Unqualified Persons and PV Arrays

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Electric-Light said:
it sounds like a scare tactic pitch coming from a solar sales guy. May I suggest you hire a full time professional chauffeur to keep yourself out of harm's way that is inherent to driving? It would also pass on liability associated with driving to them.
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You don't do solar, right? If you did you would realize how silly that sounds to those of us who do. The last thing any of us want to do is go back to systems we have built to wash panels when we could be spending our time building more systems. We don't want to get sued by clients who hurt themselves doing what we told them to do, so we don't tell them to do anything. If we have made production guarantees that are falling short because of soiled modules (I guess it could happen), then it's our problem to remedy, but it won't cost the customer anything.
 
Zee said:
Well...i may make 100 bucks for a service call. Say it's $200.
Takes 2 hours of my day, door to door. ( drive out, set up ladder, get hose up there, clean and invoice). I can make almost $10,000 in two days installing a system.
And i have plenty of work. Why do you think an installer, like me wants to wash panels, as a licensed electrical contractor?
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What he said. Maybe a window cleaning company that consists of two guys and a van wants to take that on. We solar guys have way too much overhead to cover.
 
ggunn said:
The last thing any of us want to do is go back to systems we have built to wash panels when we could be spending our time building more systems.
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Maybe that describes you but for sure some ECs want the continuing service of systems.
 
Zee said:
Well...i may make 100 bucks for a service call. Say it's $200.
Takes 2 hours of my day, door to door. ( drive out, set up ladder, get hose up there, clean and invoice). I can make almost $10,000 in two days installing a system.
And i have plenty of work. Why do you think an installer, like me wants to wash panels, as a licensed electrical contractor?
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Capitalist pig solar installer:D
 
ActionDave said:
Capitalist pig solar installer:D
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qZBrgWA.jpg
contractors need the war office

Solar contractors need the Union of American Socialist Republic government that creates demand for government funded toys.
 
FYI

Most solar panels sold now have a thin nano coating applied that helps keep the panels clean. No cleaning needed in my opinion.

Article on the coatings
http://www.nanomagazine.co.uk/index...es-solar-panel-efficiency&catid=38&Itemid=159

below are a few projects that prove this. The first picture is a roof that is at a 1 degree pitch. As you can see it is heavily soiled with seagull shall we say droppings. This site is next to a landfill and at the time there was no rainfall for about 3 weeks.

IMG_20140922_102523828.jpg





IMG_20140625_125742006.jpg

The above picture is after a heavy rainfall. You can see most of the heavy soiling is now gone. There is some residue on the lower end of the panels but after the next rain fall these panels will be as clean as when they were
first installed.

IMG_20140724_155500540.jpg

Ballasted ground mount on a landfill. Yes there are panels under there.
IMG_20140807_134828511.jpg

After heavy vegetation removal.
IMG_20140818_083012407.jpg

condition of panels after all vegetation removal.
IMG_20140818_083028301.jpg

After the first heavy rainfall. Starting to look pretty good.
 
Nice pictures 69...can't believe they let the weeds get that tall. Our landfill PV project in town gets maintained more frequently than that.

Ours has the 4000lb ballasts with cable tray throughout.
 
Electric-Light said:
qZBrgWA.jpg
contractors need the war office

Solar contractors need the Union of American Socialist Republic government that creates demand for government funded toys.
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Let's just say that I diametrically disagree with your assessment, and can we please keep politics out of the discourse in here? Thanks.
 
Well, to the point of the thread...

The wiring visible in this image...

69gp said:
...
IMG_20140818_083012407.jpg

condition of panels after all vegetation removal.
...
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...shows why unqualified persons should NOT be let loose with power hedge clippers when doing vegetation removal around a ground mount. At least not without being supervised by someone who can explain the dangers (in all necessary languages) and repair any problems that are encountered. (Something really should have been done to prevent that vegetation growth in the first place, but that's a tangent.)

Thank for the pictures.
 
shortcircuit2 said:
Nice pictures 69...can't believe they let the weeds get that tall. Our landfill PV project in town gets maintained more frequently than that.

Ours has the 4000lb ballasts with cable tray throughout.
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that's also south of Bawston. Believe it or not that's about a months growth. Parts of the site on the north end of the array must have some really good contaminated soil.
 
jaggedben said:
Well, to the point of the thread...

The wiring visible in this image...



...shows why unqualified persons should NOT be let loose with power hedge clippers when doing vegetation removal around a ground mount. At least not without being supervised by someone who can explain the dangers (in all necessary languages) and repair any problems that are encountered. (Something really should have been done to prevent that vegetation growth in the first place, but that's a tangent.)

Thank for the pictures.
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This is a site we took over last year for the O&M. That was about a months growth. Now we have 2 guys go back every 2 weeks for half a day to keep it knocked down. Its only on the north end of the array that is growing so fast.
 
There are a few educational comments I can add:

Most importantly,
Solar photovoltaic and using solid state decorative devices to light interior are Government assisted welfare for the industry.



Hands on experiment time:
You need a good clamp meter that can measure DC amps.

Connect AA battery and D battery in parallel (+ to +), (- to -)
On their own, D battery can provide more power and ideally you have the current share proportional to this. Realistically, the AA may overload and D don't get fully loaded. This is the problem with parallel wiring, but you can remove one and it will continue to work.

Connect them in series. Current sharing is guaranteed by law of physics, but the weakest link lowers the performance of the whole thing. A 600-1000v series system would be very vulnerable to shading.
 
Electric-Light said:
There are a few educational comments I can add:

Most importantly,
Solar photovoltaic and using solid state decorative devices to light interior are Government assisted welfare for the industry.
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There is nothing "educational" in that statement; it is opinion expressed as fact. My opinion differs significantly.
 
Electric-Light said:
It's a fact that most solar installs are not self pay, they're receiving Government handouts.
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Where do you get your "facts"? If you want to talk about government "handouts", the subsidies given to the oil and gas industries (as if they needed it) by the government make all the tax breaks and other incentives granted to the solar industry look like pennies in the sofa cushions.
 
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