Michael:
I feel your pain. There are no solutions that are not expensive and/or
cumbersome.
I think we need to be careful to not confuse "Rapid Shut Down" with
"disconnecting means":
RSD is for first responders and the actuator needs to be
outside of the building. That is not required by 706 and I don’t imagine
this is what the inspector is looking for.
Disconnecting means is for servicing and can be anywhere as
long as it is line of sight or its location is indicated by signage.
If it does not require a tool to open the front cover of the battery
cabinet, the breakers on the battery modules are readily accessible. This
does not satisfy the requirement to be lockable.
If you could contrive a locking mechanism for the Soul-Arc battery breaker
you just *might* get the AHJ to allow the inverter breaker to be considered
the disconnecting means. This would depend on if the inspector is willing
to compromise.
I know this would mean modifying the dead front. I would replace the cheesy
plastic dead-front with a 1/4" thick Plexiglas. Rivet on a locking,
sliding bolt and you have created a lock-out. See below:
[image: cid:[email protected]]
I know it’s a long shot…
William Miller
Miller Solar
17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422
805-438-5600
www.millersolar.com
CA Lic. 773985
-----Original Message-----
From: RE-wrenches [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of MDElectricSolar via RE-wrenches
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2025 7:44 AM
To: [email protected]
Cc: MDElectricSolar
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Battery RSD
Wrenches,
I have a building inspector in my county of Sonoma who has just told me
that we need to install a rapid shutdown switch of some type between my LFZ
battery bank and my Solark 15k inverter. He mentioned some type of knife
switch within 5 feet of the equipment. I cannot find any reference to this
requirement anywhere but he insists it is required. These batteries happen
to be simplify or brakes and Stratton batteries and each battery has its
own 80 amp breaker on the battery and the Solark has a battery disconnect
switch built-in. We do have module level RSD which kills the solar output
as well as the inverter output when the button is pushed. Does anyone have
any experience with this or can they point me to the correct code section
or what are others doing to comply with this requirement?
Michael D Nelson
MD Electric & Solar, Inc.
707-684-0064 mobile
707-884-1862 office
www.mdelectricsolar.com
www.facebook.com/mdelectricandsolar
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