diy solar

diy solar

DIY vs solar contractor?

California is stickler for U.L. certification but are pro-solar.

Worse worry is usually power utility. Many are anti-solar. In some locations they have the ability to shut off your utility power connection if not compliant to letter of the law. This is probably rare, but it can cost you a lot to correct any violations.

Other worry is homeowner insurance companies. I just changed insurance and first thing their inspector asked is if I had PV panels. The inspectors usually pull all permits and inspection reports on county records for your property.
 
Being in Alaska, I wish you folks would speak slowly for me. Cert-ti-fi-cation, per-mits. What are such things?

The last time I bought PV wire/cable it came from Titan down in Sparks NV. They were nice enough to USPS for us non-contiguous USA people. Nice folks
 
Certification is nice and maybe as important for you non-permit-needing AK folks. UL certs just mean the device is certified designed and manufactured to whichever specification it claims certification for. These certifications protect the consumer and any equipment or circuits the device connects to in various ways. Someone may be able to provide a better explanation, but that is the gist.
 
Being in Alaska, I wish you folks would speak slowly for me. Cert-ti-fi-cation, per-mits. What are such things?

The last time I bought PV wire/cable it came from Titan down in Sparks NV. They were nice enough to USPS for us non-contiguous USA people. Nice folks
Where is Alaska? Never heard of it.
 
Certification is nice and maybe as important for you non-permit-needing AK folks. UL certs just mean the device is certified designed and manufactured to whichever specification it claims certification for. These certifications protect the consumer and any equipment or circuits the device connects to in various ways. Someone may be able to provide a better explanation, but that is the gist.
Oh yeah, I do appreciate a device that carries some type certification or just good, real world testing. For that reason I'm a big Midnite Solar fan. They have their act together for sure. Having equipment thoroughly tested if fine. I'm just not a fan of heavy handed g'vnment oversight in regulating property, permitting every aspect of your life and property.

I don't want to go off into the weeds and stray from the OP's questioning but some of the permitting and certification stuff is job justification, money grabbing and all kinds of other stuff. Funny story about certified equipment. A few years ago I was the proud owner of a UL certified Tripp Lite power strip. Plugged a cord in and got a loud snap and the breaker popped. Hmmm, I tried another one of the outlets, same results. The UL certified device was wired wrong internally. :unsure: That's just the one event that's germane to this thread. I'm guessing there's many stories about these kinds of things.

Just saying that some regulatory agencies are mean and malicious. I had two careers in a heavily regulated industry and while some aspects were very good, others were all about people trying to keep their jobs. I meet or exceed the codes in my building, even though I've never had anything inspected.

Between Canyada & Siberion.☝️ Thata way.
Ha, look on one of those little abbreviated map and we are down around Hawaii. Can't figure out why it's so cold if that's the case. Snow is in the forecast for tonight ?
 
Almost all of Asia is free from such oppression, I'm in Thailand at the moment.
Until 2 months back I was using grid tie for over 2 years and winding my meter backwards in the day, meter reader didn't care.
Now I've moved to off grid.
To bad they don't do a better job of protecting the children in the free country of Thailand but I'm off topic and you did bring it up
 
I had the same issue with CED, asked me several times who my installer was, when I explained I was doing it myself, it became “well most states require you be certified, we can recommend someone”. I said my state recommends it but does not require it, they finally agreed to connect me with a local store…that was over a week ago and no response nor any response from my local store via email or phone. Needless to say, I guess I’ll be sucking it up and paying shipping!

Edit: the picture of the email finally loaded and it’s identical to the response I got, so must be a stock email.
 
All I can say is that at trade shows we pass out cards to a lot of the older distributors offering to take DIY leads off their hands. They really rant about DIYers being “not up to the cut” to put it nicely.

Get your hands dirty, even if you break some things it’ll pay for itself and may start a passion.
 
I had the same issue with CED, asked me several times who my installer was, when I explained I was doing it myself, it became “well most states require you be certified, we can recommend someone”. I said my state recommends it but does not require it, they finally agreed to connect me with a local store…that was over a week ago and no response nor any response from my local store via email or phone. Needless to say, I guess I’ll be sucking it up and paying shipping!

Edit: the picture of the email finally loaded and it’s identical to the response I got, so must be a stock email.
They get offers from install companies for pay-by-lead referrals
 
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