solar squirrel

PV modules

A majority of my new job has been focused around solar PV (photovoltaics).  As such, we decided it made since for the VP of Renewable Energy Technologies to attend some solar installation training to become more technically savvy.  I looked around for a good long while in search of a course that was 1) affordable 2) close and 3) had good credentials - IREC accredited and taught by NABCEP Certified installers.

I looked at Boots on the Roof but honestly, it was just too expensive (would have had to fly there and the price was over $3k).  There were a few local options at the community colleges, but their instructors weren’t NABCEP Certified nor did they have IREC accreditation.  I’m one of those people who insists on getting what they pay for (even if it wasn’t my money) so I did quite a bit of research.  I ended up choosing to attend Infinite Solar in PA.  The course was advertised as a 5-day entry level course.  While I wouldn’t really consider myself ‘entry’ level, I figured this course would be perfect for me because it would allow me to get the hands-on experience I was looking for.  Because the course was in Philly, I asked my good friend Chris if I could stay with him and his fiancee.  Of course he said yes and the planning began! So this meant I could drive AND wouldn’t have to pay extra for a hotel.  Double win. [NOTE: Due to a co-worker's concern I have decided to remove the sentences that used to be here.]

So…the week before Easter I was headed to Philly.  Chris planned out for me the most efficient routes for getting to Philly from Akron as well as my daily drive to the school.  It was soooo nice to have someone local to help with that kind of stuff.  I left for Philly Sat afternoon and stayed Sat to Sat.  We had a blast - Chris and Cathy showed me around Philly and we did a ton of really fun stuff including lots of AWESOME food and beer consumption.  (Hence my facebook status updates w/ beer and food pictures).  It would have been way more fun if I didn’t have to wake up at 6am every day, but we decided that I would just have to come back this summer.

Now onto the course discussion.  I guess when I read ‘entry-level’ I didn’t really think about it -  i.e. anyone - even if you didn’t finish high school - could possibly be one of the students.  The math portion of the class was beyond embarrassing.  Having spent over 6 years as an embedded software engineer I came to forget that not everyone has things like Ohm’s law memorized or that current times voltage = Watts (power).  Those things are just like second nature to me - kind of like driving or putting on my shoes.  I forget that maybe some people haven’t had to think about that since middle school.  Ok, so I’ll give you that.  Maybe you didn’t work on medical imaging equipment where you had to think about the kV and mA that were selected by the user in order to get the desired power settings for you CT scan.  Got it.  But there is ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO BASIC ALGEBRA.  We spent a good 20 min discussing the fact that if V=IR, it also magically means that I=V/R.  And there were people that didn’t get this!!!!!!  WTF!!????!!!!!  How can you get through life not understanding basic algebra??!!!  I seriously use algebra at LEAST once a week!!!  This course was a lesson for me in many ways…some of which had nothing to do with solar installation.  So I was beyond baffled by the fact that people didn’t understand how to do basic calculations.  Also - there was this guy that I think must have been mentally disabled sitting next to me.  He was asking THE DUMBEST questions…every time he talked I had to think about something sad so that I wouldn’t die laughing.  It got to the point where the instructor would look at me when he started to ask a question - like we both had this understanding that this guy was just a whack-o - and it would make me have to try even harder not to laugh.  He was asking things that were totally unrelated to the course.  I swear I thought he was going to ask if aliens existed next.  Just completely random stuff.

All in all the course was good, and I did learn some things that I didn’t know like info relating to the NEC (National Electric Code) and safety stuff.  The installations were very good and we got to install on an indoor roof as well as a standing seam roof, a ballasted system, and a pole-mount system.  Any question I had was able to be answered with a non-biased response.  I also networked with one of the instructors and he is interested in possibly coming on board as a technical consultant for Carbon Vision.

Pole Mounted system with micro-inverters

Rear view of pans used for ballasted flat roof system

PV installed on the indoor shingled roof

S-5 clips mounted to standing seam roof

I’m sure the pictures are probably boring to most people - but it was really neat to get exposure to so many different types of installations.  I’ve already used what I learned about mounting systems to talk with an engineer working on a mounting solution for a corrugated roof on a system that is in planning right now.

Bad news about the week was that I didn’t get any good training in.  I made the mistake of doing a run on the treadmill Friday and now my IT band is not happy with me.  Argh.  Lifetime has an outdoor run club that meets for the first time next week that I’m planning on going to and I’m going to start doing Solon track workouts on Tue evenings.  I am determined to get over this dumb injury!