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Solar ANSI UL2703

ICE

ICE

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Staff member
Joined
Jun 23, 2011
Messages
13,891
Location
California
I would appreciate hearing from anyone and everyone that has anything to do with PV. From installers to plan checkers and finally, inspectors. I want to know what you expect to find in the installation instructions. Maybe you don't look at the installation instructions, and if that's the case, please tell me.

I want to know what you look for as far as a Listing is concerned. Do you understand the difference between a Listing and a Classification?

Have you looked at ANSI Standard UL2703? How about Listing/Classification reports? Does any of that matter or is the NRTL mark all that matters? Speaking of labels, have you ever found a manufacturers label on any racking?

Do you check to find out if a particular module has been evaluated with a given rack system? Did you know that this is a requirement of UL2703? Does that matter to you?

Are you aware of the single use stipulation for certain hardware? How about torque values for all of the hardware? Did you know that bare copper conductors must be kept away from aluminum by 1/4"? What about the mounts which are not part of the racking system; are you getting installation instructions for those? Then there's micro-inverters and optimizers and their mounting hardware. And on it goes.

My motive here is to get an accurate idea of what is going on in the industry. This is not a hobby of mine. It is a task that I perform at the behest of my employer.

Given the anonymity of the forum I hope that I can get honest, blunt answers. Installers Please tell me what you think of the job inspectors are doing. Inspectors Please tell me what corrections you write. Is anybody getting training? If so, what is your opinion of the training. Plan Checkers Please tell me what issues you have. Building Officials Please tell me whatever you want....and the same holds true for homeowners.

Anyone that is reluctant to post on the subject is welcome to send me a PM and I will keep it confidential in all respects.
 
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I'm an installer and new to this forum. I install residential solar systems. Most of the inspectors throughout Orange County CA don't understand what they're looking at when it comes to solar. If I get a correction notice it's almost always for what they think is a grounding violation (and they're wrong) Very rarely has it ever been for anything that has to with the manufacturers recommended installation guidelines.

The city of Irvine has a couple really good inspectors who are on top of things when it comes to what the manufacturers recommend.
 
Five9,

Welcome to the forum. What brands of racking do you install? Do you like a particular brand over the others and if so, why? What are some of the bogus grounding violations that inspectors write? Do you encounter inspectors that don't go on the roof or do much of an inspection?
 
Tiger:

You said once that you do go on roofs, and from your photos you obviously do. Does the city provide you with harnesses or do you make the contractor supply them? Remember a few years ago, up somewhere near Brent, someone was going around photographing inspectors on roofs who weren't tied off? All I can say is if an inspector follows Brent up a ladder he better not look up under his kilt, if he did I'm sure Brent would immediately launch a Democrat.
 
I wear expensive Tommy Hilfiger boxers because I am socially responsible and care about others.

And it tells me a lot about a person who will follow me up a ladder.

Brent.
 
I have never been in a harness to access a roof. If I think I would need to be tied off on a particular roof, I would stay off that roof even if offered a harness.

I recall a job where there were about six or eight Home Depot day laborers on a two story flat roof. No parapet and all of them were tied off with a 100' rope. This was after I shut down the operation because nobody was tied off. So I took one of the guys to the edge and had him remove the harness which I tossed to the ground still tied to the rope. Sometimes I wonder how they manage to make the trip and be that damned dumb.

I don't like the way a harness would work if I fell off the roof. First of all, I would fall a distance and then be arrested violently. Now I am hanging there waiting to die because the blood flow has been cut off to my extremities. A better way would be to have a system that lowered me to the ground slowly.
 
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We use Pro Solar solar products only. Tile trac and fastjack mounting systems. That's all we've ever used so I guess I like it? I understand that there are other products out there that cut install time but we don't use anything else.

I'd say that the majority of inspectors do go on the roof but there are many that won't, especially when dealing with a tile roof. In this case some will ask for photos. We still have a couple jurisdictions that require a rough/base inspection.

Some of the bogus grounding violations are asking us to irreversibly splice our array equipment ground to our equipment ground that runs down to the dc disconnect. This is in the rooftop jbox. We always use a split bolt for this. Some have tried to quote 690.47 D which isn't even in the current code. It reappears in the 2014 however.

Asking us to irreversibly splice our inverter egc/egc to the gec in the houses' electrical panel. We run our egc/gec along with the inverter output conductors and terminate it straight to the ground bus.

This is on residential projects and we don't use micro inverters at all.
 
\ said:
I don't like the way a harness would work if I fell off the roof. First of all, I would fall a distance and then be arrested violently. Now I am hanging there waiting to die because the blood flow has been cut off to my extremities. A better way would be to have a system that lowered me to the ground slowly.
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But it's the law, here you spend your days citing people for violating the law and then you intentionally violate it yourself.
 
Shirley there's more people out there that can help me. PV inspectors, installers---let's hear from you.
 
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C'mon Brentster, give us a break !........You are providing

way too much information..........Dial your Transparency

Meter back a few notches and keep the information

about your Man Drawers to yourself, ...PLEASE ! :grin:

Besides, ...everyone on this Forum knows that **ICE**

is a wild card !



& = & = &
 
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