Fitting and outdoor sockets | Plug-in Solar East Midlands

Who is allowed to fit one

The specification is written for devices meant to be installed and operated by ordinary people, so no electrician is needed to plug one in. It also says that any testing or modification of your home's wiring is work for a qualified electrician, and that includes changing the protective device on the circuit if that turns out to be needed.

It also tells you to get an electrician to inspect any socket you are unsure about, and to ask whether the device changes your home insurance. Ring the insurer before the kit turns up.

The socket outside

Both the inverter and the plug can sit indoors or out. Put them outdoors and the socket needs an ingress rating of IP55 as a minimum. This is the piece most homes need an electrician for, and its cost follows the house rather than the kit.

When DC cables come indoors from outside, the connectors and the routing instructions have to come from the manufacturer.

The stone front of an old school house in Derbyshire with leaded windows and painted shutters — A stone frontage in Derbyshire, with the dressings in a warmer stone. Houses of this age were wired long before anybody thought about plugging a panel into them, which is why the circuit gets looked at first.

What it must not be plugged into

The specification will not allow an extension cable, a multi-way adaptor, an RCD adaptor or a travel adaptor. It states that twice over, first as a warning printed on the device and then in the written instructions.

That is a bigger deal than it sounds. A panel in a garden or on a balcony is exactly where somebody reaches for an extension lead, and an extension lead is the one thing it cannot be run from.

The numbers on the kit

A compliant device sends at most 800 VA to the mains and draws no more than 3.5 A. One inverter takes as many as four panels, with a maximum of two in series per string, and the panels together may reach 2000 W of DC. Once panel capacity passes 960 W, the specification wants somebody qualified to look at whether the installation suits the house. Panel wattage and mains output are separate numbers, so check that a listing gives you both.

Older wiring in older houses

Much of the housing we work on was wired a long time ago, and consultation responses returned to older wiring again and again as the real risk with these devices. If the consumer unit is old, or nobody has looked at the circuit in years, get an electrician to test it before the device goes in.

More on fitting

Can I fit it myself?

You can put the device up and plug it in. If a new outdoor socket is needed, or the circuit has to be altered, that is an electrician's job. We arrange a local electrician to price that part.

Does it need its own circuit?

It needs a socket on a final ring circuit, and only one device is allowed per circuit. In practice the household limit of one device settles this for most homes.

What if my only outdoor socket is on an extension lead?

Then it is not a socket you can use for this. A fixed, properly rated outdoor socket is what the device needs, and that is the job we get priced for you.