[RFI] Update: Tesla's Response to Solar Panel RFI

[Kim Elmore]

Excellent comment and information, Ed. A Merry Christmas to you!

Everyone stop with the class action, call-the-lawyers nonsense. One of 
the quickest ways to kill goodwill and cooperation is to involve 
lawyers. It's not the lawyers themselves that cause problems for us, but 
what they're tasked to do. They're responsibility is to their client, 
not us. They're job is to reduce, as much as possible, risk for their 
client. Solar Edge and Tesla expose themselves to considerable liability 
risk by recognizing there is any issue to be solved. They meet the 
letter of the law and, so far, have chosen to go beyond that by fixing 
installations that need fixing and even redesigning their systems to 
mitigate the problem in the future. No, don't expect them to replace 
every existing system with a redesigned one...

Why start a war? They have deeper pockets than we do, by a fair margin, 
and once lawyers become involved, the lawyers will have access to those 
pockets. While I've dealt with RFI on many occasions, I've never 
resorted to lawyers to do it: I've almost always used goodwill and 
cooperation to solve the problems. In a few instances, I've not 
succeeded and, when the neighbor contacted the FCC, I had clearly 
documented all my interactions and the FCC wound up telling them exactly 
what I had. In this case, SolarEdge has chosen to address the issues as 
they occur. That's far better than TV manufacturers did when 
over-the-air VHF TV was the only TV entertainment option.

If you'd like to blow up any possibility at solving these problems 
amicably then, by all means, contact your attorney and have at it. But, 
you'll spoil it for all the rest of us in doing so. If you insist that 
"there ought to be a law!" then be prepared for the inevitable 
unintended consequences that will come with such an effort, because they 
will be many, varied, and far less tractable than what we have now.

Kim N5OP

On 12/22/2019 6:34 PM, Hare, Ed W1RFI wrote:
> And just what would you have lawyers do? Solar Edge is already handing the problems and replacing systems. Tesla is a new player   and that initial letter was written by  their lawyers. You saw the result.  If we take this out of the hands of the engineers who are trying to fix this and to improve future designs, the lawyers will try to stop that.  This is not a case for the lawyers nor for the FCC.  The systems meet the limits and the vast majority  of harmful interference complaints have been or are being resolved.
>
> The verbiage I have typed so far talks about how working together is working.
>
>
>
> Ed
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Dale Johnson <dj2001x at comcast.net>
> Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2019 6:34 PM
> To: Hare, Ed W1RFI <w1rfi at arrl.org>
> Cc: rfi at contesting.com <rfi at contesting.com>; jim at audiosystemsgroup.com <jim at audiosystemsgroup.com>
> Subject: Re: [RFI] Update: Tesla's Response to Solar Panel RFI
>
> Seems like it should go to the lawyers.  The verbiage I read here is lawyer stuff.  I think it�s all in the hands of lawyers.  NOT technicians.
>
> Anyway good luck with it.
>
> Dale j.
>
>
>
> On 22, Dec 2019, at 17:25, Hare, Ed W1RFI <w1rfi at arrl.org> wrote:
>
> JIm,
>
> We are in contact with Solar Edge and Tesla,  the two major players. If  you can summarize what you previously provided, we can make  sure it gets into the hands of the engineers.
>
> Ed
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: RFI <rfi-bounces at contesting.com> on behalf of Jim Brown <jim at audiosystemsgroup.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2019 2:42 PM
> To: rfi at contesting.com <rfi at contesting.com>
> Subject: Re: [RFI] Update: Tesla's Response to Solar Panel RFI
>
> On 12/17/2019 10:55 AM, Hare, Ed W1RFI wrote:
>> Let me see if I can put this into perspective.
> Thanks for your detailed summary of this. I have also contributed to
> this matter, consulting with Tefford Reed, the Solar Edge field tech who
> was working on K2MO's neighbor's installation. By coincidence, Reed
> lived in the SF Bay area, driving distance to me, and we met twice for
> lunch to discuss the project.
>
> My contributions were to 1) educate the tech with respect to possible
> mechanisms; 2) address installation-related factors unique to it that
> could be affecting this particular installation; 3) wind and measure
> more than a dozen chokes on several combinations of #31 to be applied to
> the rooftop loop of optimizers and make specific recommendations; 4)
> advised that the best and most cost effective solution was redesign of
> problematic circuitry to minimize the HF noise products. One of those
> installation-related factors was that the frame for the panels were
> (are?) bonded to earth electrodes on the opposite side of the building
> from the mains service, setting up a large loop for noise currents,
> which would in turn establish a magnetic field that is strong in the
> near field (like next door).
>
> A few months later, I learned from K2MO that Reed had subsequently left
> the company, and I have no idea of the extent to which my
> recommendations reached anyone beyond him.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
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-- 

Kim Elmore, Ph.D. (Adj. Assoc. Prof., OU School of Meteorology, CCM, PP 
SEL/MEL/Glider, N5OP, 2nd Class Radiotelegraph, GROL)

/"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in 
practice, there is." //� Attributed to many people; it�s so true that it 
doesn�t matter who said it./