Hi Howie, There is definitely some grey area involved in your situation - and, you are not alone in facing this type of situation. As systems age, we're finding removal and replacements becoming very common. Many companies don't want to do this type of work because it almost always opens up a can of worms. On the conservative side, it's always safest to get a permit. We've been getting removal and replacement maintenance permits in the SF Bay Area with fairly good results. We let the AHJ know that this is simply a removal and replacement for re-roofing purposes, so we're building the system again to the same code it was built to. Fire walkways are a big deal in our neck of the woods, and older systems don't tend to meet current standards. Then, there is rapid shutdown, smart inverters, arc fault detection, etc that make it nearly impossible to rebuild the system with the old equipment while meeting current codes and interconnection requirements. Your old SunPower positively grounded modules will only work with old isolated transformer based inverters that don't meet current code.
But to answer your question, yes, I think it is perfectly fine to rebuild the system the way it originally was with the same inverter and your AHJ should too as long as they understand it is for maintenance. We're not taking on rebuilding systems that were installed by others currently because we already have too much work and as I mentioned above, it always ends up being complicated and taking more time than just building a new system from scratch. As soon as the system becomes modified because there is now a skylight on the roof, they want to add some modules, etc, then really you're building a new system with old modules and it should meet current code. August On Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 12:54 PM Howie Michaelson < howie.michael...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi All, > I think I know the answer to this, but wasn't 100% sure: > > I have a potential client who had roof mounted grid-tied panels (Sun Power > 205s, and Sun Power Inverter) and a Sunny Island for backup (batteries are > currently flat, so don't know if either they are recoverable or if the SI > is working). > > Before the current owner moved in a few months ago, the panels and racking > were removed (maybe a year ago), seemingly for a reroofing. No pictures > appear to exist of how or where they were mounted and I believe the racking > has disappeared (I have not been to this location, just have info from the > current owner and a report commissioned by the owner from a somewhat > knowledgeable energy consultant). The owner wants the panels remounted and > the SI restored to operation. > > My question is can I reuse the existing equipment (no RSD) as this appears > to be a maintenance procedure, or do I need to bring the system up to > current code? No permits will need to be pulled and there are essentially > nor AHJs involved (this is a rural site), so any adherence to code would be > for covering my a-- and making sure things were safe. So can I, by code, > remount this system (with new racking) somewhere on the same roof, without > changing out the inverter? > > I realize this might have a variable answer, but looking for the basic. > > Thanks, > Howie > > *Howie Michaelson**Sun Catcher* > > *NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer™* > > *Solar Electric Systems Sales & Service802-272-0004* > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org > > Change listserver 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 or update participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org > >
_______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change listserver 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 or update participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
