That book was one of the first things to cross my mind, since the
construction of the panels sounded very much like the method described in
that book. We may never know for sure, but that Earth4Energy book is so full
of bad info that we are bound to see problems in the future.
..................................................................................................
Northern Arizona Wind & Sun - Electricity From The Sun
Solar Discussion Forum: http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/
..................................................................................................
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Fink" <dan...@hughes.net>
To: "RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 10:07 PM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Panel Fire + DIY Ebooks
Hi all -- Thought I'd better chime in now. We are going to start seeing a
lot of this (fires, electrocutions, lawsuits), and RE Wrenches are going
to have to be aware of it and be prepared for repair calls, consulting,
and even "expert witness" court testimony.
Since besides private RE consulting, I work for a website focused on DIY
renewable energy, I buy books and Ebooks and review them. About 8 years
ago I got one for $12.95 about cheap PV modules. I imagine the guy made a
few hundred bucks on this paper book. It had such tidbits as getting
smashed solar panels from traffic sign rental places, buying solar cells,
gluing them to plywood and wiring them together, and how older PV modules
(and batteries) are available for pennies on the dollar from RE installers
because "homeowners often upgrade to newer PV panels." Yeah, right.
Now someone is getting rich, thanks to an affiliate program-- the
Earth4Energy Ebook sells for $49.95, there's a DVD too, and has the same
misinformation as the old book, updated with color photos and plans for an
impossible wind turbine (8 foot PVC blades, small tape drive motor, no
furling system, 1000 watts @ 20mph -- yeah, right). This Ebook (85 pages,
large type, lots of white space) sells online under dozens of different
names now. They all review each other, with glowing reports about how the
utility pays THEM and how YOU can do all this too for only $200 in
materials!
What's scary and dangerous is that the ads all imply grid tie applications
for this homebrew stuff:
"Don't pay for your electricity any longer...
Instead, the power company will pay YOU!"
But in the site FAQs:
"Will I learn how to wire the renewable power into my homes AC breaker
panel?"
"Wiring your own power into the AC breaker panel is very dangerous and is
illegal unless it is done by a qualified electrician."
And then from the Earth4Energy Ebook:
"If you do not wish to go as far as connecting your system to
the breaker panel you can simply run your appliances
straight from your AC inverter. Running your appliances
straight from the inverter is easy and a very cheap option."
I assume this means the homeowner is to run extension cords around the
house to each appliance? Oh my.
I am currently working with other DIY renewable energy authors to get some
real reviews up about Earth4Energy and all its affiliates. They are
selling tens of thousands of copies of this crap.
The average person that buys these $49.95 Ebooks has NO clue about how any
RE system, wind or PV, off grid or on, works. The websites cleverly do not
mention that the $200 you spend for building your own plywood PV panels
and toy wind turbines doesn't include a grid tie inverter, balance of
system components, and signoff by a licensed installer or
electrician...and at least where *I* live, the county inspector would go
ballistic if he saw PV cells glued to plywood.
Jeff Yago -- you might look into this. I can send you a copy of
Earth4Energy, I DID buy it after getting complaints here about the Ebook
and DVD, and the whole topic (even without naming names) might make a
great column for you in Countryside or Backwoods Home.
As someone who tries to encourage DIY RE, this whole thing is mortifying.
It gives the entire RE industry a bad name (not just the DIY folks)
because the implication is that professional RE installers are ripping the
customer off with $1000 PV modules, when the customer could just build
their own.
We have a nice list of installations where folks that built our DIY wind
turbines (a modified Hugh Piggott design) from our book "Homebrew Wind
Power" (ISBN 978-0-9819201-0-8) have been successfully permitted and
signed off on by the inspectors for both off-grid and islanding grid-tie.
That's another reason this Earth4Energy Ebook thing infuriates me....the
wind turbine information in there is both impossible in claimed power
output and dangerous in application.
----------
Wrenches, be prepared for a storm of questions about this stuff....it's
everywhere now.
On the bright side -- I always charge double my normal hourly rate to
diagnose and fix RE systems that I didn't design and install. AND, for the
professional RE wrench with NABCEP certifications and an electrician's
license, being an "expert witness" in a court case can be a very good
paying gig!
DAN FINK
http://www.otherpower.com/
// What this one is is a $50 book that tells you how to build your own
windmill, PV module.... Yada Yada... This particular one is a guy named
Michael Harvey. Anybody know him?
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