NABCEP Call for comments [RE-wrenches]

Wed Oct 23 23:25:55 PDT 2002

<x-flowed>
Hi Bob-O and All,

Thanks to Bob-O for having the insight to serve on the Board and 
contribute an experienced wrench perspective to it.  I too fear the 
negative backlash that could come from shoddy systems or worse yet - 
some homeowner (or instant PVolactics business employee for that 
matter) discovering what 500 volts does to your skin or heart.

However there also has to be a smooth way to get those of us wrenches 
that don't have a electrician's license into the fold of a new 
certification program without us having to pull romex through walls 
for 4 years first.   I serve a multi-state niche market in renewables 
and would love to see a National certification.  But for me and I 
suspect many others it would have to honor either actual PV hours, or 
number of systems installed, or number of KWs installed, etc. - not 
just any sort of electrical work as an electrician under the 
employment of a Journeyman electrician.

Nice seeing many of you in Grants Pass last weekend!

Best,

Jeff Clearwater
Ecovillage Design

>Bill, ETAL,
>This is an important thread and you all make great points. I see 
>national certification as the coming thing. Whether it turns out to 
>be a good thing is still up for grabs. That is one reason that I 
>have joined Don Loweberg on the NABCEP BofD. I figure if I'm going 
>to have to be on the boat anyway, I'd better try to steer the damn 
>thing.
>I can visualize the NABCEP installer of tomorrow being what an ASE 
>certified mechanic is today. All things being equal and if you have 
>a choice, that's the go-to guy. Don't worry about the marketing 
>part. Both the PV manufacturers (also on the NABCEP BofD) and any 
>company who uses certified installers will be shouting it from the 
>rooftops.
>These bad news systems scare me. Unfortunately, it's to be expected 
>with California's looser-than-baby-poop licensing laws. A general B 
>license doing ANY wiring let alone PV? Ridiculous and damn 
>dangerous. Given that, CA consumers may well get the most benefit of 
>all the states from a national certification. The good news is that 
>most states are not at all like CA when it comes to licensing 
>electricians. Most require far stricter requirements to sit for a 
>test, a far more comprehensive test, and continuing education 
>requirements. On the down side, these state requirements can and do 
>actually keep many good RE installers outlaws. Perhaps national 
>certification will prompt some of these states to pass a special RE 
>license which will allow the qualified outlaws to get legal, buy 
>liability and bonding insurances, etc. We live in hope.
>Best, Bob-O
>
>>John and Graham,
>>
>>I am afraid bad installations are becoming commonplace. There are far too
>>many people doing installs that haven't the necessary background to do the
>>work. I think that there are far too few controls on the CEC program to
>>prevent poor systems from being installed. I do believe that the
>>manufacturers have a role to play by establishing authorized dealer
>>networks, but I believe those providing incentives (CEC, NYSERDA, etc...)
>>need to send the right signals. Requiring NABCEP certification at some point
>>to receive rebate funds is not an onerous undertaking for a good installer,
>>but it will weed out many poor ones. It is only one of several reforms that
>>should be adopted soon if we want the industry to grow.
>>
>>I also firmly believe that there is far too much "design" work going on in
>>the PV industry right now by those who are clearly underqualified. Although
>>this will not sit well with many, I believe that system designs should be
>>fully engineered and fully documented so that a competent installer will
>>know exactly how to install the product properly, and achieve very
>>predictable results. We are not anywhere close to that situation right now
>>in California so we get the whole range of designs and performance from
>>excellent to extremely poor.
>>
>>How many grid-connected systems are being messed up as we speak? I don't
>>know for sure, but I am willing to bet it is in the 20-50%. Is this a
>>problem? I'll let you draw your own conclusions.
>>
>>Maybe we won't have a problem with running out of rebate funds soon because
>>no one will want these unreliable systems anymore....
>>
>>Bill.
>
>--
>Bob-O Schultze, Electron Connection
>PO Box 203, Hornbrook, CA 96044
>800.945.7587 or 530.475.3402
>fax 530-475-3401
>www.electronconnection.com
>
>- - - -
>To send a message: RE-wrenches at topica.com
>
>Archive of previous messages: http://www.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/
>
>List rules & etiquette: http://www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/etiquete.htm
>
>Check out participant bios: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/index.html
>
>Hosted by Home Power magazine
>
>Moderator: michael.welch at homepower.com
>

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Clearwater
Ecovillage Design Associates - Whole Systems Design
Community and Village Scale Renewable Energy & Water Systems

Cell: 720-480-8455
Office:  800-440-2523 (PIN-7071)
Fax:  720-528-7813
jeffc at ic.org

Council Member - Ecovillage Network of the Americas - http://www.ecovillage.org
Advisory Board - Living Routes - Ecovillage Education - 
http://www.livingroutes.org
Founder:  Ecovillage Research, Development, and Demonstration Program:
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~clrwater/RDD/rdd.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- - - -
To send a message: RE-wrenches at topica.com

Archive of previous messages: http://www.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/

List rules & etiquette: http://www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/etiquete.htm

Check out participant bios: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/index.html

Hosted by Home Power magazine

Moderator: michael.welch at homepower.com

==^================================================================
This email was sent to: michael.welch at homepower.com

EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bz8Qcs.bz9JC9.bWljaGFl
Or send an email to: RE-wrenches-unsubscribe at topica.com

T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail!
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
==^================================================================

</x-flowed>