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Plug and play solar. Thoughts?

 
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Solar Photovoltaic (PV)
Last Post by Batpred 3 weeks ago
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JamesPa
 JamesPa
(@jamespa)
Illustrious Member Moderator
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 4800
13/04/2026 11:05 am  

Posted by: @judith
↑

*the UK has larger mains plugs to include a fuse, which are there to protect the house wiring from a faulty appliance. Continental plugs are not fused and the wiring is designed for that"

Thats incorrect.  The protection devices (fuses or MCBs/RCBOs) in the CU protect the house wiring, the fuse only protects the cable between the socket and the appliance.

Posted by: @judith
↑

*the UK uses ring main configuration of wiring around the house to allow larger currents to flow with smaller cross-section wires 

*continental household wiring tends to all be of type direct to each socket, thus using more copper

True, although I get the impression radial circuits like in continental europe are becoming more common in the UK now that we rarely plug in high power devices.  In addition some electricians will, in some circumstances, down-fuse an existing ring from 32 to 20A, which enables them to relax the rules on adding sockets to ring mains, because effectively its fused as if its a radial and no longer relies on two paths to each socket to ensure that the cable is protected by the fuse/RCD.

Posted by: @judith
↑

So perhaps there is a difference between how safe the plug in solar would be in different countries. Without a full knowledge of the wiring regs and options in both countries it is tricky to judge.

Im a physicist not an electrician (but electricals are just simple physics).  I cant personally see how these particular differences would have a material effect.  Happy to be corrected though.

Posted by: @judith
↑

The snag in any country is that wiring gets modified over time and few owners/renters know what is behind their sockets.

Thats true.  The theory is that modifications obey the regulations.  Where done by electricians they very likely do.  When done DiY possibly not. 

For example I found a junction between several cables (I wont say junction box, because there was no box) buried under 13mm of plaster, with the wiring just covered by newspaper before the plaster was applied.  It wasn't in a permitted zone (ie within 150mm of the edge) nor in line with any other fitting, definitely not compliant.  Lucky I found it really!  


This post was modified 3 weeks ago 3 times by JamesPa

4kW peak of solar PV since 2011; EV and a 1930s house which has been partially renovated to improve its efficiency. 7kW Vaillant heat pump.


   
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Batpred
 Batpred
(@batpred)
Prominent Member Member
Joined: 1 year ago
Posts: 823
13/04/2026 1:48 pm  

Posted by: @jamespa
↑

Posted by: @judith
↑

So perhaps there is a difference between how safe the plug in solar would be in different countries. Without a full knowledge of the wiring regs and options in both countries it is tricky to judge.

Im a physicist not an electrician (but electricals are just simple physics).  I cant personally see how these particular differences would have a material effect.  Happy to be corrected though.

I am also yet to find a case where an installation that is compliant to the UK regs could not take plug in solar acceptable in Germany. Except of course for the issue related to certain types of RCDs that are not bidirectional - the prevalence of which is not clear (but which are simple to test for). And should it be unsuitable, it is generally simple to replace. 

 


8kW Solis S6-EH1P8K-L-PLUS hybrid inverter; G99: 8kw export; 16kWh Seplos Fogstar battery; Ohme Home Pro EV charger; 100Amp head, HA lab on mini PC


   
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