[RE-wrenches] Nabcep - grid tie---Off grid

[penobscotsolar at midmaine.com]

I try to do more lurking here than participating, simply because there are
many experienced installers here with similar experience and knowledge. I
do agree with the earlier post that maintains the best experience with off
grid systems is living with off grid solar. Our office is 100% off grid as
was my home up to about 5 years ago when Maine made it more equitable to
be tied in.
That said, I will say that installations of straight grid tied systems 
require less knowledge and experience and therefore might, in my mind,
qualify as a "journeyman" type licensing by NABCEP. I do believe that any
electrician can learn to do code compliant grid tied systems in a fairly
short period of time.
 Full PV certification should involve both grid tie and off grid, in my
opinion. Our transition to grid tie was pretty much seamless, while fully
twenty years later I still find myself learning the in's and out's of
programming the newest and "best" equipment available to the off grid
world.
 I suspect this will not go over well with some but remember, it's just
one mans opinion. :-)

Daryl




> I have to agree. We have done off-grid for 30+ years, so it was a very
> simple transition for us to also do on-grid because the system design and
> configurations are much simpler.
>
> Over the past few years we have seen more mistakes by those that are only
> grid-tie familiar or certified when designing off-grid. I think the single
> most common mistake they make is to use the yearly average insolation
> instead of worst case. Other very common mistakes we see in the many
> systems
> we have refurbished or redesigned are failure to account for battery
> temperatures vs capacity and charging, proper battery sizing, and phantom
> loads.
>
> Apparently NABCEP does not go into off-grid systems very deeply, perhaps
> because the market is smaller and they can be much more complicated.
>
> ..................................................................................................
> Northern Arizona Wind & Sun - Electricity From The Sun Since 1979
> Solar Discussion Forum: http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/
> ..................................................................................................
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dana" <dana at solarwork.com>
> To: "'RE-wrenches'" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 9:40 AM
> Subject: [RE-wrenches] Nabcep - grid tie---Off grid
>
>
>> Just got to weigh in on this one.
>>
>> It cracks me up to see the grid tie generation's attempts at off grid
>> design. It is such an experiential design mode. It can be conceptually
>> taught in a class. But it has to be lived to really be made whole. The
>> finer
>> OG designers I know have almost all lived off grid. It is like
>> transmission
>> repair mechanics! I used to do tune-ups and do a timing chain on
>> occasion
>> long ago, but fix a transmission, either automatic or manual, forget it,
>> not
>> me as it was to specialized.
>>
>> Perhaps you have a good idea here, Jay. I hate to see an additional
>> layer
>> added here but you bring a good point to light. I am currently the #4
>> designer to work on both a SHW and Grid tie with battery backups that do
>> not
>> work and the battery bank is cooked and was not large enough to do much
>> more
>> than a couple of hours of back up at most though the client was promised
>> that it would support the house for several days. It is sad to see
>> people
>> taken by NAPCEP Certified and non certified installer/designers who wade
>> in,
>> make more of a mess, charge a bucket load and wander off citing the
>> owner
>> is
>> asking too much.
>
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