[RE-wrenches] Keeping track of PV equipment failures

[Matt Lafferty]

Hi All,
 
Bob-O's point about collecting product failure experience is well taken.
Something I think we all are concerned about, regardless of brand,
technology, etc. Timing is good, too. I just finished putting together a
non-scientific survey form to gather info on PV Equipment failures over
time. Including roof leaks and structural failures, by the way. (Saw a
roofer fixing a PV footing leak in my neighborhood just yesterday as a
matter of fact) As of right now there are zero entries. You can be the very
first! I plan to start entering my own info over the next few days.
 
I set it to give each submitter the summary of the total dataset when they
submit. Don't know what that means really, but thought it sounded nice. 
 
Anyone can submit info. No login. It's totally anonymous. Quick & simple.
You all have experience that qualifies..... Please take a minute or so to
check it out.
<http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=cGM2ZmZkSDVpVWQ2LVdwZ
WtwQ0U5SkE6MA>
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=cGM2ZmZkSDVpVWQ2LVdwZW
twQ0U5SkE6MA..
TinyURL:    <http://tinyurl.com/djese2> http://tinyurl.com/djese2  Bookmark
it to keep it handy for easy future access. Please come back and use it
whenever something comes up. Pass it along to anybody who might be able to
use it.
 
Info from the form goes into a spreadsheet which tracks the input. I
purposely haven't made the spreadsheet & results public yet because I want
to watch for abuse. I hope that enough decent info is collected that I can
open up the results to everyone. If it looks like that is the trend, I'll
have the spreadsheet auto-publish to a webpage and send the link to the
Wrench list. I don't know exactly what will end up happening with this, but
I promise it will be put to good and ETHICAL use. 
 
This is intended to collect personal experience only. No rumors or gossip
please! If you "heard such and such from somebody", please send the somebody
this link:   <http://tinyurl.com/djese2> http://tinyurl.com/djese2  You can
report a single type of failure across multiple sites on a single form (like
a lot of module or inverter failures for instance). Please submit info for
different types of failures on separate forms. You can submit extra info via
email to the email address on the form. If you submit additional info via
email, please include a note about the failure you submitted on the form
since I won't know who submitted what on the forms.
 
Unfortunately, I haven't figured out a reasonable way to setup a similar
form for praising good performance based on specific experience. I am
playing with a couple different versions because I think it's important to
accentuate the positive. Will let you all know if and when I come up with
something... 
 
Thanks for participating and Pray for Sun!
 
Matt Lafferty
SolarJanitor <mailto:SolarJanitor at gmail.com> 

PS - If anybody want me to email them the form directly, embedded in an
email, let me know off-list. Also, if any of you with websites wanted to
embed the form there, let me know off-list.
 
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