[RE-wrenches] Panel Fire

Thu Feb 12 19:38:58 PST 2009

Forget spire... It's now time for VC funded homebrew bozo panel assembly lines! Yikes!

In all seriousness though, I have a buddy that has been "making" solar panels for Years. Often down in Nicaragua, sometimes here in Appalachia...  Gets seconds (4ths?) from evergreen or eBay, lays em out on a sheet of glass, tabs them and then pours some encapsulant and a wooden frame... A friend has one with a polititsl yard sign as the backing membrane!  Instead of a j box he has an old electric cord coming out.  I Will advise him not to place his "bargain" near anything flamible. 

For a brighter energy future,

Geoff Greenfield
President
Third Sun Solar & Wind Power Ltd.
340 West State Street, Unit 25
Athens, OH 45701

740.597.3111     Fax 740.597.1548
www.Third-Sun.com

Clean Energy - Expertly Installed

----- Engineering Services Co. <khulet at revolutionearth.com> wrote:
> I tracked this down on Whitepages.com
> 
> http://yellowpages.superpages.com/mapbasedsearch/mapsearch.jsp?SRC=comwp&C=Marriage+To+Go+Com&T=beverly+hills&S=CA&STYPE=S&L=Beverly+Hills+CA&R=N&EG=1&RR=10&LID=2064408120&map.x=212&map.y=125&level=8&lat=034022631&lng=-118449410&POI1lat=034022631&POI1lng=-118449410&POI1name=Marriage+To+Go+Com&streetaddress=3435+Ocean+Park+Boulevard&city=Santa+Monica&state=CA&zip=90405&spad=no
> 
> 
> Ken Hulet
> Engineering Services Co.
> 204 S. Main St.
> Blanchardville, WI 53516
> 608.523.3726
> 
> 
> 
> On Feb 12, 2009, at 7:58 PM, Joel Davidson wrote:
> 
> > Maybe I missed this information, but does anyone know
> > 1) the address of this system?
> > 2) the installer?
> > See http://www.marriagetogo.com/homeoffice.html
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Michael Welch
> > To: 'RE-wrenches'
> > Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 6:48 PM
> > Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Panel Fire
> >
> > This seems corroborating. It has GOT to be the same situation:
> > http://www.examiner.com/x-432-Wedding-and-Marriage- 
> > Examiner~y2009m2d10-Our-wedding-anniversary-like-a-house-on-fire- 
> > literally
> >
> > Search the page for "solar" to get to the crux of it, and .
> >
> > P.S. Tempered glass won't melt, but clear plastic goop poured over  
> > the top of silicon cells (which can be seen littering the roof) will  
> > melt. These are probably homemade modules. What I see on the charred  
> > roof is consistent with plastic encapsulated modules burning and  
> > melting. Also, the racking is consistent with the first pre-fire  
> > photo.
> >
> > These poor folks really got taken to the cleaners by their  
> > "installer" which MUST BE STOPPED.
> >
> > Brian Sipp wrote at 06:17 PM 2/11/2009:
> >
> >> I may be very wrong here and I donâ€™t mean to impugn anyoneâ€™s  
> >> integrity, but donâ€™t forget that in this era of digital animation  
> >> movies you canâ€™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.  Iâ€™ve never seen a photo look like  
> >> that in reality.  Itâ€™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
> >> 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
> >
> >
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