Bad workmanship strikes again [RE-wrenches]

[Bill Brooks]

Carl (and Ray),

I will be evaluating and troubleshooting 10 more systems for the CEC over
the next two weeks. I will be checking on this system. Sounds like they
paralleled modules without going to fuses.

Sorry Ray (Walters)---another one bites the dust. The need for fusing is
very real. Just because some combiner boxes have had problems in the past
does not mean that it is not the right thing to do.

Bill.

-----Original Message-----
From: carl reuter [mailto:solarcruzer at yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 8:58 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: Bad workmanship strikes again [RE-wrenches]



 Wrenches: I was just called out today to pull an SW inverter off of a Trace
Power Panel and send it in on warranty after it smoked. The customer fired
the original contractor, unfortunately too late though, as he had installed
their grid-tie solar system, a huge generator system and even a burglar
alarm system and did a bad job of all of it. Doug Pratt wrote about this
installation some months ago and it is every bit as retched as he described.
One thing that puzzles me is that I saw 54 Solarex MSX120s making up the
array. Even though these are 72 cell modules that could be wired as 24
volts, they are feeding a pair of SW 4048 inverters. In my mind that seems
like it would require 52 modules. Any speculation on that one? One thing
that was happening was that the j box covers were warped from overheating on
the last  modules on each array. I only had limited time there so it was
strictly a visual examination but I cant wait to see whats happening in
those boxes.There was no combiner box and everything was done with SEOW
cable. From the ground it ran 250+ ft in two pairs of #2 wires in 2" conduit
to the batteries. Yikes, by my calcs it should have been 4/0 pairs. I'd love
a second opinion on that .
Another bonehead manuever was them installing  #2 hand made battery cables
between the batteries with hammer crimped lugs and no heat shrink covered
ends. This is all sad evidence of what happens when some hacks that only
know enough to be dangerous jump into the blossoming world of grid-tie
solar. Carl Reuter


Carl Reuter- Owner
Land and Sea Solar
"Bringing Solar Down To Earth"
www.landandseasolar.com
Ph: 831-477-7169
Fax: 831-465-8349



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