[RE-wrenches] Colorado NEC 690.12 Rapid Shutdown

[Dan Fink]

Esteemed Wrenches;

Colorado has delayed enforcement of NEC 690.12 until April 1 2015. The CO
DORA Electrical Board wants to first evaluate the "confusion" created by
Rapid Shutdown, and consider what UL-listed equipment is actually available.

CO DORA has recently implied in communications with some of my clients that
they feel the intent of 690.12 is for rooftop PV arrays only, and that
ground mounts may possibly be exempt, as a firefighter can walk to the
ground-mounted array and throw the (I hope very clearly labeled)
disconnects.

However, that is in no way any sort of official statement from DORA, and
some projects in Colorado are still being put on hold thanks to 690.12 due
to individual AHJs.

If anyone else has 690.12 AHJ experience, positive or negative, in any
state, please send them to me off list. Because I teach a class on this
subject, it is of great interest to me and I have to keep up with the
latest real-world developments experienced by PV professionals.

I respectfully decline to comment on the date that enforcement here in
Colorado is scheduled to begin again, and I hope that "intent" becomes the
operative word nationwide.

Dan Fink
Buckville Energy
IREC Certified Instructor™ for:
~ PV Installation Professional
~ Small Wind Installer
NABCEP / IREC / ISPQ Accredited Continuing Education Providers™
970.672.4342



On Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 10:41 AM, Randy <randy at positiveenergysolar.com>
wrote:

> Hi Wrenches,
>
> We are being forced to adopt 690.12 Rapid Shutdown requirement based on
> several explanations given to our industry:
>
> 1.       otherwise we would be ignoring the life safety and put our fire
> fighters lives in peril
>
> 2.     This product can be constructed from readily available,
> over-the-counter code compliant components.  This (is) to be the intent
> of CMP4 when compiling the NFPA 70.
>
>
>
> We do not want to act like an industry that appears to be fighting against
> safety. And we know there are a few products that are code compliant,
> micro-inverters (don’t comply with 705.12 (D) (6) because there are no
> products), Solaredge, and Tigo (is it approved?) yet this is not how we
> choose products.
>
>
>
> And the SMA SPS inverter is not going to work in a 690.12 environment
> without complications as far as I can see.
>
>
>
> Appreciate comments that might support the right decision.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Randy
>
>
>
> Randy Sadewic
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20141009/bec91984/attachment-0001.html>