Solar Panels - Animal Guard?

Congrats on doing PV!

I have never heard of "animal guards" for PV! Doesn't mean it isn't important in your local, but I've never heard of it.

Go here, and then to the forum and pose the question. (I can't send the real link as the forum is currently down) This is a user Solar user forum that is populated by some very smart, very experience folks in the PV world,, people who have forgotten more about PV than most of us will ever know.

http://store.solar-electric.com/index.php

Good luck,

 

I attended a local solar PV presentation at my local library Thursday night, the spokesperson from the solar company stated they once had to return to a customers house to repair damage that a squirrel had done. I also had read on another occasion where a homeowner mentioned squirrel damage.

Not sure what the animal guard consists of but on occasion squirrels/animals have caused damage to roof mounted PV arrays.

Our 5.28 kW array is ground mounted and we have not experienced any damage from squirrels/animals.

 

The only thing squirrels are likely to damage is the Panel wiring, and even that would be a stretch in my book, but it may have happened. I will be curious to see other responses here and on the solar forum.

 

Here's a link to a homeowner who had damage from squirrels:

Watson Solar House


"You may have noticed from my data that from May 1st to September 9th, 2006 I had a ground fault on one of my 2 solar array chains. My #6 inverter and 1/2 of my production was offline for 4 months -- ugh. Turns out that I had a squirrel nesting below my solar arrays and her 3 babies loved to chew on everything. They chewed on one of the supply lines which shorted out and blew the ground fuse on my inverter. After a busy summer I finally found the time to rent a cherry picker for US$363 for the day to pull 2 panels, find and replace the chewed wires, and prune the trees in the area so the squirrels can't get back up. So this cost combined with lost production of ~US$300 has set us back a year in terms of break even -- bleah."

 

Shouldn't all outdoor wiring should be encased in conduit by law/code?
Exposed wiring is not good practice anyway, so insist on no exposed wirings to the contractor before signing..

 

I think, though I am no expert on Grid tie, (nor NEC) the wiring from Panel to combiner box is permitted to be in unprotected MC cables. After any combiner box, they should be in pipe. A simple alternative is to put all your short runs (to combiner box )in cheap poly water pipe.

Icarus

 

It is standard practice for all wiring under the solar panels (typically panel-to-panel wiring) to not be in conduit. The wiring is special outdoor rated wiring, but obviously not pest-proof! The wires coming out of the panels themselves are not in conduit.

 

What's the $$ difference between conduit and "animal guard"? I'm gonna guess the latter is cheaper.

 

I've never heard of "animal guard". You'll have to ask your installer what that is, exactly.

Conduit itself is pretty cheap, but it's basically impossible to run in between panels. You'll still end up with some small amount of unshielded cable and installation of the panels will be VERY difficult.

I'd have to guess that the "animal guard" is some sort of screen installed around the array to keep the critters from getting under the panels.

 

You can run it in water pipe as I suggested, or certainly in Flex conduit, or weather tite flex.

 

I think you have "Animal Guard" all wrong. The local schools are leasing solar panels, but some "less than scrupulous" people have felt the need to supplement their habits by stealing these panels.

I'm sure the animal guard has something to do with ill tempered badgers being allowed to occupy burrows by the panels. They will slow those thieves down.

 

Good idea, Codyroo. Heard about the $44k worth of panels being stolen from a Northern California school. I hate thieves.

 

Yes I did hear about that theft (despite me trying desparately trying not to listen to local news when I exercise in the morning due to its ability to lower my opinion of my fellow man)

We had something similar happen at my children's elementary school The theives were caught when they were trying to sell the panels on Craigslist.

 

Sort of a threadjack, but what are the Colorado incentives? Is it a general 50% back this 2010 tax year, up to some maximum I assume? We did all the windows and appliances this year and got a bunch of money back, but solar and wind is next on the list.

 

Not to further hijack the thread, but before you consider small scale wind,, I urge you to read some of these threads :Wind Power Generation - Solar Electric Power Discussion Forum by Northern Arizona Wind & Sun

http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/showthread.php?t=4902

It has been my experience that very few folks have been happy with small scale wind systems. The reality is that if there is enough wind to be useful, there is too much to keep the hardware from mechanical failure. Additionally, most people way over estimate the amount of wind they really get.

Icarus

 

Thankyou for the honesty. I will check out the link once I am back at a PC (on my phone now). We are fortunate to live
on a mountain. We get chinook winds every morning and every night because of the temperature/altitude variance. During the day is spurradic like everywhere but we get winds in the 80mph to 100mph+ range. Rips off cement shingles, and flings around a 300lbs bbq like it was nothing.

I have no doubt of our wind generating abilities. From what we have researched, we will probably go with the dutch vertical wind towers. No blades of death, just a spinning column about 1/3rd the speed. Less noise too. They make models capable of our gusty area. They are being put in the new Dubai skyscrapers.

This is for the greater good, not for a financial gain. Spending less to achieve the same goal is always cool though.

 

The thumbnail provides an interesting snap shot of wind. You can see that there is a sweet spot between ~12-20 mph. Below 12 and there is almost no useable energy, above twenty and things begin to shut down.

I have yet to see a consumer grade/size vertical axis turbine that is yet viable. (Doesn't mean it isn't out there, but I haven't seen it). I have seen a fair amount of vapor ware about VATs however. One of the biggest issues (as I understand it) with VATs is the inherent inefficiency of VATs because the blades are going AGAINST the wind ~1/2 the time, and even when they are going with the wind, they are only at a proper angle of attack for a few degrees of rotation.

They do have the advantage of dealing with gusty, and variable direction wind a bit easier however. (The biggest killer of small scale wind turbines). Large scale wind deals with it by the shear mass of the blade area, and the elevation over terrain that tends to produce gusts and variable direction. (Turbulence)

 

mistacen post

 

the animal guard is probably some kind of a trofft layout with tees and 90 degree bends that can be flush mounted on the under side with the covers on the gaps . there are pvc small sized whatchyoumacalls them that looks like indore moldind that can be used for such instalations where the instalation code is not realy specified and shuld be just for corectnessorry my spelling is in greek.hehe


if you use plastic molding it will look clean after the install they have all kinds of fittings and you can drill the back side so that when flush mount you can run the wire through it