Guides → Rapid shutdown labeling

Rapid shutdown labeling

690.12 has been rewritten three times since it appeared. What it makes you put on the building depends on which edition your authority enforces, and the 2023 text asks for two labels that did not exist in 2014.

What 690.12 is

A rule about making a roof safe for firefighters: a switch that drops the voltage in the array conductors, and labelling that tells someone standing at the service equipment that the switch exists and where it is.

It first appeared in the 2014 edition. There is no 690.12 in 2011, which matters if you work a jurisdiction still on that cycle.

How the clause changed

Edition	Shape	What it asks for
2011	—	No rapid shutdown requirement.
2014	A list, (1) to (5)	Labelling is required by (4), but the wording is defined by 690.56(C) rather than here.
2017	(A), (B), (D)	Introduces the array boundary — one set of limits outside it, another inside. (B)(2)(1) is satisfied by equipment listing, not by a placard.
2020	(A) to (D)	Adds (C) Initiation Device.
2023	(1), (2), (A) to (D)	Restructured again, and this is the edition that names label wording directly.

Which labels you actually fit, under 2023

Two of them, and a third thing that is not a label at all.

At the switch — 690.12(2)

Wording: RAPID SHUTDOWN SWITCH FOR SOLAR PV SYSTEM
Reflective, all capitals, white on red
Letters at least 9.5 mm (3/8 in.)
On the switch, or within 1 m (3 ft) of it

In practice that lands on the DC disconnect, the AC disconnect or the main service panel, depending on where the initiation device sits.

At the service equipment — 690.12(D)

A permanent label at each service equipment location, or another readily visible place the authority accepts, carrying a simple building or roof diagram showing where the initiation devices are, and the words:

SOLAR PV SYSTEM IS EQUIPPED WITH RAPID SHUTDOWN. TURN RAPID SHUTDOWN SWITCH TO THE OFF POSITION TO SHUT DOWN PV SYSTEM AND REDUCE SHOCK HAZARD IN ARRAY.

This is the one most often got wrong, because it is not a text-only placard. The diagram is part of the requirement.

Not a label — 690.12(C)

The initiation device has to show its own state: off must plainly mean rapid shutdown has been initiated. That is built into the device you buy. No placard satisfies it, and fitting one does not cure a device that lacks the indication.

The clauses that produce no label

Three of the six do not put anything on the building, and knowing which saves an argument at inspection:

690.12(5), 2014 — equipment listing and disconnect provision. No marking.
690.12(B)(2)(1), 2017 — the array itself must be listed or field labelled as a rapid shutdown array. That is a listing mark on the equipment, not an installer-applied placard.
690.12(C), 2023 — the device indication above.

Which edition applies to your job

The one your authority has adopted. The NEC is adopted locally, and adoption lags publication by years in many places — so a 2023-edition label set is not automatically right, and a 2017 set is not automatically wrong.

We do not state which edition any authority enforces. We hold no adopted- edition field, so any such claim would be a guess. Check with the authority, or ask for its current solar handout — and note that handouts go stale: we have found authorities publishing label schedules written to the 2016 cycle and re-issued, unchanged, in 2024.

What we stock against it

Eight products map to 690.12 across the editions — the 2017 array-listing pair, and the 2023 service-equipment and switch labels including the diagram placards.

For Kev — co-write notes. Everything factual here is from our own NecArticle and NecSignageRule tables: the clause structure per edition, the marking wording, the 9.5 mm and 1 m figures, the white-on-red and reflective requirements, and which clauses carry requires_sign=False. I have quoted the mandated label wording, which is what the label must say, and have not reproduced the code's own explanatory prose. Three things for you: the opening two paragraphs are my framing and are the most likely to read as mine rather than yours; "the one most often got wrong" is an assertion I cannot evidence and should either be backed or cut; and the stale- handout line is from the GovBot campaign — worth keeping, because no competitor can say it.