Solar Panel install on barn roof in UK

This kit, (panels, inverter, isolator switch, meter, wire, connectors, roof mounting brackets costing £2500 (about $3000 US)) was purchased off Ebay.
I expect generation of about £500 worth of electricity through the year - even here in England - so for a £2500 investment that's a 20% ROI - for approximately 20 years. Not bad at all.
Not the best video but I learned a lot - not least that it's not a particularly difficult job - and hopefully there are some tips for DIYers. The more solar the better!

[@jamesforsyth72]

This is a really good video and very useful to me a few points maybe you could clarify? On the feed from the inverter wouldn’t an rcbo separate from the rcd be best as you’d avoid the trip issue but still be protected rather than the mcb but also separate it from the rcd if you had a fault on another circuit the rcd would trip one side but the bus bar may still be live very briefly feeding the affected fault circuit briefly. Rcbo may also be dc sensitive which your rcd possibly aren’t? What about a separate dc isolator or a dc fuse as it comes off roof? I’m not an electrician just thinking it through. Thanks for the video great to see it being done.

[@mikeatyouttube]

Interesting idea - to put the inverters on their own separate rcbo breakers. For others reading this: the two inverters are connected to two standard MCB breakers in the consumer unit in the barn (underneath the panels). Those MCB breakers (and a couple more each for barn sockets) are protected by two RCD devices in the same CU - all quite standard. These RCDs measure (individually) an imbalance between live and neutral when the inverters start up but it's well below the 30mA trigger level. (This is about the same as starting up an inductive household appliance so there's nothing wrong with the inverters.) The feed *to* the barn CU comes in from the house over a 6mmsq underground armored cable and this has a 32A MCB breaker protecting that underground wire. However, nice as it would be to protect that wire additionally with and RCD (or with a stand-alone RCBO) it looks like there's enough imbalance in that underground wire to trip an RCD or RCBO device. It is true that I have not tried changing the 32A RCB with an RCBO - but the house RCD was tripping every morning so it was a case of getting something working reliably. So to answer james' question : I *could* put the individual inverters on their own RCBOs and thereby prevent sockets in the barn tripping if the inverters trip their own RCBOs but the thing is even when the barn sockets *are* loaded the turning on of the inverters do *not* trip the RCDs in that barn CU. It's only when the inverter output is combined on the armored underground cable that the live to neutral imbalance would (and does) trigger and RCD in the house's CU. What this means is that even though the current flowing two and from the inverters is already going through RCDs this fact doesn't mean the current imbalance is 'ironed' out on the feed from/to the house. As far as the DC from the panels is concerned the installation manual doesn't recommend putting a fuse in series. Short of a supernova the incident radiation on the panels is never going to cause a problem with over-voltage. However I do wonder about lightening. These panels are not earthed (as per installation instructions) so there could be an issue there - but if the system was hit by lightening no amount of fusing will save the electronics and the wires themselves will act as fuses themselves at that high a current. Interestingly, in the United States, it is mandatory to earth solar arrays - but then the whole wiring standard there is quite different to the UK.

[@futurenewmedia]

Great vid and thanks for sharing 👍

[@geerkotocave4554]

Hi Mike does you roof fitting system have own brand name or could you point place where to get one ? Good informative video btw 👍

[@amirshahz77]

Really helpful, thanks

[@StreamFeeds]

I would’ve thought 4mm 3 core was way to small. I’d done 6mm 3 core just to be on the same side making use of any spikes etc

[@englishbob5106]

H & S ?

[@travissnyder9092]

Nice inverter - Hope its doing well for you.

[@mikeatyouttube]

Hasn't caused any issues so far. I have the web-based data collection device attached now and that is very useful.

[@olliebrown89]

Nice video

[@beingtwo2996]

Hi Mike, I am planning out an ev conversion of sorts, planting a nissanleaf in a sedan. I would love some advice in this matter if it isn't too much trouble. Cheers, Keith

[@mikeatyouttube]

Hi Keith, I assume you got to this video via one of my EV videos but I'll answer here anyway. General rules for EV conversions : 1) keep it as simple as possible at the outset - things always get more involved, so start simple 2) Pick a light donor car - the lighter the better 3) Batteries take up room - you need space for them 4) Mechanics are often easier than the electrics 5) You'll get a huge sense of achievement when you're done but as for saving money over simply buying an EV - no - that wont happen :) But who cares! I did my conversions when there were few electric drivetrains available from crashed EVs. Now you have many options. The Leaf drive train was available but I needed the electronics to drive the motor and that was anything but trivial. But now - solutions exist to help you out. So my advice is to get a Nissan Leaf motor/inverter plus battery and then buy the Thunderstruck controller for that motor/inverter unit (see video below) - it will set you back about $500 to $800 but it will be absolutely worth it. The motor itself comes with the gearbox and differential and if you get the right Leaf car, the drive shafts too. Get your front wheel drive donor car, remove engine and mount the Leaf motor so the drive shafts line up - then get some drive shaft guy to cut and Leaf drive shafts and your donor car drive shafts and join them up. Get your welding kit out and make some brackets to hold the motor in place in the engine bay. Next work out where the batteries are going. you'll need about 388V to get things going so you'll need a complete Leaf battery set and don't be afraid to open the box up and distribute the batteries around the car joining them up with substantial 0000 gauge welding cable. You will have to get a charger. I'm not sure how or if you can get the Leaf charger to work. Also, I'm not sure if you'll be able to get the BMS (which is in with the batteries) working - Nissan did make everything rather complicated in that department but someone might have decoded it now. Good luck - and watch this this video which shows the thunderstruck gizmo in action... kzbin.info/www/bejne/npmwmauZn8l0npo

[@chaswinder]

Nice video. The uk pv kits I've seen seem to gloss over whether you're allowed to do the mains connection wiring-up yourself or whether you're obliged to get a sparky in to certify and sign-off. Was wondering what approach you took, and if you're Part P registered yourself? Thanks

[@mikeatyouttube]

The MCS certification - necessary for the utility to allow you to connect the system to the grid. The company I bought the panels off allowed 'competent' individuals to go through the appropriate tests, fill in the paperwork and they (the supplier of the panels) would file the paperwork on my behalf. They charge about £300 for this service. What they require is a whole load of photographs as evidence that you've done a decent job. They require the inverter to be hard-wired to a dedicated breaker. The following is my opinion: In the end, the electrical side of installing solar systems is (or should be) trivial. It's 4 DC wires coming in from the panels and a mains connection. I wish they would embed the big isolator switch and the meter in to the inverter so that there's only one box on the wall. Even the connection to the mains could be made even easier in that any 3600W PV system will happily run on a 20A circuit - I.E. normal ring main or spur house circuit. Electrically, you could just put a standard 13A plug (replace the 13 amp fuse with a 20Amp fuse (not that they exist)) and just plug the inverter in to the mains. Of course the 'authorities' wont let this happen but electrically it would be possible.

[@chaswinder]

@@mikeatyouttube thanks, that's very helpful (and is what I suspected!)

[@mikeatyouttube]

@@chaswinder I put a bit more info in a reply to Scott - might help a bit.

[@chaswinder]

@@mikeatyouttube thanks!

[@scottmclaughlan642]

Thanks for the video Mike. Do you mind sharing the company that did the paperwork with the grid on your behalf? I see in a comment below you said that as long as you were deemed competent and took photos they would file it on your behalf. My problem is there aren't any MCS certified guys round my parts so I'm thinking about doing most of it myself and my sparky do the tie in to the consumer unit

[@mikeatyouttube]

Contact Keith Gittins [ sales @ solar-energy-store co uk ] When you or your wiring man does the work there are a couple of tests that one has to do and, curiously, the type and serial number of the volt meter used to do the measurement needs to be on the MSC form... I'll reply to you again with some more info which I'll link to on my website...

[@mikeatyouttube]

Have a look at this page on my website - 3fazeac.com/SOLAR/ there are some files there - take a good look at page 5 and 6 of the Electrical_Installation - there are three measurements needed - Earth fault Loop Impedance, Insulation Resistance, Continuity - these should be measured and the results put on page 6. (Sometimes web address dont appear on youtube so the address is 3fazeac dot com / SOLAR )

[@antonshkabara3090]

I did it with Avasva plans.