International Association of Electrical Inspectors [RE-wrenches]

Mark Frye markf at berkeleysolar.com
Fri Mar 7 07:44:37 PST 2008


William,

I use the WEEB clip (best thing since sliced bread, see previous posts).

I have had them questioned, and accepted in the City of Berkeley, CA, The
City of Oakland, Ca, The City of El Cerrito, CA, the Township of Tiburon,
CA, and the County of Contra Costa, CA.

Thanks for the heads up, I will let the competition pick up the work in San
Carlos from now on.  There is nothing worse than a bad customer, except a
bad inspector.
 
Mark Frye
Berkeley Solar Electric Systems
271 Vistamont Dr
Grass Valley CA 95945
(530) 401-8024
www.berkeleysolar.com
 

-----Original Message-----
From: William Miller [mailto:wrmiller at charter.net] 
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 11:17 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: International Association of Electrical Inspectors [RE-wrenches]


Colleagues:

As it so happens, the IAEI is holding a three day seminar here in our 
county seat.  The agenda included two half day sessions on PV installation 
code compliance and inspections.  I attended one of the sessions 
today.  The first presenter is a plan checker with the City of San Carlos 
California.

The first issue discussed was generated by a question from an installer and 
was on the subject of fusing parallel strings.  I was under the impression 
that John Berdner's position as expressed in his white paper on fusing of 
strings was pretty well accepted in the industry.  This has been discussed 
thoroughly here in this forum.  The only caveat to Berdner's logic is there 
must be some proof that the inverter can not contribute to PV fault 
current, even in a failure of the inverter.  Proof can come in the form of 
results of independent testing and a statement from the manufacturer.

The presenter does not accept this logic.  His opinion is that, if the PV 
manufacturer lists a maximum fuse size in any literature, an installer must 
install a fuse.  The mere mention of a fuse in product literature means 
that, unless specifically stated otherwise, the manufacturer requires one 
and manufacturer's requirements can not be waived by any language in the
NEC.

Furthermore, the presenter is not allowing use of the Wiley Electronics 
WEEB clips in his jurisdiction because the ETL listing for these clips is 
under UL467 which applies generically to the grounding of non-current 
carrying metallic parts.  His problem is that unless the listing is under 
UL1703, PV systems, the 467 listing does not allow for their use in PV
systems.

I sent an e-mail then and there to Wiley asking for clarification.  Problem 
is, I just ordered and received about $1,000 worth of WEEB clips and all of 
the local inspectors where in the room hearing how they should not allow me 
to use these as accepted grounding.  After the session I noticed that Wiley 
addresses the 1703 versus 467 on their website at this 
address:  http://www.we-llc.com/WEEB.html  See the Summary for inspectors 
section.

Do any of you on this list do business in San Carlos, and if so, how ever 
do you get anything past plan check?  Furthermore, I assume most of you are 
avoiding the use of fuses in string quantities of two or less, so this 
school of thought is going to cost you (and your customers) some cash.  How 
do you all feel about this?  Lastly, is anyone here using WEEB clips and 
have you had their legality questioned?

Thanks for your input.  I apologize for being such a curious so and so.

William Miller


-- _________________________________
William Miller
Miller Power and Communications
Voice :805-438-5600     Fax: 805-438-4607
email: wrmiller at mpandc.com
http://mpandc.com
License No. C-10-773985


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