Just diverting back to solar panels in homes, I was chatting today to an ex-colleague in the risk team at BP who is now an independent fire consultant (and used to be the Chief Fire Officer in Norfolk), he said the issues with solar panel fires relate to batteries located in the roof space which are often installed to store power and then deliver it later when needed. Said installations are often (a) placed in a location where the batteries can overheat and (b) the batteries are not enclosed in a suitable enclosure. The result will be fires starting which spread and are difficult to extinguish.
I think I'll ask him to have a look at my daughter's installation!
I enjoy the solar installer Youtube clips where they review other installers' mistakes. No inverter in the attic was an obvious one (and certainly not batteries!) - one I didn't get in my install was to have an isolation switch in the attic for the panels. Makes perfect sense...
Our recent upgrade to new inverter & 4 batteries involved reviewing the chain of safety, so 3 DC switches, 1 for each solar string of 8 panels, another main DC isolator at inverter feed in, new AC isolator on mains feed out, latest RCBO trips in mains in & out plus huge changover switch for EPS backup, the battery management pack has another set of DC trips, then an extra mains maintained smoke alarm that will trigger the whole house system, and the main fuseboard has some fancy monitor that fits in the DIN rail to read some tecky shite and send it back via a cat5 cable to the inverter
The app gives access to live stuff which is useful, eg battery...currently 94% capacity, 316.7 volts, discharging 267 watts, and temp 31.4deg, (I like to see the temperature bit for safety) because some sunny days sees 60+ kW going thro the system
