Solar install challenges

[Isetech]

I have completed a few installations, all 100 % legit and compliant, well that would depend on which group you support. I stil lcant find a lithium battery installation guideline, neutral/earth bonding reg, safe isolation procedures and a few other things, so we just making things up as we go.

So what challenges have I personaly experienced.

1/ Budget , I cannot compete with the general market pricing. One of the reasons is because of the COC. Most prices include a COC, this is where the real challenge begins. Everyone has an initial COC until the day you request a copy, so that you can attach the supplimentary COC/test report.

Then we get the "we havent had any issue with the elctrical installations" since we moved in 20 years ago, yet you can see there has been kichen renovations, additions to the building, all the socket outlets have been replaced with new plastic sockets and switches , and left off the earth tag to the metal box (the most common problem with old houses with steel conduit). It is such a simple test to identify the problem, using a plug tester yet people cant seem to get it right. Which also identifies that there were no tests carried out.

2/ Roof structures, this is one of the more difficult challenges, people want solar but they dont have the funds to "fix the roof" first or just not prepared to allocate funds to repairs.

What happens is you climb on the roof and tiles start popping and that people is where the fight starts.

Maybe you get lucky and only break a handfull of tiles, because yo uare smart and only send the feather weight team on the roof.

Then you get the roof without plastic (which is used to prevent dust, not waterproof the roof), or damaged dust seal. This rings warning bells astraight away.

[Isetech]

Connecting the DC fuse control box (combiner)

Being a sparkie, we connect the isolator first, then the otehr stuff, was busy wiring up one of thes eboxes and it got em thinking about the surge protection and fuses.

There is a another challenge, if you wire the DC isolator first, it could become a bigger problem than you think, why ? Because if you wire from the isolator on to the top of the fuse and surge arrester, if the surge arrester blows and arc in a closed postion, there is no fuse or protection.

So there are 2 things to look at, one do you want the fuse to pop if ther is a surge which could prevent the surge arrester from doing it job, or do we want the surge arrester to function but without any overload protection?