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In SE Wisconsin and municipality requires licensed electrician to get a permit. Is that game over for DIY?

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SolarMenace

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As mentioned in the title, the state of Wisconsin allows homeowner to do their own electric, but municipalities can prevent it. I talked with the building inspector, and mine is one that requires a licensed electrician. I've confirmed this by looking at the ordinance.

Is that the end of the line for my DIY solar project? Has anyone had any luck finding an electrician that would get the permit but let you do most of the work with equipment you purchased? I contacted one and received a one word response "no". Just checking in with more experienced folks to see if it's worth my time to pursue it further. I did get a few estimates for installs, and while a few were reasonable, it's a huge difference in cost when compared to DIY.
 
Consider what you are asking when you ask a professional to assume the liability of a job while reaping little if any benefit .
Greed is likely not their prime concern here .
So unless you have a close friend or relative in the trade , and moving to more reasonable locale isn't a practical reality , you should probably bite the bullet and hire a pro., or , go get your own license .
In other words , INVADE rather than EVADE .
Then you can DIY and make money , rather than DIY to lose less money .
Just my opinion .
 
In my state of Colorado, the state also allows an individual to do the electrical work, while still requiring a state permit/inspection. One exception many AHJ's have is if the work is for a "multi-family" or "rental" situation ... apparently, they are OK with you killing yourself (seems reasonable), but not OK with you taking out others (also seems reasonable).

Remember, the state can say one thing, and an official municipality can say another (write their own ordinances), as long as it doesn't contravene the state in some way. You perhaps live within the boundaries of the muni, so yes, you'll have to abide by their rules. The state's rule is for those not living in any other official AHJ boundaries, or where there are no rules except the state's.

This includes the height of your grass in the yard, the color of your garage door, and many other such silly, er, official rules. Must keep the nosy neighbors happy.

As for DIY, just put in a "parallel" system ... the official one is for the officials, and the parallel one doesn't touch any of their AHJ fingers, and is for you. Or, don't "permit" anything ...
 
My county is like this. They point to the words "must be installed by qualified persons" in the solar section of the NEC as their reasoning that homeowners are not allowed to DIY solar or batteries. There must have been a big inspector trade convention, probably somewhere warm down under the earth's crust, where they all shared their findings of these golden words and coordinated their strategies to capitalize on them.

But I just did it without a permit.
 
Hog On Ice said:
Consider what you are asking when you ask a professional to assume the liability of a job while reaping little if any benefit .
Greed is likely not their prime concern here .
So unless you have a close friend or relative in the trade , and moving to more reasonable locale isn't a practical reality , you should probably bite the bullet and hire a pro., or , go get your own license .
In other words , INVADE rather than EVADE .
Then you can DIY and make money , rather than DIY to lose less money .
Just my opinion .
Click to expand...
I get it. I would pay for their time of course, but it’s a risk for them and they may have opportunities to make better money doing something else. That’s kind of why I asked the question. Before I invested more time searching for someone, I just wanted to see if it was feasible. I also thought maybe someone in this area had run into the same hurdle and found a way forward.

Getting licensed takes years in Wisconsin, so that’s not realistic for me. I appreciate the reply though.
 
For those suggesting doing it without the permit, I’m not there. I have no problem with others doing that, and I’ve ignored my share of regulations that I thought were unnecessary, but this is kind of a big project. It would also be obvious looking from the road and on satellite photos. I appreciate the input though.
 
SolarMenace said:
As mentioned in the title, the state of Wisconsin allows homeowner to do their own electric, but municipalities can prevent it. I talked with the building inspector, and mine is one that requires a licensed electrician. I've confirmed this by looking at the ordinance.

Is that the end of the line for my DIY solar project? Has anyone had any luck finding an electrician that would get the permit but let you do most of the work with equipment you purchased? I contacted one and received a one word response "no". Just checking in with more experienced folks to see if it's worth my time to pursue it further. I did get a few estimates for installs, and while a few were reasonable, it's a huge difference in cost when compared to DIY.
Click to expand...
That will never last, a home owner is the HOME OWNER.
You cant tell people what to do with their own property like that or dictate they hire something that historically home owners have done

they have no right to come onto your property and ask what you are doing.
 
Hog On Ice said:
Consider what you are asking when you ask a professional to assume the liability of a job while reaping little if any benefit .
Greed is likely not their prime concern here .
Click to expand...
And who do you think lobbied for that? Greed is why the regulation was put on the books.
 
My city is like this. I found an electrician 'of record' that would work by the hour, teach me AND let me do a significant amount of the work under his instruction and stand by the inspection. I did have to pay about $3K but I save at least that much as well. It was a compromise but I learned all the relevant codes / safety that I later used to expand my system myself...
 
My county (Douglas NV) accepts a certification from an online course as qualifying you to do your own installation.

One online school they mentioned as having accepted is wc3 - which specializes in educating professionals and inspectors.
(Their courses are also used to check-the-box for applications for code inspector jobs, so interpretations are likely to match. B-)

Relevant course is: "Solar PV Plan Review (2017 NEC)" (https://www.pathlms.com/wc3-academy/courses/19055#)
- Walks you through the code requirements they're looking for, then several typical plans (for AP systems, Enphase, Sunny Boy, Solar Edge, Tesla, Sonnen, Outback_.
- Takes a few days. (7.5 hrs if you race through the dozen videos and related work.)
- Gives certificate of completion and optionally some extra testing for American Institute of Architects (AIA) credit.
- $197
- You'll need a copy of the 2017 code. See course description for where to get paperback copy. (Course also covers 2018 IRC provisions.)
- Chrome browser recommended.

My county is still on 2017 code. I haven't taken this course yet but intend to. (Even if it turns out they want more certs to do the final hookup, this will teach me how to do the plans, and enable me to do them without hiring a pricey pro to put his license and insurance on the line for my project.)

You might ask your code guys if they'll accept a certificate of completion from this course as qualifying you per the code requirement.
 
SparkyJJO said:
The left doesn't believe in that.
Click to expand...
I don't want to get this thread off track (I really want to find a way to get affordable solar), but I think this issue is less partisan than you might think. Using my situation as an example, I live in Waukesha County. You can see the data here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waukesha_County,_Wisconsin#Politics, but this is an excerpt for folks who want the TLDR
It has not supported a Democrat for president since 1964, and has only supported a Democrat four other times since 1892.
Click to expand...

The "left" does not bother to run a candidate in local partisan elections.
 
SolarMenace said:
I don't want to get this thread off track (I really want to find a way to get affordable solar), but I think this issue is less partisan than you might think. Using my situation as an example, I live in Waukesha County. You can see the data here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waukesha_County,_Wisconsin#Politics, but this is an excerpt for folks who want the TLDR


The "left" does not bother to run a candidate in local partisan elections.
Click to expand...
Ouch. Well goes to show there will be Karens in every group.
 
SolarMenace said:
I don't want to get this thread off track (I really want to find a way to get affordable solar), but I think this issue is less partisan than you might think.
Click to expand...
Sorry to continue the side track, but to back that up, here in California, homeowners are allowed to pull permits to work on their residence. I replaced my service entrance and main panel. Very little hassle.

Back on track: can you do off grid solar?
Pay an electrician to install a transfer switch, permits and all.
The install an off grid ground mount that plugs into the new transfer switch.
 
SparkyJJO said:
The left doesn't believe in that.
Click to expand...
I live in the very Red state of Indiana. I live in the country. In my county we are supposed to get a variance to install a ground mount. That's a minimum $500 fee and a required public meeting. No joke.
The installation must be approved by a licensed electrician. Good luck with a diy and finding someone who will sign off on the installation.

So you know what happens? No one follows the rules on ground mounts. Few people file for permits. Solar panels just get mounted and wires are run.
It has zero to do with political affiliation. It's simply stupidity, and that seems to cross party lines!
 
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