Is your home a modern home ? Just wondering about the circuit board and breaker set up
Plug & Play Solar
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Is your home a modern home ? Just wondering about the circuit board and breaker set up
This is what is blocking me, I believe. We have an old circuit board with RCDs that aren't designed for current flowing back to the grid. Plus, we still have an old style mechanical electricity meter.
If you have a wheel type meter that has the ability to run backwards then that is what lots of solar folk want!
As to the RCD, you can just get a module switched out for a bidirectional one.
My house is not modern but RCDs can be switched out by a friendly electrician....
So, it's not just as simple as popping up a solar kit pannel from liddl, running the flex through the letterbox and plugging it into you hall socket then?
Wish I could get my head round this. I'm a complete dunce when it comes to anything electrical. It's supposed to be plug and play. I understand the jackery solar system and can work that. (I think a five year old could do that). It realy is plug and play. I was hoping these balcony kits would be just as simple. Not so sure now.
I've gleaned that in Europe they have a different wiring system, and obviously voltage, and realy can just plug and play.
Are they not supposed to stop pushing power into the house if the supply stops..ie perhaps the plug is pulled out or a power cut happens. ?
I'd have to leave a window ajar to run a flex inside, or through the letterbox which makes using the front door almost impossible. I live in a rented bungalow with upvc windows and doors, not realy recommended to leave ground floor windows open. I wouldn't want to have to unconnected everytime I wanted to go out so I could close a window.
Being a bit of a technaphobe, I realy need super simple to get things right. Am I genuinely confudilicated, or am I just stupid? I do visual in the flesh learning better than a 10 min video, or just verbal stuff.
For instance, I worked for a computer manufacturer for 3 weeks , was asked to put plugs on 20 finished computers was told how to do it,rather than shown, got confused, and wired them all backwards...ooops! ( it was discovered in time thank goodness)
FYI I know how to wire a plug now!
Wish I could get my head round this. I'm a complete dunce when it comes to anything electrical. It's supposed to be plug and play. I understand the jackery solar system and can work that. (I think a five year old could do that). It realy is plug and play. I was hoping these balcony kits would be just as simple. Not so sure now.
I've gleaned that in Europe they have a different wiring system, and obviously voltage, and realy can just plug and play.
Are they not supposed to stop pushing power into the house if the supply stops..ie perhaps the plug is pulled out or a power cut happens. ?
I'd have to leave a window ajar to run a flex inside, or through the letterbox which makes using the front door almost impossible. I live in a rented bungalow with upvc windows and doors, not realy recommended to leave ground floor windows open. I wouldn't want to have to unconnected everytime I wanted to go out so I could close a window.
Being a bit of a technaphobe, I realy need super simple to get things right. Am I genuinely confudilicated, or am I just stupid? I do visual in the flesh learning better than a 10 min video, or just verbal stuff.
For instance, I worked for a computer manufacturer for 3 weeks , was asked to put plugs on 20 finished computers was told how to do it,rather than shown, got confused, and wired them all backwards...ooops! ( it was discovered in time thank goodness)
FYI I know how to wire a plug now!
Its being sold as plug and play, but there are nuances. The kit itself is pretty much plug and play - you buy the box, plug in some panels, then plug it into a mains socket. Simple. Its what comes next after you plug it in that is being glossed over.
If you have a nice new house, with modern wiring and a smart meter, then you are probably good to go, technically. However, you still have to inform the grid operator that you are now putting power back into the grid.
But what if you have an older house, with legacy wiring and distribution panel? Its been suggested that you can upgrade your RCD's, but that only works if your breaker panel is able to take modern RCD's - older ones can't.
You might have a traditional mechanical electricity meter. Some can go backwards, some can't. Either way, next time you do a meter reading, your supplier will notice that your reading is much less that what it used to be, or even less than the last reading. To them, that smacks of fraud - expect a red light to go on.
Whats the requirements for securing the panels? Zip tying them to the balcony good enough? Probably not but if the wind takes one and clobbers someone, pretty sure you are to blame.
Do you need to tell your house insurance? Not seen any clear guidance on this, but technically an insurer could argue that this is a substantial change. Any issue that arise, its on you.
Live in a rented property / block of flats? Need to tell the landlord? Whats the impact on the other residents in the property? All unclear.
Don't get me wrong - there are a lot of pluses to all of this. It's just that the downstream implications have not been worked out yet. I am going to wait until all the legislation has been passed, then see what happens. I already have a sufficient off grid solar rig, that is good enough for now.
If you have a nice new house, with modern wiring and a smart meter, then you are probably good to go, technically. However, you still have to inform the grid operator that you are now putting power back into the grid.
But what if you have an older house, with legacy wiring and distribution panel? Its been suggested that you can upgrade your RCD's, but that only works if your breaker panel is able to take modern RCD's - older ones can't.
You might have a traditional mechanical electricity meter. Some can go backwards, some can't. Either way, next time you do a meter reading, your supplier will notice that your reading is much less that what it used to be, or even less than the last reading. To them, that smacks of fraud - expect a red light to go on.
Whats the requirements for securing the panels? Zip tying them to the balcony good enough? Probably not but if the wind takes one and clobbers someone, pretty sure you are to blame.
Do you need to tell your house insurance? Not seen any clear guidance on this, but technically an insurer could argue that this is a substantial change. Any issue that arise, its on you.
Live in a rented property / block of flats? Need to tell the landlord? Whats the impact on the other residents in the property? All unclear.
Don't get me wrong - there are a lot of pluses to all of this. It's just that the downstream implications have not been worked out yet. I am going to wait until all the legislation has been passed, then see what happens. I already have a sufficient off grid solar rig, that is good enough for now.
My house is about 32 yrs old, just had to have the meter changed about a year ago but insisted on a dumb meter.
They promised to come read it twice a year..to try and put me off by presenting me larger bills, no problem, I know my rough consumption so I put money into my account each month, but no paper bills as yet as asked. Stupid company!!!!
I think I'll wait too, though will get one as soon as I can afford it
They promised to come read it twice a year..to try and put me off by presenting me larger bills, no problem, I know my rough consumption so I put money into my account each month, but no paper bills as yet as asked. Stupid company!!!!
I think I'll wait too, though will get one as soon as I can afford it
I think that even if you understand this system, you shouldn’t be adding it to a rental without getting approval first.
Seriously??? Id never have known! I may be rather handicapped by tech, but I do have several a levels and I'm not an idiot!
Hot exhausting day, not feeling great, so possibly sound a bit scritchy, but that
seems a wee bit of a condescending remark if I may say so. No rancour, but its pretty obvious if you've been a Tennant of a particular property for over 26 yrs like me, I might just have a handle on that aspect.
I'm not a newbie to renting by any means!
I'm a blooming pensioner yes, but I'm not quite senile yet!!!!!!!! Thank heavens!
If you are in rented accommodation then an option might be to go for an offgrid solution? This is kind of what I am doing. Get something like an Aferiy or Ecoflow power station, and associated solar panels. Use the panels to charge the power station, then run devices off of the power station.
Not the most elegant of solutions - means you have some extension leads running around. However it has some advantages:
You don't have to do anything with the house electrics. Just keep an eye on the wattage of any device you plug in.
It's portable - if you move you take it with you, especially if you get the fold out panels. In fact, if you go off camping or anything, you can lob it in the back of the car.
Its expandable - both Aferiy and Ecoflow have add on batteries.
The biggest aspect from my perspective - you have resiliency. If the grid goes down, you still have power.
Not the most elegant of solutions - means you have some extension leads running around. However it has some advantages:
You don't have to do anything with the house electrics. Just keep an eye on the wattage of any device you plug in.
It's portable - if you move you take it with you, especially if you get the fold out panels. In fact, if you go off camping or anything, you can lob it in the back of the car.
Its expandable - both Aferiy and Ecoflow have add on batteries.
The biggest aspect from my perspective - you have resiliency. If the grid goes down, you still have power.
I own my property....and I have a mixture of portable and wired in solar. The whole system works for me, and I power up an Anker power station, that gets used daily
Woody G has a jackery - unfortunately the solar isn’t waterproof for that. Odd design!
As to a utility company flagging you for potentially producing 800w of electricity - no chance.
I know of an electric meter that was seized for six months. A smart meter appointment was booked. The engineer changed it over. Nothing was flagged.
Has anyone with plug and play solar checked with their house insurance to if they are fully covered if anything goes wrong?
I also wonder about the impact of the grid if a large number of houses start feeding small amounts power back into in. We often get way over 250v and sometimes 260v in our supply which seems to be down to normal grid tied solar, will plug and play work if the voltage is near its 253v limit or just increase the grid voltage more?
I also wonder about the impact of the grid if a large number of houses start feeding small amounts power back into in. We often get way over 250v and sometimes 260v in our supply which seems to be down to normal grid tied solar, will plug and play work if the voltage is near its 253v limit or just increase the grid voltage more?
I thought the idea was that the power was used by the property on its own circuit rather than going back to grid?
