Amp Nerd https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html Blog Swapping a Failed Inverter Is Rarely a Like-for-Like Job Two Connectors That Click Together Are Not Always Compatible A Cable Left Lying on the Roof Will Not Survive the Decade Firefighters Do Not Cut a Ventilation Hole Through an Array Community Solar Does Not Put Power Onto Your Own Wires A Solar Carport Is a Structure First and an Array Second A Solar Water Heater Is Not a Less Useful Solar Panel Micro-Hydro Runs on Head and Flow, Not on How Fast It Looks Adding Wind to Solar Is Not Two Sources on One Wire Furling Is a Turbine Saving Itself, Not a Mechanism Failing Home A Small Wind Turbine Is Priced by the Tower, Not the Blades A Wind Turbine Stops in a Gale on Purpose, Not From Failure A Retired Solar Module Is Not Ordinary Construction Debris A Ground Fault in an Array Can Hide Behind Another One Insulation Testing Finds the Fault That Has Not Happened Yet A Working Array Can Hide a Fault Only an IV Curve Reveals Commissioning Is a Set of Tests, Not a Handshake and an App A Degradation Claim Needs Evidence You Must Collect Early Your Monitoring App and Your Utility Meter Will Not Agree An Export Limit Does Not Shrink the Array You Can Install An Interconnection Agreement Is a Contract, Not a Formality Moving Circuits Into a Backup Panel Is Rewiring, Not Relabeling Backup Mode and Self-Consumption Mode Fight Over One Battery A Time-of-Use Battery Earns on the Spread, Not the Sunshine Usable Capacity and Warranty Depth Are Two Different Numbers A Battery Gives Back Less Than You Put In, Every Cycle AC and DC Coupled Batteries Do Not Charge the Same Way Standing on the Roof at Noon Is Not a Shading Analysis Ground Reflectance Is a Design Input, Not a Weather Detail Snow on the Glass Is Not a Winter-Long Production Loss Rain Does Not Reliably Wash a Solar Array Clean Due South at the Ideal Tilt Is Rarely Worth Rebuilding a Roof A Roof Penetration Leaks at the Flashing, Not at the Hole A Surge Device Is Not a Lightning Rod for Your Solar Array Bonding an Array Is Not the Same as Driving a Ground Rod A DC Arc Does Not Trip a Breaker—It Simply Keeps Burning PV String Fuses Protect Strings from Each Other, Not from Sun PV Conductors Are Not Sized Like an Ordinary Branch Circuit Long DC Runs Lose Energy Every Hour the Sun Is Shining Two Efficiency Numbers on One Inverter Are Not a Contradiction An Inverter’s Peak Efficiency Is Its Best Moment, Not Its Day A DC Optimizer Cannot Push a Module Past Its Own Output A Microinverter Array Is Not a String System Chopped Up Module-Level Electronics Limit Shade Loss—They Do Not Erase It Flipping the AC Disconnect Does Not De-Energize the Roof A String Sized on a Warm Day Can Overvolt in Deep Cold One Weak Module Sets the Current for an Entire String Bifacial Gain Comes from the Surface Below, Not the Module