Passing inspection first time

A failed solar inspection is rarely a wiring fault. It is usually a label that is missing, wrong for the edition the authority enforces, or not where that authority wants it.

Check the edition before you print

The NEC is adopted locally. A 2023-edition set is not automatically right, and a 2017 set is not automatically wrong — what matters is what your authority has adopted. 690.12 alone has been rewritten three times, and the labels it asks for in 2023 did not exist in 2014.

Check whether the authority writes its own wording

Some authorities publish their own placard text. Where they do, a standard set will not pass, however correct it is against the code. This is recorded per authority in the AHJ database because it is not predictable.

Check the placard that is a drawing

690.56(D) under the 2023 edition wants a diagram, not just text — the location of the rapid shutdown initiation devices, shown on a simple building or roof plan. A text-only placard does not satisfy it, and this is the one most often supplied wrong.

Check where, not just what

"Readily visible" is the authority's judgement. Several publish exactly where they want the exterior placard, and an otherwise perfect set fitted in the wrong place fails.

Do the arithmetic on the booking

Missing a cut-off does not cost you an afternoon, it costs you the next slot. An authority inspecting Monday, Wednesday and Thursday with a 3 p.m. cut-off turns a Thursday afternoon request into the following Monday. One we hold inspects a single day a week.

Do not trust a handout's date

We have found authority handouts re-issued in 2024 still specifying signage to the 2016 cycle, and a solar page linking a checklist that contradicts the current one on the same site. Where the two disagree, ring them.