Balcony Solar Is Coming!

[joth]

7 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Ah! How does it then not electrocute the poor sole holding the pins of the plug?

Same as existing hard-wired inverters really: they have anti-islanding tech that only activates the inverter after it senses stable grid waveform on the plug.

 

How it deals with 2 or more inverters all on the same circuit being islanded together, I'm not sure.

 

 

[Dillsue]

37 minutes ago, joth said:

Same as existing hard-wired inverters really: they have anti-islanding tech that only activates the inverter after it senses stable grid waveform on the plug.

Not sure I'd want to hold the ac connection on any inverter with panels connected. I beleive the grid disconnect is via relays/contactors and I know the contacts do weld from time to time.

[Dillsue]

2 hours ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Don't the modern single block mcb+rcbo units do this, if not why do they have a neutral terminal.

The neutral needs to pass through an RCD/RCBO to monitor for earth leakage if there's an imbalance in current in the live and neutral. You don't have to break the neutral to do the monitoring although I think you can get double pole RCBOs in a single module width.

[SimonD]

1 hour ago, Nickfromwales said:

Ah! How does it then not electrocute the poor sole holding the pins of the plug?

 

[Nickfromwales]

3 hours ago, SimonD said:

 

Quite interesting! Thanks for that.

[Nickfromwales]

3 hours ago, Dillsue said:

The neutral needs to pass through an RCD/RCBO to monitor for earth leakage if there's an imbalance in current in the live and neutral. You don't have to break the neutral to do the monitoring although I think you can get double pole RCBOs in a single module width.

People will just be plugging these in with near zero GAF though, I expect.

[Nickfromwales]

7 hours ago, JohnMo said:

Although amended by @Nickfromwales the inverter will have a 13A type plug, to allow it plug directly into a standard wall socket.

I'll get my coat.......

[JohnMo]

6 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Ah! How does it then not electrocute the poor sole holding the pins of the plug?

Inverter is dead without mains, otherwise you kill every lines man in a power cut.

[Beelbeebub]

2 hours ago, JohnMo said:

Inverter is dead without mains, otherwise you kill every lines man in a power cut.

Or more likely - your inverter shuts down as it tries to power the entire local grid. 

[SteamyTea]

I am pretty sure that the safety regulations have thought about all the issues above, so as long as the kit meets the safety standards, there will not be  unmanageable problems.

[JohnMo]

42 minutes ago, Beelbeebub said:

Or more likely - your inverter shuts down as it tries to power the entire local grid. 

No they operate the DC in an island mode - a bucket load of safety protocols built-in.

[Roger440]

2 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

I am pretty sure that the safety regulations have thought about all the issues above, so as long as the kit meets the safety standards, there will not be  unmanageable problems.

 

Which is brilliant. Until all the stuff that doesnt meet the relevant safety standard floods in. Which it already is, in large quantities. And no one is doing anything about. 

 

Then there will be people, as Nick suggested getting electrocuted holding a plug. For example.

 

I posted on the other thread about my "Amazon Chinese transformer". Its the wild west out there.

[SimonD]

1 hour ago, Roger440 said:

I posted on the other thread about my "Amazon Chinese transformer". Its the wild west out there.

 

Some years ago I bought a replacement charger for my macbook air, thinking it was a proper one and after a few months both my boys started complaining that they were getting electric shocks from the aluminium casing. I didn't believe them until I was sat there and got this tingling electrical feeling in my fingers and arms. When I went back to Amazon the seller had been deleted and there was no comeback at the time. I am very very careful about buying anything electrical from that place and some other markeplaces!