My attention turned to solar electricity today. It's a worthy topic. My
thoughts were disturbing. I recall that the US appears to have above
average domestic electrical fire statistics. It used to be said in our
defense, that US homes have higher per capita ownership of electrical
goods: dish washers, washing machines, clothes dryers, kitchen mixers
and beaters, can openers, desk lamps, fans, heaters than elsewhere.
(and its easy to respond that other nations have higher domestic
electrocution rates.)
Currently, I get the impression that this equipment differential is
vanishing, with a Chinese diffusion of such goods into Europe and
elsewhere. But there is another factor - the line voltage; half that of
some European and Asian countries, with correspondingly larger current
draws. It is also the case that the US electrical code permits
twisted wire domestic connections executed with spring caps. This detail
alone provides insecure line connections, and that includes the ground
paths intended to save us.
So it turns out that potential ignition points for US electrical fires
are encouraged with high currents and insecure connections. And now, we
are urged to consider green power sources - not least, high current
solar panels.
And on this list, we see a natural response to the interest - in notes
on using such power sources, originating in physics teachers. Moreover,
there is an unusually high US population of lawyers, and a court system
which will favor plaintiffs and their lawyers with very high awards in
some cases. Because the juridical population is so numerous, their
competition for business leads to aggressive solicitation of cases.
Another factor: civil suits are calculated to target not just the
culpable, but those whose culpability-pocket book product is
favorable. And this list has a rather high proportion of older
readers, who will likely have taken care to accumulate some savings for
their retirement.
All of which is to say that when self-confident contributors offer
advice on solar panel wiring, they are inviting retrospective searches
of lists by lawyers working on behalf of fire victims who purchased and
rigged high current solar panels; folks who can be encouraged to
observe that they read what well-qualified people [like you!] seemed
to say about wiring in panels and who put such advice to use.
Accordingly, it seems to me like a safer approach to point to URLs which
offer NEC rule interpretation. Here are a couple....