INTRODUCTORY SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY ... - PHOTON Info

Elkus’ golden trout pond is the largest consumer of electricity in their household – nearly 2,500 kWh a month – and it’s the main reason they went solar.
cussed would be brought up again. It was
»like starting from zero,« says Qazi. »After
a little while we started keeping a record
of it.« On March 18, Enphase sent a docu-
ment to Qazi and the city inspectors pre-
senting a timeline of their correspondence
with EsGil, and a summary of arguments
for why the installation should proceed as
planned. Alas, there was no end in sight.
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»At one point we said, OK it’s costing
us about $1,500 every month just to hold
the equipment...we’ll cut every wire and
put a fuse in each one,« says Qazi. It would
have cost the company $5,000 to install
the fuses, says Qazi. But that seemed pal-
try when one considered the company’s
debt for the $100,000 worth of PV equip-
ment sitting in its warehouse. But Elkus,
who as a result of his disagreement with
the city had learned a great deal about PV
systems, wouldn’t let them cave. »Rick’s
whole point was ›look, you know you’re
just adding more points of failure‹« to the
system, says Qazi.
Clary and Elkus had opened a dialogue
with the inspector at EsGil, worked with his
boss, and then gone to a city council meet-
ing to speak with the inspector in person,
each time explaining the same story. At a
certain point it was out of their hands.
»It was like this unending nightmare,«
says Qazi. »The guys at EsGil, I have never
dealt with bigger egos in my whole life.« By
the time Elkus’ system was finally approved,
Clary had already had time to install three
other, similar projects in the San Diego area.
The code is king
Eric Jensen, the EsGil inspector who
originally rejected Elkus’ plans, defends
the position he took throughout the
disagreement. He claims that there was
nothing that could have been done to
advance Elkus’ case. Jensen has reviewed
PV plans for more than 20 years, and says
that compliance with module overcur-
rent ratings is one of the most important
items he checks. »One of the UL specifica-
tion criteria is that they test that module
under load at a certain fuse rating that the
manufacturer has given them,« he says.
»As soon as they mark a module with a
maximum overcurrent device listing,
that’s the code, and that’s the overcurrent
protection that has to be provided.«
Jensen insists that he wasn’t passing
judgment on whether the system was
safe or not, but rather he simply was not
comfortable permitting an installation
that didn’t meet explicitly code require-
ments. No reassurance from the manu-
facturers, or even testing organizations,
would have changed that. Jensen admit
that the real problem is that UL code has
fallen behind technological advances. He
was waiting for word that NEC code would
be updated to account for this loophole.
Eventually, Jensen says, Mark Earley, Chief
Engineer at the National Fire Protection
Agency (NFPA) informed him that lan-
guage would soon be added to the code
that would specify that no fuses would be
required in cases like Elkus. Jensen says
he’s never seen a plan review escalate to
such high levels to resolve a dispute. Since
then, he’s approved many similar plans
that have crossed his desk.
And the winner is...
On May 20, EsGil and the city officially
approved Elkus’ installation. By July it was
fully installed and connected to the grid.
For Elkus and Clary, it was a triumph. »I
think they were probably more proud of
this installation than of any other instal-
lation, not because there’s anything that
unusual about it, but because of the perse-
verance,« says Elkus. While frustrated with
the lengthy ordeal, he says he understands
the inspector’s motivation. They have to
Rolf Schulten / photon-pictures.com (2)
November 2009