US versus DE installation costs [RE-wrenches]

[Allan Sindelar]

Best rant I've heard in years! Go, John! 
Allan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Berdner" <jberdner at sma-america.com>
They have much lower installation costs for several reasons,
> including:
> 
> - No "really expensive and totally unnecessary" dc disconnect switch
> required. Just use the MC connectors on the inverter which are not
> allowed here because somehow having them on the inverter is different
> than having them on the back of the array. Hmmm....
> 
> - No conduit required between array and inverter. Just use the same
> double insulated, sunlight resistant, wire you use on the back of
> modules but that you can't use here because ?? (see above)
> 
> - No ridiculously oversized dc grounding electrode conductors because
> they don't ground the PV negative to compensate for a problem that does
> not exist anymore and even if it did still exist they have ground fault
> detectors that will find it at personnel protection levels instead of
> the "fire protection levels" we use here in the US which are not defined
> anywhere but certainly WILL kill you deader than a doornail and then
> after you're dead unground the array because we all know that ungrounded
> PV is safer in the first place. 
> 
> - No "really expensive and totally unnecessary" ac disconnect switch
> only required to avoid a turf war between utility meter readers and
> troublemen.  In Germany they just use the circuit breaker in the sub
> panel, or the main breaker at the house.  Yes, Scarlet, these are the
> same circuit breakers that are rated as disconnects and we depend on
> every day to provide the fundamental level of electrical protection but
> somehow won't work in the incredibly unlikely event the inverter's
> anti-islanding circuitry does not work.  Assuming all the other stuff
> miraculously fails simultaneously (which has about the same likelihood
> as being hit by lightning three times in one day) you can just pull the
> meter which probably wont even inconvenience anyone because, when you
> think about it, the utility is down and that is why the linemen wants to
> disconnect the system in the first place.  Of course if you ask any
> lineman they will tell you they have procedures that make the disconnect
> unnecessary (like not ASS U ME ing the line is dead and shorting the
> line before they work on it) and then they will tell you they would
> never take the time to go around and throw the switches during an outage
> presuming they even knew where these switches were located, which they
> don't.
> 
> - No conduits required between the inverter and the ac panel. Just use
> the watertight connector that plugs into the inverter and the sunlight
> resistant jacketed cable to wire directly into the sub panel.   
> 
> Now a disclaimer: 
> I have just come back from a Standards meeting where otherwise
> intelligent people will tell you all day long that these requirements
> make perfect sense because that is how we have always done it.  Perhaps
> my reasoning is a bit clouded as a result of my recent extended exposure
> into this way of thinking.  I gotta go.  
> 
> Happy holidays to all!
> 

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