arcing the night away [RE-wrenches]

[Marco Mangelsdorf]

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It looks like CA. SB1, the so-called Million Solar Roofs initiative, is one
Assembly committee and one floor vote away from passing.  The current
version still contains that paragraph limiting PV installations henceforth
to C-10 holders.  And speaking of licensed electricians, let me recount my
experience with one last Friday.

At a 8 kW job with a SB6000 and Xantrex GT3, my partner witnessed an arc
flash/fire due to a reverse polarity miswiring by none other than the
licensed electrician who was doing a high voltage PV system for the first
time.  (My partner had spent considerable time explaining things to this
individual before the installation began.) As the SMA combi-switch was in
the open position, my partner popped open one of the "touch safe" Littelfuse
enclosures inside the combi-switch, thinking that there was no possibility
of current flow, and voila, an arc flash and fire started once that fuse was
opened.  The "electrician" had miswired a 500 volt string of 18 modules
creating a series string short circuit in the disconnect enclosure even
though the switch was in the open position.  My partner popped open one of
the fuses creating an arc of 5000C degree (I just read about this in my NEC
Digest) plasma.  Fortunately, there was a fire extinguisher nearby. 

My point is that the vast majority of licensed electrical contractors in
this here state know next to nothing about PV, especially high voltage
grid-connected systems.  And yet these contractors are the only ones legally
permitted to install PV systems in Hawai'i.  And I know that there is not
one single PV question on the license exam.  I have to believe that it's a
similar situation in CA.  And the State of CA. is poised to disenfranchise
those C-46 solar specialists who have installed at least half, HALF of all
the some odd 13,000 NEM systems in the Golden State...go figure.  That will
be a sad day when it comes to pass.  

Marco Mangelsdorf
President
ProVision Technologies, Inc.
69 Railroad Avenue, A-7
Hilo, Hawai'i 96720
(808) 969-3281, 934-7462 facsimile
www.provisiontechnologies.com




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