third Party Installations [RE-wrenches]

Joel Davidson joeldavidson at earthlink.net
Wed Nov 7 13:37:26 PST 2001


My vision of the future includes PV for the few hundred thousand white,
middle-class Americans who voluntarily choose to live off-grid. It also includes
the billions of people who now live on-grid and the 1.6 billion people who have
no electricity. Your way is too slow.

Drake Chamberlin - Electrical Energy wrote:

> To answer the statement below:
>
> You said:
>
> "No offense intended, but what technicians? Developing what technology?
> Salesmen
> exploiting what markets and weakening system design? PV is a developed
> technology. In 2000, PV installers put in 65 megawatts in Japan and 45
> megawatts in Germany. More PV is better. A lot more PV is a lot better."
>
> ****************************
>
> There are a lot of solar watts out there for sure, but many systems don't
> produce half the power consumed. Sometimes they produce much less that half.
>
> What takes time and savvy is designing the entire system, loads and
> production, to produce the necessary "end use tasks and conveniences."  The
> loads in the premise must be designed to function on a PV budget.  It is
> necessary to design house loads, heating systems, etc.  Load shedding or
> auto generator start for problem loads may need to be incorporated to
> protect battery investment.  It is generally necessary to specify many
> conservation measures and DC appliances where appropriate, along with a
> myriad of  other details.
>
> I'm beginning to feel like a broken record on this. But people are used to
> being able to buy things off the shelf, plug then in and forget about
> them.  That expectation is what sucks a lot of customers into buying a lot
> of PV equipment that will do them little good.
>
> "Plug and play" doesn't generally fly for PV.  Customers need to be
> educated about these issues.  It is amazing that many low ball sales
> outfits may either be oblivious to this issue, or don't care.  A sale is a
> sale.   The "selling point" heard from volume vendors, of just hook it up
> for solar power, makes educating customers that more difficult.  They
> already have been programmed with false expectations.
>
> Designing a load that matches production makes all the
> difference.   Without that, a customer gets a lot of impressive looking
> equipment hanging on a wall, with a solar array that functions as little
> more than a political statement.  The customer would have been far better
> off spending a small fraction of that investment on energy efficiency.
>
> I've seen situations where mail order outfits have happily sold systems to
> put on houses, with forced air heating systems, that alone use far more
> power than the PV system produces.  I've seen people tied to their houses,
> to run generators, to keep their homes from freezing up in the winter.
>
> Yet a carefully designed solar solar electrical system can magically stay
> charged and run all or most of the loads.  You can't just slap up a bunch
> of equipment and expect it to be a meaningful, cost effective installation.
>
> True, we are not inventing PV.  We are interfacing the limited power it
> produces with electrical reality. Systems that work are examples that build
> the industry.  Putting up $20K boondoggles that supply some minuscule
> portion of the electrical load gives PV a bad name.
>
> Additionally,  Wrenches have done tremendous R&D for a lot of equipment,
> from wind machines to battery boxes.  Over the last decade or so, what
> works has been ferreted out from what doesn't.  Strategies for programing
> inverters have been developed.  Problems have been isolated and
> manufacturers contacted.  Much has been learned and much remains to be
> improved upon.
>
> Drake
>
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