Balcony Solar

[Bam Bam]

Here is a recent news article on the topic which claims...

"plug-in panels that homeowners can self-install on balconies would be available in supermarkets in the coming months."

And...

"currently the panels are not sold in the UK as they do not meet safety regulations for electrical installations. The government said it was working to review and update these in the coming months."

However, the problems that @Everest is highlighting won't be solved in 3 months.

Maybe there is a case for not banning things and instead selling them with big warnings on them to get electrical upgrades before installation.

Who will have liability? The government? The manufacturer? The retailer? No. Probably all of us when insurance costs go up to cover the costs of fires.

there's the wider issue of whether all such "consumer installable" inverters will adhere to ENA G98 compliance in terms of disconnection times and quality of generated waveforms.

The worry is that people are going to start to use crap and unsafe stuff as happens with vape batteries etc.

Does that mean it is a good idea to have some approved products that are approved and tested as safe?

It is going to an Aldi and Lidl job, isn't it?

I guess a lot will be cheap non-compliant Chinese rubbish - let's just hope they don't start selling ones with battery storage in them as well, or we'll be seeing a lot more fires - like with cheap e-scooter chargers, not to mention adherence to the 'currently-not-mandatory' BSI PAS 63100 guidelines

Edited to add: re the fire risk - IMHO it's even more risky that these things are aimed at people in high-rise blocks of flats.

Yes, it is very sad the thought that people will lose their lives as a result of risky behaviour. Including people who had nothing to do with it but live in the same building.

 

[Everest]

"currently the panels are not sold in the UK as they do not meet safety regulations for electrical installations. The government said it was working to review and update these in the coming months."

However, the problems that @Everest is highlighting won't be solved in 3 months.

agree. Sadly, I suspect the government will accidentally lose the only phone on which they have a copy of the BS7671 wiring regulation and leave the only laptop, which has a PDF of BS7617 on a train. And then claim there are no reasons to not make these devices available to purchase.

Simultaneously, Ed Millipede will receive a £100,000 donation from both Lidl and Amazon and hey preston, Bob's your uncle and we can all go out and buy two 400W solar panels (measuring 1.8m x 1m and weighing 20+Kg) from the centre isle. Then let's hope no-one drops them off their balcony when they're trying to hang/attach them to the cellotex cladding on their 7th floor balcony.

Cynic, who me?

 

[Bam Bam]

I should confess, after all this talk lately I'm eyeing up the south-facing fence in our garden. It is in the shade for most of the day but should get some sun during the peak hours each day which would help.

Our electrics are very dodgy, though. A previous owner was apparently happy to install his own electrics because 'his Dad is an electrician and it is easy.'

Should probably have the electrics all updated, and if doing that we'd probably be better off just putting panels on the garage roof or South-facing wall.

You'd think 16 panels would be enough but however much solar and battery you've got you'll probably always want more!

 

[Everest]

You'd think 16 panels would be enough but however much solar and battery you've got you'll probably always want more!

16 is definitely not enough

On that note... it looks like we'll have harvested just over 1MWh of solar this month

 

[GaryMG4]

On that note... it looks like we'll have harvested just over 1MWh of solar this month

Only just over 300 kWh here, but I have managed to self consume more than 2 thirds of it with 162 kWh going into the cars at a total cost of £2.

 

[JohnV6]

302 kWh with 160 exported. The last week or so has been good. It is confusing as I doubled my battery storage to 8.4kWh & top up at 7p at night. We discharged a further 160 kWh

 

[Bam Bam]

On that note... it looks like we'll have harvested just over 1MWh of solar this month

How many panels do you have, again?

We've generated 398kWh so far in March, with three days to go.

Consumed 455.2
Imported 407.4
Exported 339.2

 

[gonzo]

I expect the approvals for plug in systems will be limited to low power inverters.
The concerns over numerous inverters all keeping each-other up, would in reality be that they drift in frequency well outside of the acceptable range of the grid. And trip out, due to that lack of anything with inertia being on the grid in the event of an outage.
But a lot of engineering is dealing with the edge cases of 'what if?'

 

[Bam Bam]

I expect the approvals for plug in systems will be limited to low power inverters.
The concerns over numerous inverters all keeping each-other up, would in reality be that they drift in frequency well outside of the acceptable range of the grid. And trip out, due to that lack of anything with inertia being on the grid in the event of an outage.

Do you think that small-scale inverters are a potential cause of concern here?

I know the Iberian case was partly as a result of this frequency drift, but they don't have so many 'grid-forming' inverters there because they went solar earlier.

But a lot of engineering is dealing with the edge cases of 'what if?'

I expect batteries attached to grid-forming inverters (once they get installed, which is taking a long time with all the permission processes involved) will really help with this issue.