WB4APR's talk followup

[Rob Seastrom]

Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu> writes:

> That is, that AMRAD is a group of DIY guys and on the one hand, DIY
> solar is nearly impossible to make cost effective because you must
> be grid-tied to get the economic benefit, and you must have licensed
> contractors to do the work to get the NET meter from the utility.

Hi Bob,

Do you have any specific information that your "licensed contractor"
assertion is true in Virginia?  I'm a Dominion Power customer and
could find nothing in their Blue Book [1] to this effect, nor in their
tariff addendum for net metering [2].

On the contrary, on their net metering interconnection notificaiton
form [3] section 5 is captioned "Electrician Certification (If not
electrician-installed, attach final electrical inspection.)" which
would tend to suggest that homeowner installation with an appropriate
electrical permit is A-OK.

> [...]
> Same goes for DIY Electric Cars.  There are EV kits available for every make
> and model old gas car there is.  Imagine an EV Convertible MGB for
> example. Just remove everything gasoline from the old car except the
> transmission.  The KIT then adapts a new electric motor at the transmission,
> and now you have an EV.

Time is money and I only have so much time... Even by AMRAD standards,
an electric vehicle conversion is a big project, but installing the
EVSE myself, well, there was no way I was *not* going to do that!.  So
I was pretty dismayed when the guy at the Nissan dealership told me
that I'm the only customer they've had so far who installed his own
EVSE.  I mean, come on, it's as simple a project as swapping a hot
water heater, but without the physical exertion of moving a big heavy
tank around.

-r


[1] https://www.dom.com/library/domcom/pdfs/business/blue-book.pdf

[2] https://www.dom.com/library/domcom/pdfs/virginia-power/rates/terms-and-conditions/vatc25ra.pdf

[3] https://www.dom.com/library/domcom/pdfs/electric-generation/net-metering-application-form.pdf