August: Most commercial jobs we work have a vertical ladder through a roof hatch or a vertical enclosed exterior ladder. Being vertical they are not comfortable to climb, so we immediately set up a ladder outside.
A fair portion of our work is repairing faulty installs. We always seem to find a compelling reason to take the inverters off the roof. The last two jobs were SMA upgrades from 2599s to 5000us inverters which don't fit on the back of a low rack. This is why these units are coming off and this was fresh in my mind when I saw your post. Something about making the parts most likely to fail less accessible seems counterintuitive to me. William Miller Solar > On Mar 27, 2014, at 7:06 AM, August Goers <aug...@luminalt.com> wrote: > > Hi William, > > I should have clarified that I was speaking about commercial system with > the Sunny Tripower or Power-One Trio type 1000 V string inverters. Many > commercial roofs have stairwell access which makes getting the inverters > up and then later servicing them relatively easy. But, yes, we have also > used lifts to get inverters on the roof which does add an expense. > Typically we get the inverters up with the same equipment that we use to > lift up the modules and racking as you mention below. There is the > potential maintenance cost issue down the road if they need to be RMA'd. > Mostly I think it makes sense for larger commercial systems. > > Best, > > August > > -----Original Message----- > From: re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org > [mailto:re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of William > Miller > Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 9:15 PM > To: RE-wrenches > Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] 1000V System Wiring Details > > > August: > > What about the expense of servicing and/or replacing roof mounted > inverters? There is a very finite limit on the weight that is > practical/legal to haul up a ladder. Sure it's easy to toss an inverter on > the roof at the install when there is already a lift in the budget to > hoist the PV. Later on your crew might be tempted to slide a replacement > inverter up the ladder, but this is not always safe or OSHA legal. > > It's at least $400 to bring a scissors lift and a reach lift is about > $600. Is this really good economics / safety practice? > > William > > > Miller Solar > >> On Mar 26, 2014, at 7:31 PM, August Goers <aug...@luminalt.com> wrote: >> >> . Going forward, we are going to strive to put inverters on the roof to > minimize the expense of dealing with the 1000 V runs. > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Home Power magazine > > List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org > > Change email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Home Power magazine > > List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org > > Change email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org > _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
