[RE-wrenches] Solar Installers Education

[Darryl Thayer]

Hi GAng I am very concerned as to the direction that nabcep and the industry is going.  I think a single person can install a system, and that person should be qualified as an electrician.  I do not think that means if two people work on an install that all the work is just electrical.  I want to be sure that the racks and frames are grounded.  I would also like to see the white wire disappear, and ungrounded systems come about.  

But what I am most concerned about is installers not having enough education.  It seems to me that I keep hearing about the 1 day and an electrician is a trained solar installer.  This is a recipe for disaster. BAck in the Carter era, the solar industry got murdered by unskilled installers.  Now we want to take an electrician give him or her 1 day training and call him or her an installer! and maybe NABCEP certified soon!  

I am an installer, a trainer and an electrician. My 48 years as an electrician did not train me to be a solar installer.  There is to much additional information required.    If you take my class, you will spend 56 hours in the first class mostly textbook learning and 64 hours in the second class mostly hands-on skill building on 4 different Lab confined installs, then you will design and install your own independent install, with all phases being checked by me.  people spending about 32 hours total on this final package.  I think this is the minimum.  

And I hear that a super short course with training apparatus, and a computer is going to be enough!  

I do not know how to address this coming thing but it seems that soon we will be without standards, let the buyer beware.  

As to your questionnaire,  I do not understand the questions.  for my class I spend 
2 days electrical residential
2 days mechanical residential asphalt roof systems 

2 days electrical commercial GT 3 phase systems, 120, 208, 240, 277, 480 including single inverters.
2 day mechanical: trackers, ground mount, flat roof mount systems

2 days electrical residential (multimode) battery grid tie systems
2 days electrical stand-alone text book and
2 days electrical stand-alone hands on.  
 
Darryl 

Good luck to the industry. 


--- On Fri, 7/17/09, Keith Cronin <electrichi01 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Keith Cronin <electrichi01 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [RE-wrenches] Solar Installers Education
> To: "RE-Wrenches" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
> Date: Friday, July 17, 2009, 2:44 PM
> Hi
> gang
> 
> I was wondering, what percentage do you believe represents
> the ratio of classroom training to field training for PV and
> what percentage you believe should be performed by licensed
> electricians vs what is deemed mechanical work?
> 
> Residential Grid Tie w/out batteries
> ___% classroom- electrician
> ___% field- electrician
> 
> Residential Grid Tie w/out batteries
> 
> ___% classroom- mechanical
> 
> ___% field- mechanical
> 
> Commercial Grid Tie w/out batteries
> ___% classroom-electrician
> ___% field-electrician
> 
> Commercial Grid Tie w/out batteries
> 
> ___% classroom-mechanical
> 
> ___% field-mechanical
> 
> Residential GT with batteries
> ____% classroom-electrician
> ____% field-electrician
> 
> Residential GT with batteries
> 
> ____% classroom-mechanical
> 
> ____% field-mechanical
> 
> Any takers on the off grid market percentages?
> 
> Commercial w/ batteries is utility scale and I don't
> think it can be quantified today as the projects are
> generally design build and perhaps hard to put an exact # on
> these.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Keith
> 
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