[MUSIC] Greetings, code officials and inspectors. We're going to talk a little bit about the kinds of things you need to check out on solar electric systems when you are inspecting or looking at the plans. Number one, codes and standards. There are quite a few of these that the designers have to pay attention to. There's International Building Code, International Residential Code, International Fire Code, and the National Electrical Code. And then at the state level, there are some additional rules that supersede some of those International Codes. And there's a website that you can look at to see those. One of the things to be aware of is that these codes get updated on a regular basis. Right now New York is on the 2015 versions of the International Codes that might change in the not too distant future. We're on the 2017 Uniform Code supplement. It's now 2020, so at some point in the not too distant future, we're going to be on a newer version of those codes. The Electrical Code is probably one of the bigger issues for solar electric systems because that code gets updated every three years. The states are generally lagging behind that because it takes time for the states to adopt the new code, 2015 International Residential Code there. Most of the stuff having to do with solar they kind of refer you to the National Electrical Code, but something such as structural things, wind loading, weight loading, those don't change a lot over time. Physics is the same over time. But some codes may become more strict especially about snow loads. I've noticed that as time goes on, we keep looking at heavier snow loads just be more conservative. There are some places online you can actually view these codes for free. So, take advantage of that. Of course if you have to refer to them all the time you can purchase the big books of them. Nowadays you can get the PDF of them. Getting an electronic copy of codes is really handy because it's easier to find stuff in it. So if you have to search for something if you're unfamiliar with it, easier to find things. So in the International Residential Code these are some sections that pertain to solar. Most of these codes have very little words in them about solar, but they have a few. So for 2015 there's actually a little paragraph about solar arrays on roofs. And prior to that the only thing I ever talked about was solar hot water systems. Nowadays most solar in New York is solar electric, there is still some solar hot water. And solar hot water, if that does come up, then there's plumbing code to consider for that. So these are just some of the places in the Residential Code that have things that pertain to solar. As a code inspector it's good to know this, but it is the designer, the architect, or the engineer, or the solar installer that needs to pay attention to these things and design the system accordingly. Solar arrays come in a lot of different varieties these days. There are systems that are panels that are attached to the roof. There are now solar shingles that are built into the roof as part of the roofing for buildings. There are commercial rooftops which can be really really big. They're getting bigger by the day. Some of them are attached to the roof. Some of them are just sitting on the roof as ballasted systems. Some of them have inverters that are built into the panels. Some of them have inverters that are hanging on the wall someplace either inside or outside. So there's getting to be a big variety of systems, that's some of the rooftops. Something that's, we're seeing more of now are carports. Originally, I saw people talking about carports in California. Now we're being asked to do more designs on carports in New York, and if you think about it, there's a lot of sun drenched parking lots [LAUGH]. Parking lots are wide open spaces, there's no shade, sometimes you would like to have some shade. So a solar car port is a clever idea for getting a lot of using that space, sort of a dual use of your parking lot to generate electricity, shade your cars, you have a place to park your cars. Residential ground mount is usually a pretty small thing compared to a commercial ground mount. You often get a lot of angst over ground mounts because when people talk about a ground mount, you think, it's going to be a big farmer's field, filled with solar panels. Yes, there are some of those, but there are also a lot of little tiny ones that are in people's yards, which are a really different thing. And the rules and regulations that go with them are going to be different. The building integrated solar, we're going to see more of that. There's at least two, maybe three types of roofing that are readily available. There might be some more. There's new ones coming out, so we'll see that. Building it into the walls, that's popular in places that have a lot of taller buildings, that maybe don't have a lot of roof space but they have a wide open south facing wall. I've seen that and the awnings. I've seen those in New York City. That's a way of finding a place to put your solar array. Solar skylights, I haven't seen as much of that in New York but that might change. These are really popular in Europe so they are readily available to do as people are building new buildings, you might decide to put in some skylights that have photovoltaics built into them. I am seeing more of these standalone solar lights around. You notice that in New York I started to see these rest areas and parks. So these are [COUGH] a going thing. One of the things that's interesting about these, for a long time it was hard to power a light in New York with solar because the light took a lot of watts, and you needed a pretty big solar panel on the top of your pole. Well, what's happened is that the lighting has become a lot more efficient. So now it doesn't take anywhere near as much energy to keep it going. So that's why we're starting to see more of these. They're standalone, so there's basically a solar panel and there's a battery at the base to power it, and we're seeing a lot more of these. There are batteries that have an inverter built into them and so you see an installation with a battery and really all you see is the battery box with the battery and the inverter in it that is feeding a critical load panel and there's nothing else [LAUGH]. And the disconnect switches and all that are built in, so when you see that kind of thing, there should be a spec sheet, an instruction manual, a customer manual, something to tell you and a diagram to tell you what's supposed to be there. And that's something you can look at and say well is that there?
