<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt">Hi Jeff:<br> 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. <span style="font-weight: bold;">You should be thankful that the permit fees are so low, because that is the best thing a jurisdiction could do to support PV! </span><br> 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.<br><div> </div>Nick Soleil<br>Project Manager<br>Advanced Alternative Energy Solutions, LLC<br>PO Box 657<br>Petaluma, CA
94953<br>Cell: 707-321-2937<br>Office: 707-789-9537<br>Fax: 707-769-9037<div><br></div><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> William Miller <william@millersolar.com><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> jryago@netscape.com; RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tue, June 15, 2010 3:43:38 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [RE-wrenches] electrical permit requirements<br></font><br>
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<font size="3">Jeff:<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Bill Brooks has worked on this issue and has resources.<br><br>
I suggest you start a dialog and then be quick and thorough on the follow
up and you can have a positive influence.<br><br>
William Miller<br><br>
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At 03:12 PM 6/15/2010, Jeff Yago wrote:<br>
</font><blockquote type="cite" class="cite" cite=""><font size="3">Well, this should start up a fire
storm. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Jeff Yago<br>
DTI Solar</font></blockquote><meta http-equiv="x-dns-prefetch-control" content="on"></div></div>
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