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Solar





three inches of clearance.

The contractor told me that the clearance issue should have been caught by the inspector when the service was upgraded ten years ago.

 
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Did they change the conductors when the service was upgraded? If not, I probably wouldn't call it....fact is they made it worse, which you are not allowed to do, Period....Should've is not a blanket pass for anything going forward.
 
ICE said:
The contractor told me that the clearance issue should have been caught by the inspector when the service was upgraded ten years ago.
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My boss has a good saying for this: "just because we mad a mistake once doesn't mean we need to keep making it."
 
At an inspection for PV I had to get inside to verify the smoke and co alarms. There were none. The lady asked the contractor why he didn't say something sooner. He said, "Most inspectors do not go in the house" Then he asked me if a picture would be good enough so that the lady wouldn't have to take another day off work.
 
rogerpa said:
And you said ...". "
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The lady was quite elderly and she was embarrassed. I'm pretty sure that his request had more to do with him not waiting for my signature. But that had nothing to do with me saying no. I don't accept pictures for much of anything....especially if I can't trust the person.
 
Can anyone tell me what hardware has been used to support the conduit?








Well then, I'm no solar genius but I would've thought that after a couple of ripped shingles they might get the idea that maybe we should ask somebody about this.
 
Tiger:

A neighbor sold his house to a guy who fixed it up, added solar panels, and moved out renting it out. The other day I saw him over there fooling around with the main breaker, I asked him what he was doing and he said the main was turning off, he called Solar City and they told him to replace the main breakers, that they were defective. First of all they left the original 60 amp panel on the house, stuffing bigger breakers into the panel doesn't seem right to me, but I'm a carpenter not an electrician. What would you do to this guy if Solar City had bothered to get a permit? solar_neighbor.jpg
 
conarb said:
Tiger:

A neighbor sold his house to a guy who fixed it up, added solar panels, and moved out renting it out. The other day I saw him over there fooling around with the main breaker, I asked him what he was doing and he said the main was turning off, he called Solar City and they told him to replace the main breakers, that they were defective. First of all they left the original 60 amp panel on the house, stuffing bigger breakers into the panel doesn't seem right to me, but I'm a carpenter not an electrician. What would you do to this guy if Solar City had bothered to get a permit? View attachment 2403
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Solar City usually has their name on the inverter. I am surprised that there is no permit considering the POCO involvement. Old small services can be a challenge because there may not be a way to determine the buss rating and that dictates the size of the solar contribution. I don't see any labels on the service or conduit, one of which should be a diagram of the building that shows the layout of the solar equipment.

Another thing that I don't see is a GEC for two ground rods. Then there's the missing DC disconnect.

What is the ampere rating of the mains and the back-fed breakers for the solar?
 
Tiger said:
Another thing that I don't see is a GEC for two ground rods. Then there's the missing DC disconnect.
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There aren't any, and they are required by PG&E in this area, the guy got very defensive when I came out and questioned him. I told him I was a retired builder and what he was doing wasn't right, to get a licensed electrician, he responded: "If you are really a retired builder you certainly know that if the breakers trip you need bigger breakers."

Tiger said:
What is the ampere rating of the mains and the back-fed breakers for the solar?
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The old service appears to have been a 60 amp panel, I guess that means he had a pair of 25 amp breakers, I guess I could go over and lift it open and see what he's put in there.
 
I don't touch anything without first testing it. Just in case....where do you keep the keys to the Viper?
 
Ruppert has a question?

ICE do you have any re-roof inspections with a solar array on the roof? How's that process work?

And when you retire will there be another ICE the II or is there a Jr. ICE to pick up where you left off?
 
Pcinspector1 said:
Ruppert has a question?
ICE do you have any re-roof inspections with a solar array on the roof? How's that process work?
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I have encountered several re-roof jobs that had solar. I probably talked about it here but if it is in the average day thread I'll never find it. Here is the first one. I didn't know that there was solar until I showed up for the sheathing inspection. The roofer told me that he was going to put it back together himself. He said that he has done it before. He assured me that the panels were safe and dead because they were unplugged. I told him to send a solar, C-10 or B licensed contractor to pull a permit to replace the solar.

The roofer complained to the office manager...I was instructed to let the roofer replace the solar without a permit or inspection. The reason given was that our dept. lacked a written policy that deals with solar and re-roofing. That was Jan. 2014. At the beginning of this year a written policy came out. Now a solar, C-10 or B licensed contractor has to pull a permit to replace the solar.


The only other instance was when I did a final inspection on a re-roof. The owner asked me if I would be the one inspecting the solar. I said that I would when the company gets a permit. He said that the company told him that no permit is required based on the fact that the solar had passed a final inspection three years ago. I had no idea that there had been solar on the roof previously because I had gone up a ladder at the front and not seen an inverter. All of the solar equipment was in the garage.

Some solar contractors do not care about the condition of the roof covering. I have heard that they will R&R the solar for from free to $500.00.



 
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I am not recommending that you do this. I always pull the ground wires out and try to rotate the crimp. If it moves there is a code violation.


This one came off. That happens more often than you might think.


The witness marks from the crimping tool are evident.


Evidently the crimp is the wrong size for the application.


Here are witness marks from Channel Lock pliers.
 
These are both GEC splices performed by a solar contractor.


There was this one. The crimps were loose with more than two wires in the crimp.


That has become this:


I have not encountered these before now. The contractor tells me that they are UL Listed for the wire sizes and they are for sale at Home Depot....he emphasized the Home Depot connection. I just said no....get legitimate c-crimps.
 
Maybe I've been doing things the hard way, but I always thought you were supposed to twist the wires together, and the crimps were just there to keep the wires from coming untwisted.
 
If you guys aren't finding this, you aren't looking for it.


And yet again I removed the crimp with a bare hand.


Here he is putting it back together.


It should come as no surprise that the service was wide open and unattended.

I was told that from now on he will make sure that it is secure when I am the inspector. I can't explain the lack of respect that permeates the solar industry. There is no financial advantage to this practice and the downside could be enormous.

On a positive note, I had a solar inspection today where the technician that met me did not have anything open. As he used his screw gun to remove covers I said that I wanted to applaud him for being safe. What I didn't know was that I had chewed him out in the past for being dangerous. He told me that his company decided that I was right and they now will not open until the inspector arrives. He said that an inspector in the city of G,,,,.... failed them because the covers were not removed before he arrived. They called the city BO. The city agreed with the company.

The fact that I complimented the tech for being safe should be an indication of how rare that is.
 
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ICE said:
The roof is aluminum and the solar installers beat the Hell out of it. The roof can't be seen from the ground, so the HO is unaware of the damage. This is one case where I'm thankful that quality control isn't my bag.

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Is there 3 feet of walking space for firefighters? (maybe around the outside)
 
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