EEVblog1626 - YOU HAD ONE JOB! (Solar Power Install FAIL)

[@kenmercer2721]

That's a small problem, Dave. Here in NZ a maintenance crew removed ALL the bolts in three of the four legs of a 220kV transmission tower. When it fell over the northern part of our country lost power for several days. And you think it's difficult to get good staff!!

[@GameBacardi]

Did some one take bolts home ?

[@steviebboy69]

I remember seeing that in a news clip a few days ago, the whole tower went over. Here in Victoria Australia a tower went over in very high winds and took out a lot of power feeding the state. I think this was from one of the main generators of power for the state.

[@s8wc3]

@@GameBacardi The bolts were borrowed from someone's aunt and she needed them back

[@Maltanx]

@@s8wc3 Damn, you beat me to it 🙁 Good one tho!

[@seabream]

@@GameBacardi No, it was routine maintenance gone wrong. It wasn't the bolts that were removed, but the nuts. In this sort of installation the bolts are anchored in the foundation in the ground and stay there. The tower has a baseplate which sits on the foundation, with holes that the bolts go through, and nuts to hold the tower down. Periodically as part of maintenance, the baseplate, bolts, and nuts need to be inspected and treated to make sure they're in good condition and stay that way through their design life. As part of this, the nuts need to be removed, cleaned, treated to prevent corrosion, and put back (if they're in good condition, or replaced if at end of life). But under normal maintenance, you don't remove them from three legs simultaneously, and you make sure to have measures in place to keep the tower from falling over while you're doing the work. Removing more than one at a time requires an engineering review. The utility contracts this sort of maintenance on 200 baseplate assemblies a year, and this is the first time in living memory that this has happened to them. Unsurprisingly, the three person team who was onsite performing the maintenance has been stood down, and an incident review is ongoing, though the first priority is getting the power back on.

[@NicolaiLab]

Of course it doesn't work! Switches on the roof says "NO"! 🤣

[@EEVblog]

I'll pay that!

[@NotSexualAtAll]

It's Australia. They have to do it that way or the electrons will fall out.

[@christopherguy1217]

It's upside-down, all the electrons fell out. Someone is going to have to sweep them up before you can produce electricity.

[@magictoyplay3239]

NO and OFF, there is no ON [said in a Yoda voice]

[@jutukka]

​@@christopherguy1217Hey, it's Australia! They are upside down there down under already.

[@shaysudman]

Oh, the classic "it will sort itself out after I leave". Sad to hear installers in Australia are the same as here.

[@ursodermatt8809]

an acquaintance had a hot water system installed. it made no hot water: the two pipes from the solar panels were still between the walls and never connected to the hot water tank! EEVblogs electricians probably worked friday afternoon and bugger it, we are off to the pub!

[@herberttlbd]

Have you not seen Mining Boom? Young geezer: I think the electricians had left some power cables up around place Dan: Electricians?! F*ckin' sparkies!

[@a68k_de]

it is all over the world we have the German word for it: "Fachkräftemangel" , translates into English like "Skilled labor shortage" And that happens in all in all industries. You feel helplessly exposed to it.

[@xntumrfo9ivrnwf]

We recently had a solar system installed, and the guys forgot to put 3 roof tiles back in place... the next day we had heavy rains.

[@EEVblog]

Oof.

[@simontay4851]

Forgot? You don't just forget to put roof tiles back. Its one of the essential tasks that you have to do. Its just part of the job. Not an afterthought. Fkn idiots.

[@TheRailroad99]

Did they pay for the damage?

[@mikeselectricstuff]

If you want a job done properly, do it yourself.

[@senseibaka1]

So true. But its illegal in Australia unless you are a licensed electrician unfortunately

[@shaynegadsden]

Exactly if it doesn't plug in you're not allowed to touch it, And real unfortunate till you kill someone because you didn't know what you are doing

[@mycosys]

@@shaynegadsden You didnt mention the bit where engineers and technicians cant even certify an appliance to plug in. Its as much about right to work as safety.

[@simontay4851]

senseibaka1 So what. Dave has more than enough knowledge and experience to know what he's doing and he owns the house. All that needs to be done is insert the wires into the terminals and screw them down.

[@Ed.R]

Couldn't agree more. Rules, regulations, qualifications and certificates etc mean nothing to me. I will work on whatever I feel confident with. No one works on anything of mine until I feel they are competent enough.

[@FuriKitten]

it's a new safety feature to stop potential overloads, I would explain it, but it is a little complex you wouldn't understand.

[@fgaviator]

"But have you already tried updating your phone with the latest firmware? And try resetting your phone first. Also, try uninstalling and reinstalling the app. It can take up to a week before the new data is visible - that's a normal delay, since the app's AI needs to learn about your new inverter. No worries! Good luck with your new system. Bye!"

[@paulstubbs7678]

Sorry your phone is too old, you need to update, no power or lights until then

[@maxusboostus]

Had solar panels installed in the UK and they fed the inverter output direct into the grid so we had to pay for all energy produced, even the solar energy. I had a talk with there guy over the phone and he said it was wired correctly "I did all the calculations" I said well they are wrong! The same guy came around and inspected it and said it was correct, then gave me some bull about if they wired it into our consumer unit side that "The resistance of the wires would increase and the insulation would burn off" I couldn't believe the crap this guy spoke. Anyhow another visit by their "Best electrician" resulted in a slight change of wiring but still it went direct to the grid!. A few more calls to the local council and eventually someone came around and inspected it again. This time the council guy looked at it and couldn't believe what they had done. So eventually it was sorted. I've no idea how many other places were done incorrectly or even if they had them put right afterwards.

[@CMDRTeatime]

Some of the people in the UK, despite supposedly having all the certs and qualifications, I wouldn't trust with a 9V battery.

[@simontay4851]

or even a 1.5V battery. They just blindly follow the instructions. They don't know the theory and how stuff actually works.

[@gcewing]

Technically they were right... it was producing power... the power just wasn't going anywhere.

[@James-wb1iq]

When we had our solar installed, the installer left the site about 3 times without doing enough testing to realize that half of the panels weren't connected.

[@marcel7466]

The first isolator you checked on the roof was missing the little plastic pips that cover the screws, the second one had them in. These little plastic buggers are important for the weatherproof seal of the isolator, and makes the install a fail. I'd be getting that installer back to put them in if I was you.

[@timcat1004]

Enphase is a good company. Two of my M250 micro inverters were performing poorly. I have had 36 of them since 2014. They logged in and looked and the next day I had two brand new ones delivered to my door. I'm in Canada. They didn't even want the old ones back. 25 year warranty. I'm 64 and replaced the me self.

[@davidwillmore]

I was in the process of replacing the vanity lights in a bathroom when I saw some odd behavior. The fixture had 5 40W incandescent globes. As I removed the bulbs, I noticed a dim glow from the remaining bulbs. When I was down to the last buld, it was glowing brightly. I wanted to move the location of the wall switch as it wasnt by the vanity, but several feet away behind a door. In the process of doing that, I found that the 'electrician' who installed the attic fan for my radon system wired its power *across* the power switch. So when the switch was in the off position, the light and the fan were in series. When the switch was on, the fan was shorted. I corrected that while i was in there.

[@lezlienewlands1337]

I've been having a new laundry building installed and as part of that we had underground power run over for a couple power outlets and a light. As part of that I initially had the building wired through one circuit but I decided to swap it to another circuit as the initial circuit had a fair bit on it. That led the sparkie down a rabbit hole as when he turned the light on in the new building it would trip the breaker but the Philips LED bulb would still glow dimly, and there was still 67 volts on that circuit. Turns out whoever had done electrical work long ago (This is an old house) had stuffed up and had the power running through a breaker and then through a safety switch, so about half of the circuits had no safety switch. I'm pretty safety minded around things, but I'm just glad it got discovered that way and not when someone got zapped. I guess it's no wonder that self electrical work is illegal here in AU, the monkeys can't use some common sense and eventually they got sick of people being stupid. I'd call for a basic competency test you can take where you can at least just put a new plug on without calling for a sparkie, but that'd never pass with the amount of monkeys out there.

[@thomassmayhemfishingchanne6812]

So now you have energised cabling in the ceiling space unterminated?

[@EEVblog]

After another look it seems like the previous electrician removed the old cables and replaced them with the new longer ones through the same conduit. If you look at the before photo you can see no old cable connected to the bottom of the Q relays.

[@TheCod3r]

This is a simple case of "we can't be bothered, it's home time"

[@nneeerrrd]

Idiocracy isn't a movie, it's documentary

[@mikerepairsstuff]

Wow an awesome look-see 👀 of an amazing electronics guru on his solar farm.Love it ❤

[@asabriggs6426]

I've had to deal with a faulty solar install where the PV string polarity was reversed. In the end there was no damage to the inverter (lucky lucky), but it does make me wonder about the quality of the rest of the installation as they could not be bothered to use a multimeter to check before throwing connecting.

[@michaelhess4825]

This is why i do everything myself, at least then i know who to blame if it's done wrong! Unfortunately it's very hard to get solar products from many companies without an installer, which is insane! Liability isn't an issue with auto manufacturer when people use them wrong, why would it be an issue for this kind of thing?

[@_MasterLink_]

Wow, that's impressive for so many to have missed. In my neighbors case, something on the roof was installed, they look like panels, but I see no wires, no inverter, no nothing.

[@reedin9954]

Good grief! Especially troubling they turned it all on and didn't even realize they had unterminated cables. If things weren't taped and covered, could have dealt with burned up parts or even a fire. Interesting, seeing how the electrical wiring is done down in Australia as it is very different from things in the USA in some regards.

[@gregorymccoy6797]

Nice to know this attention to detail is universal. I can't remember having a job done right the first time.

[@mattnsac]

If its after 4pm, they're gonna say its working just not that sunny out. They arent gonna stay late to fix it. Laziness has no borders.

[@willdutt]

The isolator switch on the roof is not required anymore. Just needs to be able to locate a string to unplug

[@Electronzap]

That's why I like monitoring devices everywhere. You shouldn't be standing next to a unit having no idea that it isn't providing power, or that a battery has a cell voltage that is much higher/lower than the rest of the cells. It should take seconds to check the voltage and current at all major points of a system.

[@bertblankenstein3738]

Yep, didn't plug it in and it didn't work. Amazing! At least the customer service seems to be good.

[@lauralhardy5450]

7:08 Did you script this part before filming ? Because it's perfect.

[@leybraith3561]

...The really scary thing is that it would have been obvious to the installers that Dave was fairly cluey with regard to what they were doing yet they still didn't double check everything was ok before leaving. ...Everyone makes mistakes, what matters is if you catch the mistakes before they cause a problem. ...Sadly it can take a few more minutes to double check your (and others) work and then you might have the problem of justifying to the bean counters the extra time etc to correct any issues. ...Hence any experienced / knowledgeable installer is only likely to be employed (or even want to work for) a company who values their long term reputation. ...Then JoePublic avoids the company that charges more and the company struggles, often ending up going under (or being bought out)...

[@LawpickingLocksmith]

I know plenty of roofers, building inspectors and valuers. In probably 75 % of cases solar was not worth it in the long run. No way I would have it on a clay tile roof. You get about 3 to 5 go's walking around until micro cracks eventually make you feel sorry. On top of it we have to deal with most incompetent Ergon, half the solar homes have the wrong meter and others pay more for smart meter rent who have roofs totally unsuitable for solar. Some have 6 months with oldest meters turning backwards.

[@MrFaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

I live in USA and our state has a HUGE problem with the private home solar panel sales/installer companies being mostly grifters, selling people stuff that will never benefit them long term. They promise cheap subsidized panels and installation, and leave normal homeowners who fail to understand the system holding a huge bag of debt unexpectedly. A house's roof isnt ideal for solar? eh fuck it, lets sell this elderly widow a massive system anyway, eluding to a good ROI. The boomers only realize later that they can't even power their house on it when the grid is down

[@funnycatvideos5490]

the return on investment is not worth it even with subsidies. your basically renting power instead of buying it from the electric company. If the solar installers were honest they wouldn't make one sale. In order for it to be worth the cost you would need to know the entire system how to maintain it and purchase your own panels and inverters. The other main problem is the efficiency is not there yet. if you only use $100 a month in electricity you cannot justify the investment except maybe a small system for power outages but other than that just not worthwhile. the only way this became a lucrative industry is from subsidizing a still flawed technology efficiency wise.

[@meinkamph5327]

If the workers did more work, that was outside of the current contact? Will they get paid more?

[@davenz000]

I would say it's unbelievable.

[@OriginalJetForMe]

How do they claim it was working by checking the app? Were they looking at the wrong house?

[@skoronesa1]

Inconceivable!

The problem is relying on someone else when the "someone else" has to be babysat and thought for. Might as well do it yourself.

[@leybraith3561]

The best part of all this is that many installers (and their companies) are going to hear about this video, watch it and hopefully learn something. Well done Dave!

[@dyslectische]

Lol. In the Netherlands new house had solar panels beult on. 20 years not connected . Jip 20 years never had cable connect it on. And new owner never know it . Just after the old analoge meters are change to a new digital . Yes on that moment it its see by the company from the grid .

[@Poxenium]

doesn't solar work through wi-fi nowadays? LOL.

[@EEVblog]

Million dollars on Indiegogo just waiting for someone...

[@sw6188]

Nah it's bluetooth. 😅

[@WesselLemmer]

The micro inverters communicates via the power lines to the head unit. Like ethernet over power. That can be troublesome and very slow if there's interference with household appliances etc. They likely thought there was communication trouble and it would come right with a load profile change. In those cases you should be installing ferrites on the supply circuit that would improve comms by keeping those signals internal. No excuse though, you don't leave the site lying about it.

[@Poxenium]

@@EEVblog "Solar AirWaves"

[@x_ph1l]

Yep, 802.11s protocol 😂

[@nothingtoseehere2189]

Can you do a vid explaining opamp circuits to do operations such as logarithms or vector summers.

[@barrymayson2492]

Seen similar problem with networking, they did agreat install on the patch panel but no wan cables but they insisted they did. It was a 200 mile trip for me to show them. I got s sheepish phone call the next day to say sorry.

[@paulb4423]

You might want to go back up onto the roof and turn off those isolators. Looks like the ends are not properly insulated, just taped together for install purposes.

[@seanflanagan3926]

plastic screw caps should be installed on the solar isolator loses its ip65 without them. I'd be getting a third party to come and inspect the complete installation

[@isoufacker]

the future looks bright

[@mihaiachim5299]

@ 4:06 I would never consider to use switches like these on a roof for a solar installation 😅 … I barely trust them for indoor use 😅

[@EEVblog]

AC roof switches are mandatory here.

[@mihaiachim5299]

@@EEVblog yes ; but not the cheapest one 😅 They are “platinum” installers 😅😂🤣

[@markmaker2488]

Trouble shooting 101, is it plugged in?

[@stusue9733]

Whats the "shade" over the switch on the roof called. I should get me one of those. My system predates when they decided something like that might be a good idea.

[@simontay4851]

Rain shield?

[@stusue9733]

@@simontay4851 I believe it's actually more about keeping the sun off the plastic switch case. I'll have another google but I couldn't find them a few years back.

[@stusue9733]

Solar DC Isolator cover

[@quadmods]

“This parrot is deceased… No it’s not, it’s just sleeping “ 😂

[@mihaiachim5299]

We have that switches too in our stores 😅 - extremely cheap 😅 … I don’t expect to much from them… But one of my friends it’s powering a 3 kw motor with it 😂 … And I use it for an industrial washing machine 😅 for an cheapskate friend 😅 …

[@OmarMekkawy]

Then, should we have another video for repairing their screw up ? 😂. You should thank Murphy for his hands because he gave us a chance to watch and learn 😂😂

[@jutukka]

There are so many wires in those cables that better not to connect them at all, to avoid wrong connections. 🤓

[@racitup4114]

At least you're in Sydney where there is actually some sun. People virtue signalling here in the UK thinking they're saving the planet with solar yet they get 3% of installed capacity. Britain isn't known for its sun...

[@ralphj4012]

That's the solar roadway version.

[@poormanselectronicsbench2021]

I wonder if, the "Platinum" installers got their designations downgraded to something like "Pot Metal" after that minor oversight, while lying through their teeth and telling you "It's producing power". I'm in the US, and in no way would I even consider inviting all of the uncertainties of having a solar system installed due to the lack of any standardization of workmanship and training of the contractors involved, as well as the uncertainty of the company even being in business for the full term of any warranties that might be on the system. I am fine paying my local power provider ( Commonwealth Edison) directly for power, and also not considering another "power provider" that just adds the complexities of a middle man into the mix if there's any type of failure. K-I-S-S worked for me up until now, no reason it won't continue working.

[@bavarianmonkey8326]

C63 on what looks like 2.5mm2 ????

[@ralph332]

How much does the upgrades, reinstalls, repairs and upgrades cost the average Joe? You get free stuff and premium service. You don't include these costs in your justification cost.

[@bjornroesbeke]

That company just as well may have installed panels on thousands of homes, but the *one* time they screw up, it has to be at a KZbinr's place. (Note: i don't know what their FTR is)

[@eb4bsq]

la verdad, dave, es increible que siendo australiano, no hayas optado por un sistema completo de outback power systems, estarias muy satisfecho...¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[@GlennHamblin]

They finally figured out how Tesla's wireless power transmission works.

[@thanhhuynh272]

Classic case of what my generation calls, “Too many chiefs and not enough indians”. So many deligated job titles these days who fail to comminicate effectively. In the extreme, we will have 20 guys on a job site, one to turn screws only, one to crimp lugs only, one to measur currents only with a clampmeter…..and none of them abe or willing to comminicate with any of the others and all of them “qualified” to the hilt on just the songle tiny task they are legally allowed to do. This will sink us as a country. My father has this saying…”You can’t do it properly unless you do it yourself!”

[@NotMuchHere]

its not really. unbelieveable ... i believe it!

[@BlueScreenOfDead]

No coffee and cookies when they come fix it, hehe..

[@KomradeMikhail]

Almost as bad as the upstairs shower that was just draining into the ceiling of the rooms below.

[@funnycatvideos5490]

the return on investment is not worth it even with subsidies. your basically renting power instead of buying it from the electric company. If the solar installers were honest they wouldn't make one sale. In order for it to be worth the cost you would need to know the entire system how to maintain it and purchase your own panels and inverters. The other main problem is the efficiency is not there yet. if you only use $100 a month in electricity you cannot justify the investment except maybe a small system for power outages but other than that just not worthwhile. the only way this became a lucrative industry is from subsidizing a still flawed technology efficiency wise.

[@leonardjwright]

Thou shalt test for voltages!!!

[@ShomiTheGreat]

Hey Dave, could you do the basics video on installations: TT, TN and IT systems? There doesn't seem to be a single quality video on KZbin explaining it. It's mostly AI rubbish.

[@ICNIRP]

Thou shalt check voltages

[@kickgas7171]

Should have installed SolarEdge instead of Enphase.

[@CraigAB69]

Aren't the power companies going to charge for putting too much power back in to the grid? Because apparently the grid can't handle all the solar people putting power back in to the grid?

[@mycosys]

Thats the opposite of reality - it reduces the load on the distribution network mains.

[@EEVblog]

That's the government plan just announced, yes. I will monitor usage ove the next few months and plan a battery upgrade.

[@tweed532DaveH]

Well there's no danger of that here, never ever enough sun as I type this with horrendous rain and full cloud cover in the middle of Summer UK. Someone been cloud seeding again?☔🌧️🤔🙄🇬🇧

[@CraigAB69]

@@EEVblog Kind of the opposite of what the initial push for solar was originally. Hmm, so the grid can't handle it, yet they wanted all those EV's pulling power from the grid, that they now admit needs a ton of upgrades. These politicians couldn't lay straight in bed.

[@grandad0186]

And on the subject of asking for ...”You had ONE Job” stories from your YT channel’s viewers, Dave, how about this one, a story about one of the NBN’s ..‘contractors’ who turned up here in Qld, to a customer’s house to connect their shiny-new NBN Service for them, spent 10 minutes head down, arse up, in the Telstra street cable Pit outside on their footpath, and then shot through, after having written off the job, as being completed, but it didn’t work, for the customer when they tried to use it and so they lodged a fault report with their ISP, who after doing some remote tests, confirmed that is wasn’t working and so requested the NBN ‘contractor’s company’ re-attend the new installation to sort out why, it wasn’t working. When another, ‘different’ Technician, to the first guy, turned up and checked, he found, that the first guy, who had written the job off as completed, had simply ...joined’ the old Telstra, ..copper phone-wires, from the house’s old ex-Telstra phone service’s lead-in-cable, in the street footpath Pit, ..to the ..new, NBN ...’Optical-Fibre’ by using a couple of Scotch-Lock, ‘crimp-connectors’….!! 😳😮🤨😀😆😂🤣😂🤣

[@teslasapple]

Did someone say unbelievable?

[@bataviktor]

The minimum should be from them not invoice you for anything....

[@johnshaw359]

Same engineers all over the world.

[@nickwallette6201]

I have a saying: "Most people are not good at their jobs."

[@VandalIO]

Imagine how many people have disconnected solar panels on the roof ?

[@bladeronner01]

No GFD?? You dont wanna get zaped on the roof...

[@ianhasnochannel]

So the installers are reimbursing you for the grid power you had to buy to make up for their mistake, right? No? Ok then.

[@joop2295]

"Assumption is the Mother of all Fuck Ups!"😛

[@IanScottJohnston]

Charge hand: "did you wire up the panels junior?" Junior: "yeah boss.........hic!" Charge hand: "right, let's get back to the pub......hic!"

[@thanhhuynh272]

It is called, “Beer-O’Clock” here in ‘Straya Ian, nut I’m sure there is an equivalent in Scotland….particularly on Friday afternoon!

[@shaniic09]

This is why I cringe whenever a need to get a tradie. Pay a premium and they can't be bothered, take time, piss about and never do it properly and end up paying more.

[@grandad0186]

As the Old Saying, goes, ..”NEVER, ..EVER, ..ASSUME, because doing so, will ..inevitably, just make an ...ASS of U & ME…!! 🙄 Another Old Saying, says, ..”An EXPERT, is someone, who has made, ..every mistake possible, ..in, a very narrow, field of endeavour, for a ..minimum, of TEN Years”…! 😉 Given those two, Old, ..FACTS, I would almost bet, that your Solar, Re-Installers, Dave, were just a couple of ..’young-pups’ who haven’t ..yet, been bitten on their own arses, ..often enough, ..yet, to have learned those ..lessons…! 😉😂🤣

[@PotatoesRnice]

classic Australian tradespeople

[@jameshackett9992]

Australia is run by committees, you can not have one job when 10 can to it better.

[@homersimpson6985]

Send complaints to the Not My department.

[@theovannieuwenhuizen5756]

Enphase has a backdoor? When will some smartass hack the lock to that door and install his own firmware or worse? Not a fan of service providers with backdoors.😮

[@mechanickiwi4116]

People coming through the trades are dumber, but its not all their fault, the people running the apprenticeship schemes don't have a clue what they are doing.

[@Graham_Langley]

Not an installation fail but a manufacturing one. Had a Pug 205GTI (UK) back in the late 80s. The heater blower didn't seem to be as fast as it could be on the highest setting so I pulled the controller out to have a look see. Speed control was done with a simple variable resistor and TO-3 Darlington. Also on the board was a relay and driving cct - 4 resistors, 2 transistors, 1 diode - that detected the 'full speed' setting and bridged the Darlington to give the full battery voltage across the blower motor. Problem was the necessary battery +ve connection it needed to operate was missing from the harness. There wasn't an back-EMF diode across the relay and I now wonder if the +ve connection was dropped because the relay driving transistor was getting blown and instead of fitting the diode they 'cured' the problem another way.

[@AlfredTucker-lg5dw]

Unfortunately it is not unbelievable. As a retired electronic engineer I am constantly being asked to look at installation screwups and simple problems with equipment that are easily solved where the installers and 'repair technicians' say the whole system has to be replaced. The thing that worries me is most non technical people will take the advice given to them from these 'experts', why should they know any differently! Maybe its just me becoming a grumpy old man but it seems to me that allot of installers/technicians only seem to be able to follow manufacturers instructions or wiring standards without really understanding what they are doing or how the gear they are installing/fixing actually works.

[@jessicav2031]

The whole thing needs to be replaced. But lucky for you, if you place an order through me, you can get a 10% discount! The high end appliance repair people are now all doing this after the manufacturers started only selling parts to "authorized" service.

[@Splarkszter]

I'm 20 y/o and i'm fucking tired of this crap. To the level of myself learning how to do all the crap to not rely on idiots that replace assemblies instead of doing actual part/board REPAIR (DIFFERENT FROM REPLACEMENT). I hate the modern world. Culture needs to change.

[@theovannieuwenhuizen5756]

Pay peanuts, you get 🐒. Only you don't pay them but get the monkey 🐒 for free.

[@gamingSlasher]

I totally agree. People just follow "codes" and fill in check lists and never turn on their brain.

[@lauralhardy5450]

Not unbelievable at all. Australian industry is more into preventing people from working and policing political correctness than actually producing anything useful. Oh for the 1980s and 1990s. This is a nation in decline.

[@craigs5212]

A few years back I had a door to door solar sales guy tell me he could get the new German panels that worked at night. Not the smartest nut in the solar industry. Next time I am going to tell the guy that I am interested but could they mount the panels in the attic, they are ugly on the roof.

[@wombatjack3995]

D2D scams like this are everywhere, the common terminology is a Devilcorp, its not a religious thing its just a bunch of pyramid scheme companies that use cheap labor (100% commission lmao) and cult behavior control to sell cheap products in costco, sell you insect treatment or fiber internet D2D, and stand at street corners collecting "charity". Anyone who volunteers to tell you about the business they own and how much better you would be working for them is %100 part of this scheme.

[@racitup4114]

You should have got it in writing and not paid until it was working at night. Free solar!

[@miken3963]

Well, PV panels do work off moonlight. The only downsize is that you're gonna get something like 0.30% of the rated power output.

[@lauralhardy5450]

Hilarious ! More details please ?

[@andrewn7365]

Next he'll be trying to pitch the new French rainwater collection system that works in a drout!

[@pr0engineer873]

Obviously it's the new Wireless upgrade.

[@BrianG61UK]

All solar is wireless, they never run a wire up to the sun.

[@AffordBindEquipment]

Had a roof replaced and had the attic fan replaced at the same time. This was in the fall. Spring rolls around and the attic fan isn't coming on. I went up there, pulled the cover off and it wasn't connected.... I called the guy and told him about it and he said, "I'm not an electrician. I don't connect them." I connected it, sent him a bill for $100 for my time and he never paid it. I paid $10,000 for the roof and he couldn't add in an electrician to wire the fan? Or at least tell me about it?! What if I were an 85yo widow lady who wouldn't know the difference? She would have paid for the fan and higher AC bills for the rest of her stay in that house because of this guy.

[@Fridelain]

Better Business Bureau, reviews, etc Make a stink

[@nicholasvinen]

If he isn't licensed to connect it how is he licensed to disconnect the old one?

[@vincei4252]

What a scumbag.

[@ionstorm66]

​@@nicholasvinenyep you need to be an electrician to touch it lol

[@AffordBindEquipment]

@@Fridelain when he refused to pay, I wrote him back: There is a rule when dealing with customers. If you do a good job, they will only tell someone else about it if someone asks. If you do a bad job, they will go out and tell everyone they know. Ace High Roofing in Lodi, Calif. Now i have told even more people.

[@ncot_tech]

This is complete madness. The only reason you found this is because you're able to figure out and diagnose stuff, and thought to look inside the box - and aren't afraid to open it. Imagine being Mr & Mrs Random Homeowner who doesn't have a clue. It'd take weeks to figure this out. Especially if they think the system is working.

[@monad_tcp]

that's literally why one Solar vendor here is gobbling all the sales, they sell an equipment that does remote telemetry, people want that because its the only way they can know the system is working as expected. because of moron installers like those who did that job, may I say, didn't do their job.

[@iamdarkyoshi]

The fact they dismissed the lack of readings as the software not working tells me what I need to know about their trust in their smart system...

[@jaykoerner]

Didn't seem like they dismissed anything, they investigated it from the software because that is likely the fastest way to verify a problem(can be done instantly and remotely), that and Dave had been told by the installers that the reading might be off for a few days, if he had communicated to the enphase it is reasonable to look at it from the software first, This is the same thing ISPs do when you communicate internet problems

[@TheDefpom]

Incompetence is everywhere....

[@chris_is_here_oh_no]

Now, that is quite the error. That would be hard to miss.

[@EEVblog]

Only if you're looking.

[@FrozenHaxor]

Platinum certification my A$$, those certificates are only as good as the technicians holding them. Enphase should be embarrassed to certificate such numbnuts at this point.

[@coconutpalm1631]

Correct. Enphase also had Solar (Dis)service Group (now Solar Battery Group) as Platinum Installers back in the day. Now all the Enphase Support team does is deal with warranty claims from previous Solar (Dis)service Group installs. They were shocking.

[@johneastmond9092]

Local solar outfit up here in Utah, U.S.A., struggled to hook up solar to the mains. 3 weeks later It was working. But not before I installed a whole new mains electrical service to the house! Ooops!

[@Alchemetica]

Training course length = 1 day. You are now an installer.

[@sky173]

So do they pay your electric bill for the missed days? lol I'd love to add this to my house just for 'self-reliance', but it's not worth it. I don't use enough electricity to have it paid off in my lifetime (unless I built it myself)