"daestrom" wrote in message ...
Only problem with that is that many home service panels use breakers
with an AIR of only 10kA, not 100kA. (my old house, built in 2000 was
10kA, and my new one, built in 2010 is also 10kA, both perfectly correct
by code)

Here's are some modern service panels that come with 10k AIR breakers.
http://static.schneider-electric.us/...ad-centers.pdf

And how many homes in the utilities service area are even up to current
code? I'd bet many homes in many service areas have only 10kA AIR.

The utility that is being ultra-conservative may have to consider that
older homes in their service area may not even support this.

Can you just imagine the hue and cry when some homeowners are told they
have to spend a couple hundred bucks to upgrade their service panel
because of changes in the utility's distribution?

daestrom

-----------

Well that situation would be unfortunate and impossible to regulate as
`legal, not conforming`

This is not a problem here as 10kA hasn`t been passed for many years. I
believe any Canuck panels have to to have the class `R`or rejection fuse
holders so that only the nasty electricians can force an old `code` fuse
into the holder. The 100kA fuses have been promoted for a few decades with
the seriousness getting more severe in later years. I thought they were
actually not allowed, here, anymore. This may be incorrect. More research
would be required to verify.

Either way the 10kA doesn't take much more impedance to drop it down with a
few added factors mentioned in my previous text. Most of our service feeds
are (ACSR) aluminum conductor, steel reinforced, and present higher
impedances. I don`t see some small cogen circuit at the end of a few hundred
feet of grid (mine plus yours) being a fault capacity concern in a
residenial environment.

Having said that I guy up the street is just finishing installing 200kW or
more of PV panels. Wait until they produce nothing all winter as they were
snowed in most of last winter being at a low slope. The hook up wasn't`t
completed so he won`t find out until next winter...LOL See how much
harmonic crap we get on the street when they go online.


mike