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Old 06-29-2021, 07:39 PM   #1
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2000 Diplomat Solar Array Wiring through roof?

Adding 1000w of new solar and struggling with how/where to penetrate the roof.

My dream was to simply fish them through the air intake grate on the back and I thought it would be easy to pull the wires down adjacent to the air filter but I haven't had any success with the fish tape getting around (what I think must be) the duck bill box. There is no access that I can see on the passenger side above the coolant reservoir (although this seems like it would just be dead space? Regardless I can't find any access and hate to start drilling holes all willy-nilly.)

Anyone have any insight for me?
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Old 06-29-2021, 10:09 PM   #2
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My wiring went up through the refrigerator roof vent.
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Old 06-30-2021, 06:21 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by barmcd View Post
My wiring went up through the refrigerator roof vent.
Mine too. Original wring runs down through fridge vent and then into the ceiling to the old solar controller.
Ran my new wiring up through the basement, up through the floor of the fridge compartment and on up out the vent like original. Except I terminated some 3/4" PVC conduit in the side of the fridge vent and took the wires through that (instead of over the lip of the fridge vent) and into a rooftop junction box under a panel. This way I don't have a bunch of splices crammed into a slot at the side of the fridge vent cap.
Cheers,
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Old 06-30-2021, 06:43 AM   #4
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Quote:
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My wiring went up through the refrigerator roof vent.
X3 down thru the fridge vent.
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Old 06-30-2021, 09:09 AM   #5
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I'm not sure there's access to the fridge vent without removing the fridge but its a place to start!
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Old 06-30-2021, 01:27 PM   #6
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You can remove the white refrigerator vent cover on the roof and snake the wires down through the back of the refrigerator compartment.
Then remove the refrigerator side vent to access your new wires. The fun part is getting them from the refrigerator compartment into the basement. You may be able to go through the hole with the propane line. Ours had some black putty around the propane pipe to seal the hole and I was able to route wires through the hole and replace the putty.
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Old 06-30-2021, 02:09 PM   #7
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You can remove the white refrigerator vent cover on the roof and snake the wires down through the back of the refrigerator compartment.
Then remove the refrigerator side vent to access your new wires. The fun part is getting them from the refrigerator compartment into the basement. You may be able to go through the hole with the propane line. Ours had some black putty around the propane pipe to seal the hole and I was able to route wires through the hole and replace the putty.
Thanks! I installed a battery monitor below the fridge so once I get into that compartment it's easy for me to route back to the battery compartment. Appreciate the advice!!
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Old 06-30-2021, 09:56 PM   #8
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You guys were 100% right and it was pretty easy to fish down through the fridge vent cover. Wiring is complete and will start installing panels tomorrow. Thanks!!
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Old 07-01-2021, 01:56 PM   #9
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Great. Make sure you keep the wiring away from the propane burner.
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Old 07-02-2021, 07:46 AM   #10
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rvwithtito.com has a really good walk-through of his solar system. He explains his thought process in selecting each component and why he configured it in a particular way.
I found it really helpful in my planning stage. It gave me a couple great ideas and I blatantly copied the rooftop junction box and DIN rail terminals that he used for panel connections.
Cheers,
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