GreenSophie

Thanks. I guess it’s linked to 4G in the sense that they are transmitted by the same companies using the same infrastructure. So I guess no 4G signal probably also means no smart meter signal.

I’m a bit confused about that because there are articles talking about Vodafone providing the 4G network. The fitter said he couldn’t get a signal

Hi everyone we have hit a new obstacle in our solar project. We need a smart meter to take advantage of Octopus’s variable tariffs (and to export to the grid) but live in a village with a couple of bars of Vodafone 4G outside and none in the room where the meter is. Is there anything we can do about this apart from moving the meter (v expensive)? thanks so much Sophie

Just seen that ITS who Bramco recommended do a 50 quid design offer and as part of that provide a list of installers. So that might be our best option.

Thanks so much everyone. Any ideas on how to go about finding an electrician who could do the work? Every time I search, I just get the solar companies. I’m in the north Essex / south Cambs area. It’s not a big install - 6 panels and an inverter and we’d fit the panels ourselves.

Thanks Simon, that’s so helpful!

Thanks so much! Is this something that we can specify ourselves and get a competent electrician to install? The solar companies seem so expensive and it’s quite a simple set up.

Voltage in shed is 242, in house is 245. So you’re spot on, ProDave 😊 really silly question, but can the same cable be used for both mains supply to shed and solar generated supply to house?

Thanks so much for your quick replies. it’s definitely 25mm diameter armoured cable. Here’s a pic of the inside of the shed consumer unit and you can see the earth core has quite thick copper wire strands. No idea if that helps!

I’m so sorry if this has been asked before. We have a large shed with a south facing roof around 100m from the house and would like to install 8-10 solar panels on it to provide electricity for the house and export any surplus to the grid. Digging a new cable run between the house and the shed would be a nightmare so we wondered if we could put an inverter in the shed and then use the existing mains cable which runs from the house to transfer the AC power produced by the solar set up to the house. It is a 3 core, 25mm armoured cable, each core has 6 strands of copper wire. It’s around 100m long and the shed has its own consumer unit. We’d want to be able to continue to use the cable to supply power to the shed. Sorry if this sounds a bit vague, we just want to know if the project is viable before contacting an electrician.