None of this is documented (was Uplift Wind Loading Values) [RE-wrenches]

[Joel Davidson]

Bill,

You are a knowledgeable and sincere PV engineer and people listen to your
opinion. If you want to give do (sic) respect to my work, then give it.

Undocumented claims about PV problems do more harm than good. Undocumented
claims about PV problems give Foes or Solar, legislators and the general public
the impression that PV is not ready for prime time.

For the record, my work for SMUD has had no leaks.

Sincerely,
Joel Davidson, IEEE Member
http://www.ieee.org/portal/index.jsp?pageID=corp_level1&path=about/whatis&file=code.xml&xsl=generic.xsl



Bill Brooks wrote:

> Joel,
>
> My point goes back to your first message on Saturday (copied below). You
> were making a case for why your design for SMUD was good and no leaks had
> occurred. I was pointing out my first-hand experience with this design. The
> fact that this design was implemented at PVUSA after your contract was over
> and after you left Solec does not impact the relevance of the design.
>
> The design was okay for that day and time, but it has been shown in
> practical experience to have problems. My experience with your design that
> was implemented at SMUD has convinced me to recommend against similar ideas
> based on the weakness seen in the field. We live and learn.
>
> With all do respect, your mounting system did have much fewer failures than
> the first round design using the old NorthEast RES roofjack design with wood
> screws. SMUD had to retrofit numerous mounting systems of that generation
> because they were literally falling off peoples roofs. Wood screws were
> pulling out of the OSB and the roof jacks were rolling over.
>
> None of this is documented because it is not good news--and the rule was
> "all the news that's good enough to print." I attended several presentations
> by various presenters that said that SMUD never had any mounting
> problems--that's just not accurate information.
>
> Airing this information should not be seen as dangerous, but rather an
> opportunity to learn and move on. For far too long, our industry has focused
> on just telling the good stories. We need to tell the bad ones too so that
> we don't keep making the same mistakes. I don't enjoy contradicting your
> assessment and it is not in the least bit personal. My information clearly
> shows shortcomings to the design that needed to be stated.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Bill.
>

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