[RE-wrenches] NABCEP

Sat Jun 2 15:48:42 PDT 2012

I'm in the process of NABCEP re-certification and I have two complaints about their process:

1. In the last year, NABCEP added a requirement for 3 customer surveys as documentation of projects completed. This was released just after I had left a job doing installations to do consulting overseas over the winter. I had all the permitting documentation, but having just returned to the US this spring, now I have to go back and try to get surveys filled out from projects that were done sometime ago. It has, for various reasons, has been a real hassle. 

I appreciate that NABCEP wants some customer feedback on NABCEP installers, and it would have been no problem to do this had it been an expectation from the beginning. However I feel that they changed the rules of the game midway through, and that's not fair. The moment you get certified, the re-certification process should be fixed until the next round.

2. There are three categories of continuing education credits. There has been no indication from the course-offerers or from NABCEP about how these courses fulfill the categories. I mostly took classes from inverter manufacturers that specifically list the number of NABCEP credits the class is worth -- so there clearly was some kind specific NABCEP accreditation involved. The onus shouldn't be on me to guess which requirements class X fulfills, especially when NABCEP has been involved in determining the number of credits it is worth (as opposed to, say, taking an OSHA course that is outside the PV industry), and when I've paid for these classes partly towards maintaining my NABCEP certification.

If NABCEP is going to have specific guidelines about such things, following the guidelines shouldn't be such a guessing game.

Jeffrey Quackenbush.

________________________________
 From: Andrew Truitt <atruitt at gmail.com>
To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> 
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2012 6:15 PM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] NABCEP

Wrenches - I'd like to address some of the aforementioned concerns about NABCEP.  I do not claim to present the official NABCEP "company line", but I have been a certificant since 2007, have been involved with a few programmatic committees, and currently sit on the board of directors.
	* I certainly sympathize with Dana's frustration with having to drive a full day to get to a testing center.  There are many others in a similar situation and it is one of the complaints about NABCEP that I hear most often (along with exam frequency).  Unfortunately NABCEP is still a very small certification body relative to trade licensing and, as a voluntary certification, we just don't have the resources that states do.
	* Allan is correct about the processes the Exam Committees have to undergo in order to follow defensible psychometric principles and maintain NABCEP's ANSI accreditation.
	* What additional resources would people like to use at the exam?  I would be happy to take suggestions to the Board.
	* I think most certificants would agree that there would be a value in multiple, specialized NABCEP PV certifications.  If fact there has been numerous internal discussions about exactly that and I think the next certification that NABCEP develops will fall into this category.  However, certification development takes time and money, and some of the programs that NABCEP has developed have not received the interest that was anticipated, so we need to perform our due diligence before committing the sizable resources that it takes to create a new certification.  As the PV Installer certification stands now, it is intended to test a broad variety of knowledge, largely because historically companies were smaller and employees were more likely to be generalists.  The industry has obviously grown very rapidly with one result being increased specialization and NABCEP does intend to keep up with this trend.  With all that in mind NABCEP welcomes targeted
 donations for developing new credentials. 
	* Certification certainly is a business, though I think that its worth noting that NABCEP was created by installers who were concerned with the workmanship of RE system installations and didn't want to see a repeat of what happened to the solar water heating industry in the '70s.  Since its inception NABCEP has been a volunteer-driven non-profit entity, guided by some of the most knowledgeable and dedicated people in the industry (many of whom are on this list-serve). 
	* We are well aware of the fact that NABCEP certs often get "promoted off the roof" and find themselves in design, sales or managerial rolls.  Obviously this reflects well on NABCEP certificants, but it is a problem for a program that requires ongoing field work for re-certification.  This is yet another challenge that we hope to address with future, more specialized certifications.  Note that it takes somewhere between 12 and 18 months to properly develop a credentialing program, and NABCEP has been quite busy over the years responding to market demands for Entry Level, Technical Sales, Small Wind, and now Company Accreditation.  We know that the industry is changing and we need to change with it, so keep the suggestions coming!

I think everyone I've ever met has had some idea about how NABCEP could be better, and often times they are right.  Unfortunately NABCEP operates under the real-world constraints of budgets, fund raising, volunteer availability, consensus building, accreditation requirements, etc...   In the end I think it is hard to argue that NABCEP has not benefited our industry.  NYSERDA did a study and found that systems that were installed by NABCEP Certified PV Installers had less issues at inspection than those built by non-NABCEP installers.  As someone who cares deeply about installation quality and safety, this tells me that NABCEP does provide value and fills a needed roll in our industry.

For a brighter energy future,

Andrew Truitt 
NABCEP Certified PV Installer™ (ID# 032407-66)
Principal
Truitt Renewable Energy Consulting
(202) 486-7507
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andrew-truitt/8/622/713

"Don't get me wrong: I love nuclear energy! It's just that I prefer fusion to fission. And it just so happens that there's an enormous fusion reactor safely banked a few million miles from us. It delivers more than we could ever use in just about 8 minutes. And it's wireless!"

~William McDonough

On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 5:56 PM, Chris Mason <cometenergysystems at gmail.com> wrote:

One of the issues I have with the NABCEP certification is the title. When I look at the subject matter, comparing the scope to other similar certifications, I feel "installer" is not really accurate. I have a couple of workers that install PV systems with me, and they are able to get the job done. They are what I would call installers. They don't work with the customer to design the right solution and solve problems, lay out the best approach and develop the right bill of materials.
>
>
>The skills that the NABCEP  PV certification Job Task Analysis requires is more of a systems designer. An installer does not need trigonometry, electrical theory and mechanical design to that extent.
>
>
>In other disciplines, anyone with the depth of knowledge the NACBEP requires would be a systems designer and project manager. The title "Installer" does not properly convey this knowledge and skill set, and does not give the customer an accurate representation of the role of the professional. 
>
>
>-- 
>Chris Mason
>President, Comet Systems Ltd
>NABCEP Certified PV installer 092411-103
>
>
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