[RE-wrenches] electrical permit requirements

[Nick Soleil]

Hi Jeff:
    My standard permit docs are comprehensive, but do not include documentation regarding string sizing, thank goodness.  A permit technician/ plan reviewer should not be overseeing string sizing.  You should be thankful that the permit fees are so low, because that is the best thing a jurisdiction could do to support PV!  
    Any fly-by-night, incompetent installer can check string sizing on the inverter manu's web site.  I would suspect that, regardless of the plan review process, the less experienced installers will still be accountable to the inspector and their customer.

 Nick Soleil
Project Manager
Advanced Alternative Energy Solutions, LLC
PO Box 657
Petaluma, CA 94953
Cell:   707-321-2937
Office: 707-789-9537
Fax:    707-769-9037




________________________________
From: William Miller <william at millersolar.com>
To: jryago at netscape.com; RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Sent: Tue, June 15, 2010 3:43:38 PM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] electrical permit requirements

 Jeff:

Good point made here.  We too became concerned about lax enforcement
some years ago.  We started inviting ourselves to the Building
Inspector trade group meetings.  We submitted a permit application
check list to the local jurisdictions.  It sat on desks for a while,
but eventually the lead plan checker was asked to make a presentation to
the trade group and the handiest document was our check list.  It
became adopted.

Bill Brooks has worked on this issue and has resources.

I suggest you start a dialog and then be quick and thorough on the follow
up and you can have a positive influence.

William Miller


At 03:12 PM 6/15/2010, Jeff Yago wrote:

Well, this should start up a fire
>storm.   
>
>>I will not mention the county or state as we do work in many other areas,
>but today I stopped by a county building permit office to apply for a
>permit to install a grid-tie solar system that includes battery backup
>and generator, which we are adding to an existing very high end
>home.  I will also add this is a very well populated and modern city
>where the county offices are located.
>
>>I walked in with my permit application which included the permit form, a
>CAD drawing of the solar system wiring showing all dis-connects, wire
>sizes, conduit sizes and connections to the existing home wiring
>system.  We also included a spreadsheet form we have that shows all
>the calculations for the solar array to inverter wiring and inverter
>string sizing including high and low temperature and conduit adjusted
>voltage and currents from the array based on the record temperatures for
>that location.  We also include a cut sheet for the modules and the
>inverter(s) which show they have all the required code, IEEE, NEC and
>other labeling requirements.  Just to be complete, we also include
>an analysis printout from the inverter manufacturer showing the correct
>match-up of number of modules, number of strings, and estimated yearly
>performance.
>
>>The clerk looked at this stack of documentation, then returned it all to
>me and asked for the $30 permit fee.  She said there is no plan
>review for anything like this unless its a commercial electrical
>project.
>
>>I guess with all the stories of really bad experiences of others on this
>list with inspectors not knowing what they are looking for and stupid
>permit rules I should be pleased this went so smoothly.
>
>>However, I fear this is the kind of lax enforcement that will allow my
>competition to keep under-pricing me as they can get away with installing
>cheap products and not taking into account hight and low temperature
>effect on modules , length of wire run on voltage drop, and string sizing
>on the selection of wire, conduit, dis-connects, fuses, and
>inverters.
>
>>I also fear this is an accident waiting to happen that will give us all
>installing solar in this county a black eye.   So, do I have
>this discussion with the inspection office as I plan to do, or is this a
>fight for another day.
>
>>Jeff Yago
>>DTI Solar


      
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