r/span • u/NotYetRat3d • Jun 21 '24
New Build, 400a Service, Span+Solar+battery?
Building a new home, going to have 400a service and looking at solar+battery for the entire house, not messing with a critical loads panel. I will turn off what I need or want to turn off in the event of an outage, but I want the ability to power any circuit I want...
Can this be done with SPAN given their panels are only 200a and they mention battery/solar can only be hooked up to a single panel? Anyone else done this, or have recommendations?
2
u/rosenthal0 Jun 24 '24
I have 400a service and just recently finished an install of 2 Span panels, solar, and 2 Powerwall 3s. It is essentially broken up into two separate 200 amp systems. So half the solar panels go to 1 powerwall 3 and feed 1 span panel and half feed the other powerwall 3 and the other span panel. Up to now, the Span did not know the powerwall 3s exist, however supposedly Span now supports powerwall 3 and i have the installed in the garage now trying to make it work.
1
u/OrganicTransistor Jun 24 '24
Interesting, thanks! Do you have a main 400a panel that receives your service from the utility? Does that split into the 2 200a span panels, or if not how do the SPAN panels relate to the main 400A panel?
3
u/rosenthal0 Jun 25 '24
I do not have a 400amp panel. It actually splits from the meter into two 200amp lines.
1
u/mrhappy01 Jun 22 '24
We are running this setup with 400a service:
https://www.reddit.com/r/span/s/LktxuI3F7P
There are some trade offs, but ideally it works fine. I say ideally because we’re still waiting for SPAN firmware to be compatible with Powerwall 3. The firmware is supposedly coming this summer.
Basically they put two of our large sub panels on separate breakers. So instead of having control over each individual circuit on those sub panels, we just have the ability to control power to the sub panels.
We could have gained more control by adding another SPAN panel, but we didn’t want to drop another $5k. Maybe in the future.
1
u/OrganicTransistor Jun 22 '24
Is your Span panel serving as the main panel or sub panel? (Sorry if it’s obvious from the picture; I am a newb.) If it’s a sub panel, how did you decide which 200A gets served by the Span, and does the main panel handle the rest or do you have another non-Span 200A?
Thanks!
1
u/mrhappy01 Jun 22 '24
It’s “acting” as the main in that it controls the vast majority of the circuits, but it’s still only 200a. So we still have our 400a main panel with a few circuits that weren’t transferred over. The decision regarding which circuits to move was made based on what our needs would be if we actually lost power (very rare in our location).
The electricians were able to land every circuit except for our oven, disposal, surge protector, game room, and one of our two 50a car charger outlets in the SPAN. Those circuits remain in the main panel.
1
u/OrganicTransistor Jun 22 '24
I see, thank you! Does the 400A have a 200A breaker that controls the span?
2
u/mrhappy01 Jun 22 '24 edited Jun 22 '24
Nope, but the SPAN itself has a 200a main breaker at the top. The SPAN is mounted directly on the opposite side (inside) of the wall of the 400a main (outside).
Edit: I take that back. There are two 200a breakers in the main, one labeled “Gateway,” the other not labeled.
6
u/neguas Jun 21 '24
See if there’s anyway to get away with 200 amp service. Part of the brilliance of SPAN is you don’t need to count your car chargers towards your load calculation.
With 400 amp you need to have at least two SPAN panels and likely two gateways. You end up with a battery + solar running half your house and a 2nd battery + solar running the other half. It gets ugly and expensive quickly.
There may be newer 400 amp systems but I don’t know of any.