About the PVGFP [RE-wrenches]

[Phil Undercuffler]

    We usually steer our clients away from roof mounts because of
penetrations, panels last longer than even the best roofs, reduced output in
hot installations, you can adjust angles, etc, but the GFP is the kicker.
When I mention cost of  that option, I rarely have to speak further.
    We have used the dwelling wording to justify putting an array on a power
system SHED.
    I also never really understood what the darn thing did, or why we need
it.  In a training seminar sponsored by Dankoff Solar, John Wiles described
the old 600 volt industrial arrays at Carizzo et al (where the Electric
companies proved conclusively that solar didn't work) that would develop an
arc between the cels and the frame, thereby energizing the entire structure.
God save the dog that peed on that post.  This, in John's oppinion,
justified the creation of the GFP solution.  To me the solution is
easier--don't run an array at 600 volts!
    RE: the burning down the house, its sobering to remember that the
original purpose of the code is to save buildings, not lives.  If you have
the misfortune of inserting yourself into a circuit, the breaker is not
designed to trip until long after your heart has fibrillated, only before
the wire has overheated and started a fire.  Only in recent times has the
code begun to address end user safety.

Phil "just trying to keep the red wires from touching the white wires"
Undercuffler
@Positive Energy

---- Original Message -----
From: Travis Creswell, Ozark Solar <ozsolar at ipa.net>

I really think that the PVGFP is some sort of
> joke.  I don't do roof mounts on dwellings because of that product.  Note
> that is required on a dwelling and a dwelling is defined as where someone
> sleeps.
>
> >From what I understand it is supposed to protect the array from
"faulting"
> and burning your house down.  It is not to protect people from shocks as
the
> 1 amp threshold is well beyond what is considered to potentially fatal to
> people.
>
> Here my gripe.
>
> Lets say the array faults (will someone tell me how this happens) and the
> PVGFP does its job and opens the circuit.  Obviously, the fault is
upstream
> of the PVGFP so the fault is still up on the roof or your attic busily
> burning your house down!
>

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