panel poaching [RE-wrenches]

[John Berdner]

Wrenches:
 
IMHO, the theft proof hardware will only keep the honest people
honest.
For that reason it is probably worth the effort but it will not stop
the determined thief.
 
Years ago when I was at Photocomm we had a billboard lighting program.
Theft was a big problem at one site near here.
We kept increasing the anti-theft measures but ultimately we had to
walk away.
In the end the modules were welded into 3" x 3" angle iron frames that
were in turn welded to 12" I beams set into the ground.  
The thieves used cutting torches on the I beams and took the whole
thing!
 
I also remember some Solarex modules we made only for commercial
projects with special orange back skins and serial number tags laminated
into the module. 
The orange color was supposed to make them easy to see them from the
air.
Since I don't see many of those modules I must assume that approach did
not work either. 
 
Best Regards,
 
John Berdner


>>> b.geddes at clear.net.nz 10/19/2003 10:05:06 PM >>>

Here in NZ there was a spate of Telco PV thefts a few years ago in my
area.
The company replaced one remote repeater array using tamperproofs but
the
site still went down.  Investigation showed that the array atop a 15m
pole
had been hacksawed off the pole!  You can only go so far.  Telecom did
not
bother to record serial no's so not much the industry could do to track
down
the panels.

Bruce Geddes
PowerOn


----- Original Message -----
From: "Nicholas Ponzio, VSE" <nik at vtsolar.com>
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2003 2:57 PM
Subject: RE: panel poaching [RE-wrenches]


>
> Is anybody using tamper-proof hardware for these situations? Maybe
some
rack
> fabs are offering this as an option? If not they should. When you're
putting
> up thousands of dollars worth of equipment out in insecure locations
(remote
> camps, state police barracks...) it just makes sense to take some
extra
> precautions.



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