[RE-wrenches] Off-grid French fried

[Dan Fink]

Bill;  I've dealt with a couple of these after wildfires here in Colorado,
in remote mountain areas with high proportions of off-grid systems. I
totally get the insurance aspect, I'd say a majority of folks don't even
really realize that even with insurance, the actual settlement will often
be far less than they expected.

I'd be most concerned about the wiring you *can't *see -- in conduit,
through walls, transitioning from side of building to underground, etc.  I
would just replace all such wire runs with new wire, using the old,
possibly compromised wire to pull with.

Then I would isolate and test each component of the system separately,
culminating in a system-wide check.

You didn't mention the PV array, if it's ground or roof mount etc...PV
modules are also sneaky at concealing fire and heat damage, and can still
be operating within normal parameters, only to fail in the very near
future--often into an arc fault situation within the array, where the
Classic's AFCI protection won't help at all. If the fire was anywhere near
the array, I'd pull each module, inspect and test individually, then
reconnect into strings and test each string, etc.

Best of luck!

Dan Fink
Executive Director, Buckville Energy Consulting
NABCEP Certified PV System Inspector
IREC Certified Instructor™ for:
~ PV Installation Professional
~ Small Wind Installer
NABCEP Registered Continuing Education Providers
d <dan.fink at greendustrialtraining.com>anbob88 at gmail.com
970-672-4342




On Tue, Jul 28, 2020 at 9:23 PM frenergy <frenergy at psln.com> wrote:

>
> Hey Folks,
> Here in the Boonies of NE California one of my customers just had a fire
> (the Hog Fire) go through his property.  It spared his house but roasted
> the power shed.  I'll try to summarize: 2003 Outback FP2 (AC enclosure,
> 2 FXs,DC enclosure with related equipment), Classic 150 and 24V HUP
> Solar1 battery.  Roasted meaning the outside siding is ashes, the roof
> burned down to the charred rafters and some remaining drywall, the
> drywall that the FP2 was mounted to is all there.  The batteries are in
> an insulated plywood box all of which is 90% OK...Hydrocaps not melted,
> cables look fine, battery tops appear unaffected and took a charge from
> the GennyDeeCee.  Water was being applied to the outside of this
> structure during the event to reduce the damage and heat.
>
>              Removing both AC and DC enclosure covers and the FX valve
> covers revealed nothing melted or even warped, if it wasn't a little
> darkened inside from smoke, you might not know what had happened, the
> lexan covers on the inverter's AC output landings are in perfect
> condition.  The HUB and Classic, were closest to the greatest heat and
> we're considering them cooked.
>
>               Any experience with this before and what was discovered
> when firing the system back up?  Yes, naturally it's easy to say it
> should all be tossed and customer has to come up with $13,000+? for new
> equipment.  However this conclusion becomes more difficult in the face
> of not being covered by insurance, but we're listening to all comments.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bill
>
>
> Feather River Solar Electric
> Bill Battagin, Owner
> 4291 Nelson St.
> Taylorsville, CA 95983
> 530.284.7849
> CA Lic 874049
> www.frenergy.net
>
>
>
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