tolerating 10% tolerance? [RE-wrenches]

[Jeff Irish]

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Fellow Wrenches,

If you're waiting, wishing or pleading for all the module manufacturers to
become honest in their ratings voluntarily, give up.  The PV industry is no
different than any other segment of the electrical equipment industry, just
earlier in its life cycle.  

I spent 10 years in a past life in the electric motor industry, working for
a very well known, high integrity manufacturer, and for several years
represented this company on the Executive Advisory Board for the Motor and
Generator Section of NEMA.  Electric motors have been around for a hundred
years and the same issues are still prevalent; can you trust the horsepower
ratings, efficiencies, service factors, etc. of all the products in the
market?  No.  The way it eventually shakes out is the honest companies
(Baldor, GE, USEM, etc.) will design, test and nameplate honestly.  At the
other end of the spectrum will be the cheap offshore companies and yes, even
some made in USA brands.  Eventually there is no other solution than to
constantly educate the buyer that brand name products from respected
companies are worth a premium.  

The only time this ever got better was when DOE began legislating high
efficiency motors and testing samples pulled randomly from dealer stock.
That really cleaned up the nameplating, but only for high efficiency
industrial motors.

Jeff Irish, PE & NABCEP
Hudson Valley Clean Energy, Inc.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Maynard, Energy Outfitters [mailto:bob at energyoutfitters.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 12:47 PM
> To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
> Subject: RE: tolerating 10% tolerance? [RE-wrenches]
> 
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> 
> Bill,
> 
> Rather than blaming the rebate programs, I should have said rebate
> programs are doing nothing to reward truth in ratings of modules.  If
> they could, I think the manufacturers would step right up and clean up
> their numbers.  If we had to pay more per watt for the real watts
> received, so be it.
> 
> Regards,
> Bob
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Brooks [mailto:bill at brooksolar.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 8:56 AM
> To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
> Subject: RE: tolerating 10% tolerance? [RE-wrenches]
> 
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> 
> Bob,
> 
> It's not the government rebates that are at fault. This is a good case
> (has
> happened many times with several manufacturers) where a manufacture has
> tried to do what Joel said and be more honest in their ratings, but all
> it
> did was hurt profits--it did not improve sales (because $/STC Watt
> reported
> by the manufacturere is still king--the CEC rating is simply an
> adjustment
> made on the manufacturers STC data). It has become painfully obvious
> that if
> you want the truth about module ratings, this will require an outside
> influence to force the issue--all attempts by individual manufacturers
> over
> the past 25 years have failed miserably. I'm not a big fan of government
> regulation, but I am a big fan of truth--if it requires some regulation
> to
> force truth I say bring it on. And all the neophytes out their that
> don't
> know all the nuances of our crazy rating system will be better off--but
> so
> will everyone else in the process.
> 
> Bill.
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Maynard, Energy Outfitters [mailto:bob at energyoutfitters.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 8:42 AM
> To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
> Subject: RE: tolerating 10% tolerance? [RE-wrenches]
> 
> Todd,
> 
> In all fairness to BP, they tried to take the US PV industry to a truth
> in
> rating with their 160's but rebate programs penalized them for it and
> rewarded those that stayed with higher ratings with wider tolerances.
> Another fine example of how government rebates can keep this industry
> from
> getting to where we need to be.  I didn't expect to see PV get this far
> in
> my lifetime, I wonder now if I might see wide spread production
> incentives!
> 
> Regards,
> Bob Maynard
> Energy Outfitters
> 
> 
> ***snip
> 
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