NABCEP [RE-wrenches]

Joel Davidson joeldavidson at earthlink.net
Wed Dec 18 22:59:28 PST 2002


Dear Bill,

PV is still an emerging technology, yet a lot of education has been and is
taking place. Millions of hours of on-the-job-training have occurred. Thousands
of people have taken training courses, seminars and classes. I think that
Article 690 has been reprinted and copied more than any other NEC Article ever.
Every year, thousands of pages are written about PV system design, installation,
testing and maintenance. Sure, there should be more PV education, but compares
well to the electrical, radio and television industries during their early
years.

If NABCEP is a voluntary certification program for PV installers who wish to
distinguish themselves by meeting its requirements, then this discussion has
been blown way out of proportion. There are PV practitioners who want to take
tests and have their systems critiqued by peers. Almost every occupation and
profession from cooks to utility linemen have tests and contests.

However, NABCEP seems to be more than just a voluntary program and that has a
lot of people concerned. NABCEP management can end some of the controversy by
simply stating that they do not want NABCEP certification to be a requirement
for installing PV systems or for buydown rebates and incentives.

Joel Davidson

Bill Brooks wrote:

> Joel,
>
> So then why is so little education happening. Education is only one of
> several needed efforts and in no way lessons the need for a competency
> metric for installers.
>
> I calls 'em like I sees 'em. Call "misguided" and "wrong" political rhetoric
> all you want--it's the truth.
>
> Bill.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joel Davidson [mailto:joeldavidson at earthlink.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 7:20 PM
> To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
> Subject: Re: NABCEP liability (Wrenches) [RE-wrenches]
>
> Bill,
>
> License. Certificate. Call it what you will. CalSEIA opposes any State
> requirement that PV contractors must be certified by NABCEP or any
> certification
> body. The CEC programs are mandated by State law and calling the CEC
> "misguided"
> and CalSEIA "wrong" sounds like political rhetoric.
>
> Some wrenches recall the first discussions about the PV buydown rebate
> program.
> Everyone was concerned that bad PV systems would hurt consumers and the
> industry
> kill the rebate. I remember listening over and over about how Republicans
> used
> bad solar water heaters installed by fly-by-night companies as reasons to
> kill
> the 40% federal tax credit that, by the way, Democrats enacted. In the end,
> we
> all decided that educating consumers, inspectors and installers was the
> right
> thing to do. I think we all still agree that education is the right thing to
> do.
>
> Joel Davidson
> CalSEIA Member
>
> Bill Brooks wrote:
>
> > Joel,
> >
> > That is the desire of the NABCEP board as well. The CEC put the language
> in
> > without consulting either organization. Not political--just misguided.
> >
> > CSLB is not a certification body so CalSEIA is wrong there.
>

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