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Mechanical Design
Evaluating the mechanical portion of a PV system design involves a review of drawings,
assembly instructions, material selection, engineering documentation, and weather sealing.

Drawings and engineering documentation are particularly important to local jurisdictions

reviewing the system plans to prove that the structure does not pose a safety hazard.

Detailed instructions for the assembly of the various structural elements are important so that
installers unfamiliar with the system will be able to proper and effectively assemble the
structure.

List of possible evaluation criteria

Guidelines and Drawings
Mounting Design
Array Assembly Instructions and Hardware
Structural Assembly Instructions and Hardware
Weather Sealing

Documentation
The availability of a complete system documentation package is a key requirement for
achieving reproducible success in system installations.

Documentation should include specifications, parts lists, electrical schematics, mechanical

drawings, and instruction for installation, operation, and maintenance of the system.

This review takes a close look at the following items for completeness and value to the
installer and customer.

System description and specifications

Parts and source lists for equipment supplied and not supplied with package
Electrical diagrams and schematics
Array installation guidelines and mechanical drawings
Installation and checkout procedures
Operation, maintenance and troubleshooting instructions
Owners manuals for individual major components
Information on how system performance monitoring is accomplished
Warranty information on components and complete system
Each of these items is evaluated separately and a rating is provided on the
documentation as a whole. The following is a brief description of what should be
evaluated for each item.
System description and specifications
An overall description is necessary that outlines the system major component, intended
application of the system, and important specifications relevant to the installer and customer.

Minimum and maximum allowable ambient temperatures and any other site specific
constraints should be noted in this description and specifications.

Parts and source lists for equipment supplied and not supplied
with package
A complete list of all equipment supplied with the system should accompany the
documentation. This list should also include equipment that is not supplied with the system,
but is normally required in order to install a fully operational system.

Electrical diagrams and schematics

Drawings of the electrical design including a one-line diagram showing all the electrical
equipment to be installed including PV modules, dc wiring, over-current protection, switches,
inverter(s), ac wiring and disconnects.

This section should cover all required testing that has been accomplished for the PV modules,
inverters, switches, and over-current protection.

A detailed evaluation sheet should be used to check for proper wire and over-current
protection sizing, disconnect sizing and ratings, and matching of array to inverters.

Array installation guidelines and mechanical drawings

The documentation should include a discussion of how to properly site the array including
doing a shade analysis, evaluating the impact of orientation on performance, and avoiding
roof obstructions when necessary.

The documentation should include mechanical mounting structure details and standard layout
of the array. Attachment requirements including number of attachments required based on
wind loading, pilot hole size and depth as needed, and hardware requirements should be
included.

Installation and checkout procedures

Mounting system should have accompanying installation directions including guidance on
locating and orienting PV arrays to provide best balance of performance and aesthetics.
Instructions should include details on proper attachment methods.

Roof mounted systems must include information on how to seal any penetrations to preclude
leakage. Installation directions should cover properly electrical wiring procedures and a
detailed checklist for the installer to ensure that nothing is forgotten or left out.
Once the installer has completed his checklist, an acceptance test procedure should be
accomplished by someone other than the installer to thoroughly check the system installation
and confirm that it is operating properly prior to declaring the system fully installed.

Operation, maintenance and troubleshooting instructions

Once a system is installed and fully operational, it needs to be maintained in such a way that
it provides more than 20 years of reliable services. This requires that useful operation,
maintenance, and troubleshooting documentation accompany the system.

Generally this documentation should cover basic procedures that the system owner should do
on a routine basis, and more detailed technical maintenance and troubleshooting information
that the service technician is to accomplish.

Owners manuals for individual major components

The PV modules, combiner boxes, inverters, and any other major component should have
owners manuals that are included in the documentation package.

If the owners manuals are not supplied, an acceptable written justification must accompany
the documentation stating why the documentation is not supplied or is unnecessary.

Information on how system performance monitoring is

accomplished
Performance monitoring is important for understanding whether a system is working properly
and critical for documenting system performance over time.

A variety of methods can be used for this monitoring task including meters located on
inverters, separate revenue-style kWh meters, and web-based data interfaces.

The documentation should state how performance is monitored and how to interpret the
results of the monitor output.

Warranty information on components and complete system

Products that are built to last 20-30 years, and that have commensurate warranty periods need
to have positive documentation for these warranties.

Module warranties are often as high as 25 years, inverter warranties can be 1 to 10 years, and
system warranties can be as high as 5-10 years.

Clear documentation of these warranties, and any stipulations on those warranties should be
included in the system documentation.

There are several types of warranties that come with a system or can be purchased in addition
to a standard warranty. These include
 product warranties covering defects in manufacture;
system warranties covering proper operation of equipment for a specific time period
(5 or 10 years); and,
annual energy performance warranties covering the guaranteed output of the PV
system. The installer, to guarantee proper system installation, often covers the system
and annual energy performance warranties.

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Product warranties:

It is common these days to see warranties on PV modules of 20 or more years. Although this
is impressive and indicates the level of confidence manufacturers place in the longevity of
their products, there are many other components in these systems that may not have the same
life expectancy. Inverters may have 10-year, five year, or even one-year warranties. This
must be considered when reviewing the cost of inverters and other system components.

System warranties:

It is equally important to look for entire system-level warranties of five years or more. This
indicates that the manufacturer has taken many other operational issues into account.

Since these systems generate electrical power, it is helpful to have system performance
included as part of the warranty.

For instance, a typical system level warranty might state that the system is guaranteed to
produce two kilowatts (2 kW) of AC power at Test Conditions (PTC) (PTC is 1kW/m2
irradiance, 1 m/s wind speed, 20C ambient temperature) in the fifth year of operation.

The equipment to perform this test is expensive, but the fact that a company would know
enough to specify this type of warranty is an indication that they are confident in their system
design.

The intent of this requirement is to improve customer acceptance of PV systems.

Annual energy performance warranties:

Although there are very few companies selling systems with this type of warranty, an energy
performance warranty guaranties that the system will perform consistently over a period of
time.

This is particularly helpful in ensuring that the customer receives the bill savings that they
expect. This type of warranty is more common with energy efficiency retrofit projects for
commercial and industrial clients.

Adequate metering to verify the system power output and energy generation is necessary to
help the system owner understand whether the system is operating properly, or has warranty-
related performance issues.
With an adequate meter, the customer can readily identify when the system is
malfunctioning.