Grid-Direct Design & the NEC

Aaaaaahhhhhh the Grid-Direct Design & NEC class.... sigh.... such memories. This was a course to remember if ever there was one.

If only I could.

But I can't. I can't remember much of what I learned in the class because it was completely over my head. This class literally made me want to cry. The NEC (National Electric Code) Book is one of THE most terrifying things to ever be published, & getting to know it up close & personal has been an outright fright-show. Don't get me wrong, it all makes sense... all the sense of a psychiatrist prescribing meds to a junkie ~ I just didn't know I'd have to get my psych degree AND slam China White just learn to install PV! How could I know I'd have to memorize an 800-page code book before I get to climb up on a roof & hook up some solar panels?!?

But I won't despair.... I'll make it... It'll be a long tough road, but I'll pass that NABCEP exam if it's the last thing I do. And besides, you don't want people up on your roof who don't know what they're doing, right?? Well... rest assured that your credentialed PV installers know their stuff... & lots of supplementary numbers & in-depth math equations to go along with it.

These 2 women, who seemed so normal & sane during the previous installation class in Paonia, genuinely LOVE every aspect of PV design & the National Electric Code (NEC). And boy do they know their stuff. Amazingly well-informed & freakishly passionate about the topic, I can't imagine this class better taught by anyone else. Freaks though they may be...

Porn for the NEC-lover.

The Third Street Center in Carbondale, CO is a renovated elementary school turned earthy-groovy nonprofit center that houses a variety of regional artists, nonprofits & environmentally-minded for-profit organizations related to community collaboration.

The Third St. Cafe offers awesome coffee & tasty treats, with a cute little outdoor sitting area in the summer months. Very cute & small-town-homey.

The solar array on top of the Third Street Center, along with vented skylights & abundant recycling efforts power the majority of the building's electric needs.

Whitney O. (A) performs a popular rendition of the official Yosemite Sam Happy Solar Dance.

Students check out the inverter bank that converts this massive solar array's DC energy into AC power to be used in 'our world'.

The class took a little field trip to visit a local organization called SunSense Solar, who has been designing & installing residential, commercial & community solar power for the past 20 years. (www.sunsensesolar.com)

This huge array consists of 756 modules: 18 42-module sub-arrays, with 14 modules per string & powers the Colorado Rocky Mountain School (CRMS) - a college-preparatory boarding & day school for high school kids in the area. The Jossman Building, which houses the CRMS Humanities Program, will use one third of the power, & the rest will be purchased by Xcel Energy and distributed to customers in Carbondale.

Isaac Ellis of SunSense gives us the low-down on the overall functionality of the array, which was installed in 2008 & is monitored closely online & in person.

This is one of 3 Sunny Boy inverter towers, each with 6 inverters; 3 strings per inverter. The Sunny Boys are unique in that they provide constant online tracking of the system's productivity, & will alert both customer & client via email when there is a significant change in power output.

A view of Mt. Sopris from the back side of the solar array.
Carbondale's pretty.

A much needed break taken with live music & picnic-ing at the lovely Two Rivers Park in the nearby town of Glenwood Springs.

Women's Solar Electric Lab Week

The Women's Solar Lab has been my favorite Solar Energy International (SEI) class thus far, & not just because it was a class of women taught by women (which I won't deny was a nice change in perspective), but because these women knew their stuff & we all worked together beautifully.

7 students installed 3 complete PV systems in 5 days, instructed by 3 very knowledgeable trainers @ SEI's solar education facility located just outside the tiny & beautiful mountain town of Paonia, CO. A gorgeous & functional training center, SEI-Paonia offers a expansive landscape of solar panel arrays & assembly structures, as well as outdoor classrooms, circuit panel demo dashboards & various other solar devices such as solar ovens, thermal water heaters, dryers, & even a solar work truck.

After a brief introduction & overview, the ladies got right to it, & it was 5 full days of hands-on work in the bright Paonia sun that resulted in the assembly & wiring of a 1) an 8-panel ballasted roof mount, 2) an 8-panel pole mount, & 3) a 10-panel enphase slanted roof system. There's nothin' like doin', & I we all learned a helluva lot about the physical aspects of panel installation.

This way to the PV Labs!

SEI's outdoor solar panel training facility, located just outside beautiful Paonia, CO.

An outdoor classroom, with dry-erase board & instructional circuit panel.

Angie uses a very cool device, the Solar Pathfinder, to determine potential shading factors throughout the year for the system we're about to install.

Whitney & I bring out the first solar panel for our ballasted roof array.

The team hard at work, tucking away wiring & making the last adjustments on our first install!

Ain't she beautiful?!?

Mama Kelly gives us the rundown on wiring specs for our next system.

Yeah ~ & this is the easy stuff : /

Preparing to get into the circuit boxes for the pole mount.

Tasha 2.0 draws out the wiring diagram for the pole mount system.

Karina wiring up the inverter for the ballasted roof mount.

Putting together the structure for the pole mounted PV system.

Now for the panels...

Girls being girls while taking a break @ the Revolution Brewery in town.

Angie & I secure the wiring on the pole mount.

Tasha & Monica perform finishing touches.

Isn't she lovely. (You too, Monica : )

Celebrating our successes with a solar cooked potluck : )

Mama Kelly demonstrates the importance of wearing a harness on a pitched roof.

Another hot day... the girls lag a little while getting started on the enphase system on day #5.

But we got 'er done, despite impending thunder storms!

The Solar Suitcase

The first ever Solar Suitcase class @ Solar Energy International (SEI) was given in the last days of June, 2011 in sunny & beautiful Carbondale, CO, @ SEI's famous & eco-groovy Third Street Center. Our modest group of 19 was taught by SEI's own smart & perky Soozie Lindbloom, & Hal Aronson of WE CARE Solar, base in Berkeley, CA. A great team, Hal & Soozie explained all of the components of the Solar Suitcase in easy to understand terms, & the great necessity for these suitcases in developing areas was driven home by WE CARE's Laura Stachel, who shared her experiences in Nigeria, Liberia & Haiti in rural hospitals as a world-traveling OB/GYN-turned humanitarian. Check out WE CARE Solar's impressive accomplishments with the Solar Suitcase @ www.wecaresolar.org.

Instructor Hal uses defenseless student, Scott Secrest, to demonstrate the essential components of the Solar Suitcase in the SEI classroom.

The class is let loose to put together some suitcases to be used as demos @ SEI, as well as donated to environmental organizations striving to bring small solar lighting systems to developing areas around the world.

Dedicated students hard at work wiring together the components of the solar suitcase circuit board.

The circuit board in it's skeleton form, displaying a breaker box, charge controller & load center... waiting to be joined with the battery & PV panel.

As you might imagine, the biggest perk of the solar suitcase is that it fits into a small box.

Tinkering around with some little panels to get us started with general circuitry, we started the workshop off by wiring together a small system & powering a little cassette-playing radio with 2 3-volt PV panels. Such a simple & inexpensive system ~ this would have changed my life in Peace Corps!

And what's more fun that solar powered bubbles?!?

Taking a break with a solar cooked potluck : )

The solar suitcase in it's entirety (sans case): an 18V/2A solar panel, LED light fixture, 12V/12A battery, [triple] breaker box, 30A charge controller, & a load center consisting of 3 12V cigarette lighter adapters & an O.S. connector. Pretty simple stuff, & all fits into a water-tight plastic suitcase which can be easily transported to a rural area in dire need of a simple lighting system.

Chuko from Nigeria gets his system situated & fires it up in the sun outside the Third Street Center.

A proud group demonstrates their solar suitcase success.

Our group's was the best, of course ; )

Glenn scratches his head @ Hal's effective sabotaging attempts during the troubleshooting stage of the class.

This resourceful group uses it's spectacular height advantage to get the panels as close as possible to the sun when the weather turns cloudy.

The team as a whole after demonstrated success!

Thanks Hal & Soozie !!