third Party Installations [RE-wrenches]

[Joel Davidson]

Dear Jeff,

Japanese techs share ideas during the work day face-to-face in Japanese. They
rarely talk shop after work. Manuals and drawings are not in English. I don't
know of any internet tech groups in English.

Americans PVers use to freely share ideas thanks to JPL Pasadena's involvement
in PV. The Reagan administration cut PV funds and JPL stopped doing PV work and
facilitating the info exchange in 1984. Then each PV manufacturer circled its
separate wagons and kept tech info in-house naively thinking that their
incomplete knowledge was their competitive advantage. We are still trying to
recover from the age ignorance.

This forum is the closest thing to the JPL hands-on info exchange that's come
along. Occasionally Bill Brooks, John Wiles and others give public training
seminars to share primary knowledge. These meetings are also an opportunity to
share advanced tech ideas. The old JPL tech meetings and today's training
seminars cost money, but wealthy PV module manufacturers (Kyocera, Sharp,
Siemens, BP, Sanyo, etc.) choose to spend their money on marketing instead of
tech training. A perfect example of PV manufacturer non-information is the
"Instruction Manual" that comes with PV modules. Manufacturers provide the
minimum info required by UL. A kitchen sink faucet instruction sheet has more
useful info.

Trace gives good tech training seminars if you can spare the time (and loss of
income) to attend them. But Trace seminars are mostly for newbies and this is an
intermediate and expert group.

PV is a decentralized technology practiced by decentralists. PVers are spread
far and wide and don't get together very often with people outside the small
circle of family, friends and co-workers. It is a privilege to participate in
this group. It is good to know that other minds are available to share their
knowledge (and opinions), be a sounding board, identify parts and suppliers and
help solve problems. It's nice to be able to use the punchline from an old Lenny
Bruce, "I don't know everything, but I have some people on my staff who do."

Brightly,
Joel Davidson

Jeff Yago wrote:

> "As long as you know where a wire goes, you can always let an
> >electrician skin his knuckles putting it there!"
>
> Some wrenches have totally miss-understood my point above and I would like
> the time to respond.
> >
> I am not a dot.com company and I have never sold any solar systems by phone
> or internet, although we do have a general company info web site.
>
> Almost ALL of our systems are very large new construction residential
> systems in upscale homes or off grid second homes.  You may not like that
> but in Virginia which still has under 7 cents/kwh electrical cost, our
> market is not going to be people wanting solar because they can't afford
> their electric bills.
>
> I personally design, size all wire, select and pre-order every part (I also
> personally pre-wire any needed custom electrical panels) and create wiring
> drawings for each system we sell,
>
> I personally design all of the house wiring, which includes selecting any
> major appliance and light fixture that uses electricity, and layout how all
> sub-panels will be wired to the pv, backup generator, and/or wind equipment.
> I tell clients upfront, that if I cannot control their electrical loads,
> they will not have the performance they want.
>
> I personally visit every site that we sell a system for prior to designing
> where each component will go, including array, panels, and batteries. Most
> of our designs also include custom designed site built battery rooms or
> battery boxes.
>
> I personally visit every site during the installation and provide phone
> support (when I am not on site).
>
> I personally visit each site when the installation is complete to program
> the inverters, meter and adjust setpoints on controllers, and instruct the
> homeowner on what to do and not do.
>
> When I can provide detailed 24" x 36" installation drawings to an
> electrician that shows him exactly what to do, where it goes, and using the
> parts we have pre-selected and provided for this specific installation, we
> have found that almost any licensed electrician can install a pv system
> without even knowing what it does.  In fact, we prefer it that way!
>
> Do I "skin my knuckles?", no, why should I, if I can hire that skill from
> others, which allows us to do many more systems each year than I could
> "personally" install myself.
>
> We learn just as much as the rest of you about what products work and don't
> work, better ways to connect systems, and I have shared this with you all in
> the past.
>
> I have "posted" many results about the many different systems I was called
> in to correct that were installed by people with lots of "skinned knuckles"
> from doing the same thing over and over again - the wrong way.
>
> I have been involved professionally for over 29 years in the energy
> conservation field and taught at hundreds of different educational solar
> programs at many different levels, and I can truly say, I have NEVER run
> into the level of "we don't want you in our club house" attitude that I have
> found with several members of this group.
>
> Isn't it time to stop this "mine is bigger than yours" e-mailings and get on
> with making our industry better?
>
> I wonder if there is a chat room like this in Japan, Germany, and India?
>
> Jeff Yago
>
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