[RE-wrenches] pictures of off grid system failures?

Eric Youngren ericyoungren at gmail.com
Wed Mar 24 14:54:30 PDT 2010


Wrenches,

Do you have any pictures of catastrophic failures of off-grid systems or
components?    Especially good would be damage that could have been
prevented with a fuse or properly selected component.   exploded batteries
or burnt electronics would be perfect.

I'm headed to Tanzania and Kenya in May to give training and sales
presentations for PV dealers and prospective clients and install some
systems.

One of the main things I will be promoting will be the use of proper circuit
protection and BOS, which is rare over there right now.     As the scale of
the systems being installed gets larger these things obviously gets more
important.   I saw a bunch of systems in 3 countries in Africa last year,
there were very few fuses and lots of poorly cobbled together systems that
will likely fail prematurely.

Where there are no codes or inspectors I think its up to the equipment
suppliers to convince the customers of the importance of safety related
hardware.    And the best way to convince someone is with evidence, which is
why I'm looking for some pictures of what might happen when you do in the
WRONG way!

I'd imagine many of the off-grid gurus on this list have been called in
AFTER the homeowner's "buddy" helped him cobble together a bunch of parts
and "everything worked great, until...."    Any pictures or ideas or leads
on where to find such a gallery online would be great.  Thanks!

Best Energy,
Eric


-- 
Eric Youngren
Island Energy Systems, LLC
dba Solar Nexus International
PO Box 894
1016 Discovery Way
Eastsound, WA 98245
(360) 376-6842
www.solarnexusinternational.com
www.solarnexuspowercenter.com
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