\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/author\/justin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Properly sizing a PV inverter breaker - Sunny. SMA Corporate Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Properly sizing a PV inverter breaker - Sunny. SMA Corporate Blog","og_description":"Believe it or not, code references for determining the calculation to adequately size a PV inverter breaker are longer than...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/","og_site_name":"Sunny. SMA Corporate Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/facebook.com\/SMASolarTechnology","article_published_time":"2015-02-17T07:20:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-12-10T20:56:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":648,"height":445,"url":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Breaker-Image-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Justin Dyke","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SMAsolar","twitter_site":"@SMAsolar","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Justin Dyke","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/","url":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/","name":"Properly sizing a PV inverter breaker - Sunny. SMA Corporate Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Breaker-Image-1.png","datePublished":"2015-02-17T07:20:22+00:00","dateModified":"2020-12-10T20:56:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/#\/schema\/person\/5958a1d7eb0d546d0c549fb58c0f5bbc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Breaker-Image-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Breaker-Image-1.png","width":648,"height":445,"caption":"PV Inveter Breaker - SMA Inverted"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/properly-sizing-a-pv-inverter-breaker\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Startseite","item":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Properly sizing a PV inverter breaker"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/","name":"Sunny. SMA Corporate Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/#\/schema\/person\/5958a1d7eb0d546d0c549fb58c0f5bbc","name":"Justin Dyke","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/justindyke_img_0484-avatar.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/justindyke_img_0484-avatar.jpg","caption":"Justin Dyke"},"url":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/author\/justin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sma-sunny.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}