[RE-wrenches] Mike Holt Solar Video - LIVE in your town, limited time only

[Bill Brooks]

Dick,

It sounds like you are not a big Mike Holt fan. There is no requirement for
that. The language in the 2008 NEC was poor, at best. It was a complete mess
up of a proposal that John Wiles and I was involved with--sounds like you
were involved as well. A member of the CMP13 took the proposal and
essentially destroyed it. 

The original proposal was to require an electrode on ground-mounted
structure. The roof-mounted requirement was a complete mistake--and
potentially dangerous in most cases.

My approach is to work with another member of our CMP4 panel to write an
article for the IAEI News and explain what was intended. Since the language
is very ambiguous, that can work in the favor of providing an opinion that
is a safe version of 690.47(D). 

Bottom line is that any building that already has a grounding electrode
should not have an additional electrode added.

Bill.


-----Original Message-----
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Richard L
Ratico
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2013 6:22 AM
To: re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Mike Holt Solar Video - LIVE in your town,
limited time only

I watched most of the streaming video of Mike Holt and six PV industry
professionals this weekend. The most interesting aspect of it was Mr. Holt's
very dramatic build up to the Sunday discussion of Article 690.47(D) which
brings back the requirement for an auxiliary grounding electrode for PV
arrays.
He used everything short of drum rolls to build anticipation for this part
of the presentation.

Having personally contributed a short piece on this subject for SolarPro
magazine along with Bill Brooks and John Wiles in 2008, I looked forward to
this discussion. Finally, midday Sunday, instead of a discussion of an
important and controversial part of the 2014 code, we received a rant by Mr.
Holt demanding an immediate and unprecedented withdrawal of the article. 

Prior to his remarks, in contrast to the preceding article discussions, Mr.
Holt asked that the guest panel not make any comments that would explain how
the requirement came to return to the code after being eliminated in the
2011 edition, or any comment that might "confuse" the issue. To my very
great surprise and disappointment, they complied, uttering not a single
word, nodding their heads and moving on to the next article.

After all the buildup by Mr. Holt, the "discussion" amounted to his monolog,
which if parsed, though stated to be for safety concerns, seemed primarily
an exercise designed to sell his books, videos and consulting services on
grounding. This was of course expected. The weekend live streaming was
generously offered free of charge, a rare opportunity to hear current PV
expert opinion on the NEC. My concern is that Mr. Holt's control of the
process here inhibited the dialog that should have taken place.

There are significant implications of allowing his opinion to go
unchallenged.
Is there, or is there not, any merit in 690.47(D)? Could the language be
better?
Could the requirement be modified to make it better rather than simply
discarding it? Does accepting his argument mean all those systems installed
according to the 2008 code are unsafe?

Mr. Holt explicitly stated his desire to create a groundswell of opinion to
immediately eliminate this requirement of the code. Would it not be better
to carefully think through and discuss the issue, in contrast to what was
permitted on his "show"?

Dick Ratico
Solarwind Electric


--- You wrote:
Dear Wrenches,

Several of your co-wrenches are helping Mike Holt with the video companion
to his PV & the NEC 2014 book. So since you spend all your weekdays thinking
about the NEC, what better way to spend this weekend than to watch NEC nerds
discuss the meanings of shalls and shall-nots, the unwelcome return of
690.47(D), and the continued flights of our favorite sections to 705, right?
Before you answer that, know that you can also ask questions during the
video in case something is unclear or if we're wrong about something.

Broadcasting (free) from:
www.MikeHolt.com/live

Times:
~9a-4p ET Sat 12/7
~9a-5p ET Sun 12/8

Video from this weekend will be what's edited into the official DVD that
Mike puts out in the next few weeks.

Because Bill Brooks has a great joke about separate direct-current grounding
electrode systems bonded to the alternating current grounding electrode
systems that you don't want to miss, Dave

PS If this post violates list etiquette, my apologies in advance, Michael.
We don't get a commission, if that helps...
_______________________________________
--- end of quote ---
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