SolarBOS Inc., a provider of electrical balance-of-system components, has developed what the company says is the industry's first arc-fault detection and interruption (AFDI) combiner box.
The new AFDI combiner box allows solar integrators to meet the letter of 2011 NEC in a cost-effective and reliable manner, according to SolarBOS. The combiner box has a module that detects series arcs and automatically disconnects the ungrounded conductor from the rest of the system, breaking the circuit, which stops the arc and prevents a fire from starting.
The new product can also be configured to work with a ground-fault interruption (GFI) device or system to open the ungrounded output of the combiner box when a ground fault is detected. The company has also introduced a new GFI product for PV systems.
‘Without AFDI or GFI capability at the combiner box, there is no way to automatically shut off the output from a PV array in the case of an arc fault or ground fault in the array wiring,’ says Jason Schripsema, CEO of SolarBOS.
