Dave:


If there is a child-proof fence around this installation, please disregard
everything I write below.  I am curious:  Is there such a fence?



Question:  Is that plastic snow fence attached to the back of the racking
with Tek screws?



You are lucky I am not your inspector.  The smallest issue I see is the
flimsy wire bridge.  I don’t think any part of this looks code complaint
regarding wire protection.  The guarding is supposed to keep little fingers
away from the conductors, insulated or not.  You would not cover a gutter
or pull-box with this snow fence material would you?  It is not suitable as
conductor covering material.



Remember the code is designed to protect people of all ages from harm.
Kids view ground mount arrays as jungle gyms.  The first kid that grabs
onto the snow fence attached with Tek screws and no fender washers is going
to rip the plastic right off of that array.



While swinging around they could easily pull hard on a wire, pulling it out
of a crimp connector or across a sharp edge, exposing some of the energized
conductor.  The possibility of death from this installation is
significantly greater than zero.



I see a lot of ground mount arrays that are kind of guarded but not
really.  We should be doing better with our craftsmanship.  We have a
responsibility.



If you want some pointers on how to fix this, I’d be happy to help.
Contact me off-line.



William



Miller Solar

17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422

805-438-5600

www.millersolar.com

CA Lic. 773985





*From:* RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org] *On
Behalf Of *Dave Tedeyan
*Sent:* Tuesday, March 22, 2022 1:43 PM
*To:* RE-wrenches
*Subject:* [RE-wrenches] Wires between arrays



Hi All,



I have an inspector giving me a hard time about wire management between two
ground mounted arrays. The racking is Unirac GFT, and the system was too
large to have one continuous array. So there are two arrays, side by side,
with only a 1' gap between the rails and modules from the two separate
arrays.



We jumped the PV wire between the arrays through a short section of PVC for
protection, and the wires are secured to the rails about a foot past the
PVC on either end. The inspector is citing the following:

----

Array conductors found disconnected or improperly connected, which may be
causing portions of the array to be inoperable and/or pose a shock hazard.

----

They say that they are citing this because there is no strain relief as the
wires enter and exit the 18" piece of conduit. My question to you all is,
do you know of any code reference that says that this setup is or is not
okay? I would also be curious to hear what others do to span a 1' gap on a
ground mount. It almost seems as if I just left the conductors exposed for
that gap, there would have been no problem.



I attached a couple of photos to help with my written description.

I appreciate the knowledge of this hive mind!

Cheers,

Dave



-- 

[image: Logo] <https://www.sungineersolar.com/>


*Dave Tedeyan, P.E.Owner | Sungineer Solar*

*p: *he | him | his
*a: *1653 Slaterville Rd. | Ithaca, NY 14850
*w:* www.sungineersolar.com <http://www.sungineersolar.com/>
*c:* (607) 288-2898
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