Flexible Cables: Important Safety Issue [RE-wrenches]

[Dan Rice]

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...adding to the fray:

Not wanting to be led in one direction  or the other about an "important
safety issue," I thought I'd take a look see at UL 486 A-B for myself, and
see just how I might apply such important information for myself. Oops,
seems that I need to pony up $795.00 for a hard copy (or a bargain $330 for
the pdf) to see for myself. I did find out that the most recent version of
UL 486 A-B was put out November 15, 2003, so there may just be some
important new information -or not.
    UL 1741, the inverter standard, costs the same amount. I'd be interested
in reading those 174 pages too someday, when I hit the lotto...
    I was once "gigged" by John Wiles for installing an unfused double-pole,
double-throw safety switch as part of a grid-tie installation. The safety
switch's label called for overcurrent protection in the form of a fuse -I'd
used a mere 100 A (22,000 AIR) circuit breaker on the grid input side, and
John felt that this was a violation of the safety switch's listing. Being on
the pedantic side myself, I dug in with the manufacturer of the safety
switch. While the label on the switch did indeed call for fuse protection,
the UL Standard also allows for use of a circuit breaker as overcurrent
protection. The switch installation was completely safe and consistent with
the applicable UL standard. Of course, I did not have direct access to the
UL document (Allan at Positive Energy wasn't willing to sell the service
truck to buy a couple of books, the cheapskate), so it took awhile to get
the real information from the switch manufacturer. But this example served
to illustrate a couple of things -Mr. Wiles (with all due respect, John) is
sometimes honestly mistaken, and the unjustifiable expense of UL Standards
documents is a real impediment to furthering the mission of creating and
applying those standards.
    Perhaps one of the inverter manufacture reps or one of the engineering
oriented wrenches can chime in here. Is there a low/no cost source for UL
standards information? (I checked UC Berkeley library -no luck there). I'd
love to actually inform myself as to the ins and outs of the "Standards." No
doubt there's some pretty interesting and useful information to be had. As
we all know, such information is subject to some interpretation, often to
good ends. And, it's just helpful to be informed -ain't that how we all
learn?


Dan Rice
Abundant Sun, LLC.
435-826-4565

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