[RE-wrenches] Panel Fire

[Brian Sipp]

I may be very wrong here and I don’t mean to impugn anyone’s integrity, but don’t forget that in this era of digital animation movies you can’t always believe what you see in a photo either. (I'm sure no one here has ever Photoshopped a photo to make it more presentable looking.)  I couldn't help but notice that the bottom right corner of the photo was surprisingly blurry and indistinct.  It is difficult to distinguish one thing from the next, when just a few feet away but out of the range of detail in the photo, things seemed to be much clearer.  I’ve never seen a photo look like that in reality.  It’s as if the roof and array have mysteriously melted together.  Also, I have never seen tempered glass melt in a low temperature fire.  If it were a high temperature fire the roof would not have survived.  I think that a great deal of caution is warranted especially considering the lack of detail that the poster is giving
 about the panels, location, installer/supplier, existence of another array etc.

--- On Wed, 2/11/09, Allan Sindelar <allan at positiveenergysolar.com> wrote:

From: Allan Sindelar <allan at positiveenergysolar.com>
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Panel Fire
To: "'RE-wrenches'" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 12:57 PM



#yiv1767441176 _filtered #yiv618765539 {
font-family:Cambria Math;}
#yiv1767441176 _filtered #yiv618765539 {
font-family:Calibri;}
#yiv1767441176 _filtered #yiv618765539 {
font-family:Tahoma;}
#yiv1767441176 _filtered #yiv618765539 {margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
#yiv1767441176 #yiv618765539 P.MsoNormal {
FONT-SIZE:12pt;MARGIN:0in 0in 0pt;FONT-FAMILY:"Times New Roman", "serif";}
#yiv1767441176 #yiv618765539 LI.MsoNormal {
FONT-SIZE:12pt;MARGIN:0in 0in 0pt;FONT-FAMILY:"Times New Roman", "serif";}
#yiv1767441176 #yiv618765539 DIV.MsoNormal {
FONT-SIZE:12pt;MARGIN:0in 0in 0pt;FONT-FAMILY:"Times New Roman", "serif";}
#yiv1767441176 #yiv618765539 A:link {
COLOR:blue;TEXT-DECORATION:underline;}
#yiv1767441176 #yiv618765539 SPAN.MsoHyperlink {
COLOR:blue;TEXT-DECORATION:underline;}
#yiv1767441176 #yiv618765539 A:visited {
COLOR:purple;TEXT-DECORATION:underline;}
#yiv1767441176 #yiv618765539 SPAN.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {
COLOR:purple;TEXT-DECORATION:underline;}
#yiv1767441176 #yiv618765539 SPAN.EmailStyle17 {
COLOR:#1f497d;FONT-FAMILY:"Calibri", "sans-serif";}
#yiv1767441176 #yiv618765539 .MsoChpDefault {
FONT-SIZE:10pt;}
#yiv1767441176 #yiv618765539 DIV.Section1 {
}


One detail I haven't heard mentioned yet and am curious about - the photo of the fire damage appears to show the corner of another west(?)-facing array. I find it curious that the system owner described a 2 kW system made up of eight 250W(!) modules, which are clearly visible in the topmost system photo.
 
There's just a whole lot that doesn't jive in this whole story. Scary to me.
Allan at + NRG
 

-----Original Message-----
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Bill Brooks



Wrenches,

After looking more closely at the pictures, it appears that they may not be glass-covered modules. Given the poor manufacturing practices, this was a fire waiting to happen the moment they turned it on.   
The amazing thing is that the installer is going to reinstall the module—and burn the house down this time. Notice the fire made it through the roofing in the middle. 

Bill. 
  

 _______________________________________________
List sponsored by Home Power magazine

List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org

Options & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org

List-Archive:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org

List rules & etiquette:
www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm

Check out participant bios:
www.members.re-wrenches.org




      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20090211/e6989952/attachment-0003.html>