[RE-wrenches] Panel Fire

Tump tump at hughes.net
Fri Feb 13 09:14:25 PST 2009


That is quite the frightening response, I wonder just HOW closely, "I work
closely with fire personnel, law and code enforcement". Was this inspected?
So much for QC!

-----Original Message-----
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Allan
Sindelar
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2009 10:15 AM
To: allan at positiveenergysolar.com; 'RE-wrenches'
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Panel Fire


Wrenches,
OK, so this went out to the list by mistake. Where's the "unsend" button
when I need it? By reading on, you can see that I intended to ask Michael
for guidance before posting this to the list.

I sent what I believe was a kind and supportive message to the contact email
of the Marriage-to-go website. You can read what I sent below, along with
the homeowner's reply. She has asked that their privacy be respected. I'll
leave it to all of us to speculate on the rest of the story.

Allan at Positive Energy

-----Original Message-----
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Allan
Sindelar
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2009 7:51 AM
To: 'RE-wrenches'

Michael,
Last night I sent the message below to the contact email for the chapel, and
got their response. I would like to forward this to the list, in order to
guide our collective behavior. How do you advise that I proceed? Allan

-----Original Message-----
Hi gang. Contact me off list if any questions or concerns.
We can probably find these folks' home and their system if we want to, we
are very close. But they have gone to lengths to protect household privacy,
so please let's not make it public here.

Hello Allan:

Thanks for your email and your kind words, and I appreciate your attention
to our recent solar module-related fire.

I am not the person responsible for the Wind-Sun posting--my husband posted
the photos and inquiry--but our hats are off to 
you and your associates for quickly finding and correlating my Examiner
article with the Wind-Sun forum.  Though the 
expertise and opinions of your colleagues have been very educational for us,
we are extremely disturbed by the vigilante tone 
of the postings and comments and we wish to make it clear that attempts to
interfere in our situation--and that includes 
unsolicited contact with us or our local authorities--will be dealt with
immediately and harshly.

I am a journalist, public official, and a Community Emergency Response Team
member; in the course of my professional and 
volunteer duties I work closely with fire personnel, law and code
enforcement, and City/State/County/Federal authorities.  We 
are fully aware of the agencies that need to be involved, reports that need
to be filed, and procedures that need to be 
followed as a result of this event.  The situation is very complex and you
do not have the entire story, and we are very 
upset about defamatory statements being made about us and our installer. Our
installer is NOT criminally liable, nor the 
ultimate or only responsible party here; investigations are currently
pending concerning liability and subrogation, and 
libelous statements from people outside the situation endanger our ability
to substantiate and recover our losses.   I am 
sorry to have to say this, but if we find that anyone from your forum has
improperly attempted to inform or influence these 
investigations or the companies/agencies involved, we will prosecute to the
full extent of the law.  I hope you will make 
this clear not only on your boards but to any who have contacted you "off
list" as well.

We make no secret of our location or identities--we have nothing to
hide--and perhaps when this case is closed we will be 
able to answer your questions and provide more specific information about
this incident.  I have a vested interest in 
consumer safety and you can be assured that I will be writing about this
incident in detail once it is fully behind us (we 
hope with a happily-and-safely solar-powered ending to the story.)

However, we will diligently protect our financial interests and our privacy
while this case is active, and we hope you and 
your associates will recognize and respect our need to manage this situation
ourselves.  We are grateful for your industry's 
devotion to safety and professionalism, but tampering with our investigative
process is inappropriate and will cause us 
further harm.  Please be patient while we sort it out, and we we look
forward to a sunnier future both for ourselves and our 
sustainable home.

Kind Regards,

Elizabeth Oakes
-------------------------
http://www.MarriageToGo.Com
Mobile Marriage Licensing and Wedding Officiant Services    (Los Angeles,
CA)
310.288.6658   marryme at marriagetogo.com
skypename: marriagetogo.com

"Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human
existence."  --Erich Fromm

Elizabeth Oakes is the National Wedding Examiner column @ Examiner.Com:
http://www.examiner.com/x-432-Wedding-Examiner
Come be a friend/fan of MarriageToGo on http://www.Facebook.com!




Allan Sindelar wrote:
> Hello,
> I want to express my condolences regarding your solar panel fire. I
> share your relief that the fire was so quickly extinguished, and that 
> you have continued to maintain such a positive attitude about solar in 
> spite of your experience. Thank you for that; it shows maturity and
courage.
> 
> There has been quite a bit of discussion of your solar panel fire 
> among
> professional PV installers in the U.S. Much of the character of the 
> discussion mirrors the responses on the Wind-Sun forum you posted to, 
> but you might value the rest: 
>
_http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/2009/sub
ject.html#start_; 
> scroll down to the topic "panel fire".
> 
> The general consensus is that the installer was essentially criminal 
> and
> should be prosecuted and put out of business, based on observations of 
> the installation and photos you posted. The panels were unlisted, 
> unsafe, and of poor quality, possibly home-made. Nearly all modern 
> panels (actually properly called modules) have tempered glass toward the 
> sun. Nobody had seen this before; many of us fear that substandard work 
> will give our industry a black eye.
> 
> One long-time and well-respected installer in SoCal apparently 
> connected
> the before photo with the same photo on your weddings-to-go site; thus I 
> was able to contact you this way. This isn't intended to violate your 
> privacy, but more to let you know that this is actually a Big Deal to 
> solar professionals. I suspect that you have a lot of support out there 
> in the industry for resolving this in a good way, and protecting quality 
> installation standards.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Allan Sindelar
> ___allan_(at)_positiveenergysolar.com_
> <mailto:allan at positiveenergysolar.com>
> NABCEP certified solar PV installer
> Positive Energy, Inc.
> 3201 Calle Marie
> Santa Fe NM 87507
> 505 780-2738 cell
> 


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