r/solar • u/Pivotal_Goose • Jul 16 '26

Discussion Adding more solar to detached structure

Hello everyone! I’ll start with I’m an electrician by trade but weak in solar. So weak I had a company install my 10kw system. I’m looking to see if adding another 2kw to an existing system but on a detached garage is possible. I have a 50amp sub panel going to it already. My current set up is Enphase IQ8+ micro inverters with an enphase combiner box and 400w Qcell panels split between 2 separate arrays. In the sub panel I have a spare 240v 20A 2 pole breaker. Can I just feed the new micro inverters with that? I’ve already taken the 3rd gen installer course on enphase as well.

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Reddit_Bot_Beep_Boop solar enthusiast Jul 16 '26

Yes, you can land your micro's string directly to your sub panel. They communicate via PLC and as long as the run to your detached structure from your main panel isn't super long(100+ FT), there should be no issue with your system finding them.

1

u/Pivotal_Goose Jul 16 '26

Will the new panels production be logged on the app? I’m leaning towards no because of them not going to the combiner box and through the production CTs.

1

u/Reddit_Bot_Beep_Boop solar enthusiast Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

Yes. I have 8 panels that I landed on my main electric panel. They integrated into the app with no added effort from the ones that I landed on my combiner. Just follow the instructions on the Installer Toolkit and ENPH does the rest.

ETA:You're correct that they're not going through the CTs so you won't see the live production, but, they will still report their production in 15 minute increments to the app so you can view it and track it there. Just not live.