The Dark Side of Solar - Top Electrician Mistakes Exposed!

foreign side of soil now I don't mean this side of the panel I mean solar installations that go wrong perhaps you're an electrician who's just joined a solar boom because there's a lot of money in there or perhaps you're thinking about going on a training course now if you're like me we've tried to get the grips with solar we've read the manufacturer's instructions and let me face it there can be incredibly confusing and this is the installation that we came up with now there's some bits on here that I've since learned we don't even need to fit and there's also some things on there that could cause big problems particularly when it gets to battery storage solution now perhaps you've been on a course and you came away from that course with questions and I've certainly read these guidance and their course guidance and I certainly look at them and there's some things why is it that way why do we have to do that do we have to do that well we found an expert who can help us answer lots of these problems now you will want to meet him because if you don't you might meet them if you ever completely made a mess of an installation and that went to court he could be acting for the prosecution now of course we've all seen those experts who aren't very practical great reciting from books and regulations are there actually capable of wiring things well we'll put tonight's expert Griff Thomas to the test because he will be taking on the electricians challenge now make sure you get your comments in and because this is such a special event we've got tonight we've had to assemble the whole team we've got Joe on standby in the plug and socket here with the regs book just in case it gets salty in the comments thank you very much for tuning in to our live stream the Dark Side of solar it sounds like a Quentin Tarantino Blockbuster which it could well be tonight and we'd love you to get your comments in if you're watching it live so we can respond to those and it'll also activate your position within the register however if you're on catch up please still put those comments in we get back to as many as we possibly can don't we Gordon we do before we start shall we thank the great sponsors behind bringing this live stream to everybody fortnightly let's do that then to our great sponsors are the following the lacico group Marshall tough Lakes the ludum palazzoli and Doncaster cables the lovely people yes we love our sponsors yeah we do absolutely because that allows us to bring so we've got sponsors but we've also got guests so we've got we're going to rename it aren't we now we're going to call it the green we're going to call it now Gordon to the plug and socket yeah we've brought back the plug and socket hopefully one day that will be somewhere we can have a more uh grown-up beverage I would suggest but let's go over and see who's in the plug-in socket there they are so maybe we can get a little bit of a wave can you give us wave Griff all right okay we've got three groups okay give us a wave Griff but what's he normally always doing when we see him what is he normally doing cleaning he is what are you up to Ross doing a bit of cleaning Gary yeah a bit of cleaning yeah got your cleaning cloth there I like it okay and they'll be joining us in a few moments won't they but we're going to start off the show we're going to set the scene the Dark Side of solar that's quite a sinister's title where are we going with it I mean solar Mark is absolutely booming I mean yeah we start we'll put a video out at the weekend our first one really gone into solar you were out with someone last year doing some solos and we've got some interesting comments yes which might suggested the installer might not have been following would suggest a lot of the best practices out there yeah again when you get there first maybe you're on the same Learning Journey as everybody else it's great to be a an armchair commentator maybe when you're not fitting the stuff and of course there was one or two things there maybe that has improved over the time yeah which is not a problem not a problem no and we when we put our setup on the wall and took it off the wall and put it back on the wall and then back off the wall and back on again turned it upside down we did and we put our video and then some great comments came in there but it's a market that a lot of electricians want to get into yeah because obviously it's big money loads of money it's uh as you said in the far yeah start when there are loads of money well it is loads of money because obviously that energy crisis we've had now for over a year okay he's still with us and I think it'll be one of those that even when we transition out of an energy crisis the prices are still going to be quite strong in the market and obviously that rush for solar the problem is when you rush to do something what tends to happen well it brings in I should say a touch of the old double glazing salesman I sort of people who selling the selling a system to people and you sort of learn out the problems of it a little bit later on and that is what we're going to delve into and it's tough It's a new market you know you try to read the code to practice the instructions everything else and it's it's it is tough yeah and so we went out there to find an expert and I think we've got American I think we've got a great expert but again your comments what have you got on this subject we're on solar and Battery are you in the market are you currently thinking about getting in it are you thinking about trying to get some great training maybe we can help you out this evening with that all those questions please leave them in the guys will be over there and we'll try and pick up as many of those comments as we can won't wait it has but as a starter yeah we thought it would just take a little trip back to everyone remembers uh oh top of the pops oh yeah it's no longer I'm going to tell you if you're on the gold channels so just to get the comments uh just to get the comments started we thought we'd just give a little round up with the top 10 mistakes that are seen out in the field hello and welcome to top of the roof where we count down the 10 biggest mistakes that electricians make when installing solar panels let's get straight into it dropping down the charter number 10 it's the dno notification paperwork a new entry at number nine is live working with DC isolators going up at eight it's our old favorite solar cable labeling at seven it's a non-mover we've got slipping panels and that's old favorite clamping zones Russia is number one has fallen to six but shading is still in the top ten number five is a new entry no battery fuse creating at number four is unsupported batteries holding tights in the top three about the 50 brackets with leaky fixings a firm favorite at number two is no energy performance estimates holding on number one it's a loose joint with mc4 connections wow okay and that was just a top ten I think we could have done a top 40 couldn't we that's what's going on we're going to delve into them a little bit further plus some other things we've found but obviously we can't do that Gary absolutely done one installation badly how many times yeah many times is it perfect is our installation on the wall perfect no no no no I'm not gonna miss some bits out yeah we could yeah that we didn't need not that we were missing them out yeah but the sun bits we should include yeah we should okay so we bring the experts in okay so we'd like to introduce our experts in the room we'd like to introduce Griff and Rocket Ross Sans come on in boys right here they come where everyone take this here we're on the good looking side Ross almost right yeah that's right Gary it's left isn't actually ah welcome back welcome and to us for the first time on the stream or you're an old favorite here on it's not my first road yeah no it isn't no and as you look up there just just a quick one thing we've got three race walls this evening and I think we brought in uh Aaron Waltham so didn't we when uh he eventually came off the bottom he didn't know and he had to sit through it and he saw him actually no longer be in hashtag above Aaron have we done something similar to the night with you okay because you've got three chances of knocking you off top spot so stay tuned if you want to see if rocket Ross Sands remains at the top you know what it's like but Griff yeah we've known each other now for almost a few weeks almost nearly it feels like days and it was our friends at the IET and Graham can you first sort of made a connection and never knew there was a training center in that's h-a-w-e-s just in case they're careful YouTube subscribers doing it wrong there but we'll have to go back in there after the show um just give us a background where's your electrical Journey from oh so I started off as an engineer in the Rope making factory doing lots of weird and peculiar things um then went into General Contracting uh but always like doing the peculiar jobs so the stuff that other people didn't want that led to Renewables about 20 years ago and we saw a lot of installs it could be better so we started doing some training and then from there it's escalated to being probably the UK's largest renewable technology training center that you've never heard about you've never heard about you'd never know we existed right yeah that's until tonight till tonight yeah I have yeah we'll put it on the screen there behind us and there's a link in the description as well for some fantastic training courses there we've even we've been managed to smuggle Rick onto some courses coming up soon yeah but you don't forget I thought Halsey to see it do you don't have to go all the way today you actually get yourself all over the country we've got locations all over the UK so um whether you're in axminster or Aberdeen we can cover you with our training yeah and I did I thought we were making it up about the Rock Factory earlier on but there you go sure it was Engineering in the Rope Factory so that's our expert in the room so thank you very much Griff from Gtech so of course we've brought our team electrician in so Ross just give a 60 second your background well I've been in the history for 16 years ago but um things are slowing down a bit in the domestic side obviously with the cost of living people maybe not doing the houses up extensions and so I'm moving myself into the renewable sector um and hopefully asking some questions getting a bit of Knowledge from uh from Griffith okay it's nice so that's what we're all doing it no pressure yeah yeah with that in mind yeah we got anything to help us on this journey then Gordon well obviously we have to find out the skill level of our guests okay that's obviously means we need to have a look at the electrician's challenge right so so it's all right talk about it write books about it but they're usually the ones that you know historically can't do it yeah at this point we need to bring in Mr Robinson actually okay where is he is just going to give us a rundown of tonight's Runners and Riders okay so we're uh we're up and we're upping up with it so I'm gonna be on handcap live this as well so we've made the incredible decision to give this section to the bloke who knows less than nothing about horse racing so we've done a horse racing bit for this so we've got three absolute thoroughbreds I think that's an expression yeah okay for this for the electricians challenge tonight so that's really exciting all class one of course we've got the uh the absolutely fantastic Mark Coles there uh he's been uh existing on a diet of uh pure steel cut oats in order to make sure that he's ready for the race we've got as well Graham Kenyon as well who's uh obviously been and done his challenge as well so that's very exciting and and bringing us up in third place here hopefully it won't be third place in the end we'll have to wait and see is the wonderful Griff so yes it's a very exciting night we've all very very excited to see who's going to be coming out on top out of these three and where exactly they end up on the leaderboard so looking at this list similar people in a similar class if we come down a little bit here Gary you can see down here we've got uh where's uh where's he gone I don't think I've gone far enough down to get to our friend Shaheed Khan there he is oh we have to go a long way down the table are they going to get above Shaheed Khan he's kind of set the uh set the the standard there for perhaps the people who know a lot but aren't on the tools [Laughter] got a big glare on my camera there we did okay well so let's see if we can get this right this week the instructions instructions go and go from a chance to obviously put your own guess in on the contestants time so we've got three people taking it tonight two have been pre-recorded a long time ago before Christmas but we thought it would be a special sort of learning education regulations so you've got to guess who's going to win okay first bit so it's Griff it's Griff it's Graham it's Graham and it's Mark yep so it's either Griff Graham or Mark yep and then there's the tiger with graham or Mark okay so I just want to see those three words yeah all in the same sentence and then the time so if you think Griff's gonna do it in three weeks and 72 hours it'll be Griff three weeks 72 if you think Mark's going to do it in two minutes 21 51 but Mark two minutes 51 now we'll see now people never get this some people get it right and then some people say I wish I knew the instructions afterwards but it's like clear enough so you can't think that was all right I can understand that so to win a prize we may never post you have to give us the correct name first you've got a winning three chance of being in the Hat yeah and then be the closest time after that that's it okay have we got any idea over here in uh Team admin whether you can see the times not a clue no no okay we're doing this one here we go so we've already got a Griff to win in okay we've got four minutes and eight okay so that's it so Leah's putting breakfast doesn't put a time not a relative I don't know Sergio Fernandez I'm confident yeah so people have got that that seems to be ticking along quite nicely I think we've got to think to bring in for 60 seconds yeah that's gonna be 60 seconds let's have a look here look at that we've got here we go we've got graphics come in so we're into a little bit of pressure tonight because the guys can't see any of the comments so we're gonna try and do the comments over here and obviously the times if you if you're a regular viewer hopefully you're just in it for the fun as much as anything else we've had a few people obviously respond to us their post has been delayed a few times I've sent a few uh messages across to the postal team where we're trying to look into those as well so we've got 30 seconds left to get your name and your timing so it's the IET and we've got Griff do we know which order we're coming in who's going up first I haven't seen any of these but I can't remember the ones before Christmas yeah it's good so we've got 20 seconds left and of course by putting your time in you'll also get yourself a shout out in the register that we won't be able to do so I have to whip the laptop over or we'll have to have a guess no you've got it oh he's got the register sorted so get your times into you we'll get on already five seconds left yeah right I wonder who's gonna be up first it's always a worry growth if you go first you're not normally the first oh no you see yourself come up you're having a right yourself up there here we go so who's up first go ah unlucky Griff you just see on building so it's definitely wearing a very clean high visibility jacket with the glasses and the haircut you're in a more in a managerial role wasn't he wasn't that exactly uh humping uni strut around so oh hello tape look at that one conductor the first time I've ever had anyone put a drawer wire in yeah pulls a drawer in with a sellotape then follow that effectively look at this well we're like a novel approach all right yeah well we said you might get beaten tonight can you imagine losing to Griffin masking tape there it could have so he's cutting them and then cutting them again why did you cut them so far away from the drum and then go back and trim them back any reason no just time time just get in get it done what about cutting them once closer to where you were cutting them the first time rather than a couple of attempts I was going that quick I didn't have time to think okay yeah all right in the socket first which is good I always thank you oh and pick up at the top there was it in your face was it yeah it was just just getting in the way a little bit well in your hairline was it 20 30 Vision with those glasses on but I needed to clear clear something out of the way so this is looking pretty good so you know are you completely off the tools I thought I heard you were still installing the other side still do a bit here and there just to make sure that we know what the latest kit products are on the market because we don't like standing up teaching people about this stuff when we don't know what we're talking about it's about 19 years to know how it worked that's pretty good pretty quick yeah um UPS backed up is it going to be uh the sockets yeah going and the fridge once the check's cleared there's no backup at all right there's a lot of class one around Europe it can disconnect from the main Earth okay here we go so we're up the top now so into the consumer units so lewd and Palace only consumer unit and here we go like it okay protective conductor goes in yeah so your two conductors away from doing this is this looks a reasonable time you've got a bit of a I don't know what would you say that look is would you say it's a bit of a Dan Aykroyd in the early Matrix Matrix no I don't need some Matrix definitely don't think it's a matrix I think in the first one of um Ghostbusters we're into the next one who we got now look at the Baldi who's this one it's grounds up next is the politically correct thing he's not even bending he's got old knees look at that he's just over at the midriff okay so here we go he's using house tools for the looks of things so 11 complained about those put them down gently yeah here we go so oh no is that the bend down they all are half gram yeah they're all still European harmonics colors we do yes yes we know we we know Graham quite well he's teaching for you today isn't he he's done some teaching for us yeah just send him a message consultancy I sent him a little message saying I'm looking forward to beating him in the challenge we've got an Italian lad doing it later on he was great when he came to see us I was a little bit nervous about meeting Graham because obviously the position he holds on jpo 64. I just want to say for the record on camera what a lovely gentleman he was and what a pleasure it was a spend some time on everything spend some more time with him that won't stop me mentioning his hairline no look at that it's slick the slipped almost down to his back there isn't it so uh yeah another glass is wearer so I suppose that's all about safety oh was that oh was that oh that was the old uh where you go wire strippers they're pretty good there we're going to review those soon hopefully on Rick's talk time so make sure you stay tuned for that we've got a classic tonight from Rick learned anything are you worried about the natural Trend that everybody does it's born I'm not currently worried at the moment oh dear you can say you beat the person from jpo 64 who shares it yeah imagine that the bloke that writes MC uh yeah standards here we go so here we go so we're in that's just the socket to go that's all right let's put him back but addressing here we go so socket Outlet you've got to Earth the back box does he need to work the back box with two solid lugs there Ross well who knows hopefully you do so uh yeah it's a requirement of it in order to have that back box everybody has to do it exactly the same way I think that's only the second socket Outlet we've ever used in the entire time we've been using that you can tell I could tell that story I think you'd whinge about the weather you'd whinge about your hairline you wouldn't do about anything so it's been incredible that socket has been absolutely incredible so uh yeah just omit the CPC you know because obviously yeah oh well that's a that's a that's a whole show on its own isn't it that it is it is never rely on a tight Bush so um yeah it's nice to see Graham's got the reg's book handy though just to make sure that he is yellow blue just Smithereens I think no he's just checking his harmonized colors actually I think that was his big issue I loved it the minute we came out of Europe that the the older guard was saying can we now go back to the original colors weren't they they're straight in there well there's actually been a few variants oh hang on hang on what's the handle used for on a screwdriver look we're halfway down the shaft the handle is irrelevant to him you didn't do that or else always back on the right end now Ah that's good different Grand Canyon holds the shaft to screw it in that's classic here we go see if we can get to his feet and we're straight into the next one here we go it takes us some time here we go next one end it's the rock star of the electrical industry just look at him go he's just playing a rock band as well done is he bass guitarist they tend to be the moodiest don't they they tend to drink more than most and be quite Moody he does like his music as Malcolm I thought he would say beverages beverages that goes without that music doesn't it it does yeah you know what his band's called yeah no I'll leave you too no no it's almost not a rude word I'll leave you to Google that one all right oh a trivia challenge there or just just like to say for the record I won't be waiting or if anybody knows it they can comment oh yeah there you go or in the comments so I don't have to look right just remind you of the sheep shearing era though doesn't it look at it yeah from behind I feel like you're just getting Buzz him over once yeah we're over there a few jumpers right okay so he's used the house he did yes the the team from the int came up we didn't straighten it or we stopped I like that that's a Ross tip that isn't it get it straight wow that's right he's got a problem got a problem yeah does it work though I would say straighter not more tape oh look at this and this is his quick one yeah I feel like I'm not gonna come last he's really well they can slap you in the ball dead oh it's just awful so uh yeah look at that he's always the way there's all teeth awfully Malone in it oh yeah oh which page is that in bs7671 I love it yeah pull out a few molars get the tape tape off the end but then it was the one the stripping of his teeth yeah I don't know the other two contestants that you would love a little bit of that wouldn't they look at old uh Mark he's taking the absolutely that's where it's gone yeah yeah overly but in the nuclear industry he had short hair when he started yeah yeah and uh and ten fingers he's now got 14 yeah so here we go yeah it's pretty cool yeah it's good I know we've speeded it up slightly so we are making him look uh superhuman here we don't have to speed you up Ross so do we have two minutes we're trying to get a four minute say oh hello oh hello yeah that's good now I do like these strippers though they are Sensational and I am giving them away on the college connections at the moment so people are getting those for answering some great questions thanks to the support of where you go for that so in we go so we're Earth in the back box of that marine-like BG socket Outlet here we go so four connections to go teeth [Music] oh my God I can't believe you've done that that shows you when you when you haven't commentated it before you just get those golden moments tons of copper showing but it's safe action yeah absolutely wow ready for a life in new build but it just shows you've done it that these people that are obviously on jpo 64 and going around the country giving us reg's information they can take uh the humor into this can't they never laugh and a joke which is good so well done so we're nearly done fantastic well I don't know who's won this one that is tough it's tough are you confident no no I wouldn't be either no no yeah no I mean obviously and you went first it was a terrible place you know Mark and you know Graham has anyone else on that board you sort of recognize uh Shahid obviously I I I'd like to think I might be marginally quicker than that right oh wow in about three minutes Peter Wade know very well known him for many many years all right um Mega Man yeah um I'll be above Dan griffing if it's on your name is yeah yeah we can always swap the numbers around can't we do badly you're not mentioning Ross's name no I am uh oh the top there I can't I can't see that far up your times in Gary I think I'll have to have a deal you have to delve in we might it might be one of those episodes where you think you've won a new one there we go you're going to start everyone's a winner you're going to start with are we going with the uh Mark Coles the long-haired Warrior or we're going to go with Grand Canyon or rice I guess we can start with let's have a look well let's start with Mark Cole so you can put this in four minutes and 17. oh that's respectable that is respectable considering he had a few issues Blackpool electrician Rick Hearn wow sneak him in there that's pretty good okay that's good it's a good bench Graham can you do this in four minutes and 27 27 yeah one second it's just always just below this could be embarrassing for you here graph that's good you so you could okay not looking good is it so Griff Thomas you did this in three minutes three 51. one two that's good respectable electrical territory there is a good time just in case he's watching just above Richard Brooke Dragon's Den entrepreneur he's got the same sort of egg as you he's got some sort of build yeah EV installer that's excellent that is what do you think of those those challenges the good times yet respectable you think you're safe for a bit yet Ross yeah I'm not panicking just yet Gordon there you go so that is the challenge out if anyone else wants to take on the electrician's challenge yes that's the top tip let's have a look at this magic tape that is nice duct tape be careful this is how strong this is this is what you need to be using pulling these up for these two yeah yeah I like your style yeah sellotape [Laughter] hey just that's wrong 25 mil gaffer tape the original gaffer all sorts of uses yeah yeah including it's not designed for yes so good great Sports great fun thank you ever so much for the for the IET for coming along and actually dispelling some of the issues we had almost this time last year wasn't it yeah yeah give me early warning there look out for that one um yeah so thank you very much to um to Graham for coming across and as well as Mark for being great Sports so we really do appreciate it and you've trounced them on the time so you're shift to six months yay top third happy with that that is good and if anyone else wants to take on the electric sense we we're getting a lot of requests for people to come through do it we do film this every other Wednesday we do so it's just a case of fitting a slot in uh where we can yeah accommodate it we're getting pretty busy on the channel we've got some fantastic guests coming up yes we have but we should get to tonight's meat and veg yes solar Market yes now I'm just going to switch my screen off the comments okay yeah you can share a screen so if anyone's sending me abuse I want to see it for a while while we're going through this but please make sure you resend it uh so in another particular look so Griff brought along his holiday snaps we always see where you've been we're gonna uh we're gonna flick through those and just pick up on some of the issues we've found uh so I haven't put them in any particular order but I fly around them a little bit can you bring my screen in Rick there we go can we do pictures keep it on Griff's side Maybe I can't see anything wrong with that Hello Ross can you oh there we go we're in so what's going on with this one there I've kept the bag for life oh that was a uh site where the customer was having an issue with some on roof um systems um it had used micro inverters which are um generally you have an AC cable going to the the roof itself and I'd been up on the roof uh to have a look round and I found that one of the cables had not been capped off on the loom so very carefully uh switched the system off pull the cable out I'm not sure if you've got the picture here there you go that's the one there and ran a little test on it and lo and behold there was an exposed live cable upon that customer's roof so with the best drill in the world I hadn't come with with much on that job yeah um so to isolate it it was uh d-wired within that rotary isolator and also a cable tie put onto it just to indicate that the if any electricians come along there was a there was a reason why it had been uh unwired and was there risk that that could have floated around so touched the frame up there because you have been at instant risk without realizing it yeah absolutely and and what you can't see from this picture is just to the left-hand side of that there was a velox window which because it was a room in a roof you could actually Reach Out And Touch that frame as well all right all right so it was really unusual we don't see a lot of micro inverters in this country yeah and they're not very popular I think generally because of our earthing Arrangements people don't like Trucking AC outside of the the building or outside of the fabric what we used to call the Zone um so they're not very popular so I was quite surprised to find one and then even more of a surprise to find one that had been left live that's funny though isn't it because it's like okay that's 240 volts but we're quite happy now to sling a thousand volts on the Roof oh absolutely well we'll maybe chat about that later on maybe yeah if you wired an outdoor light Fin and you took a PVC cable along the wall there'd be outrage about it it's only wood and yet we're quite happy to sling two the two tablespoon rap them across the roof yeah potentially high voltage but yeah yeah it's the world we live in where would it be without standards well yeah and you say about 230 on the outside of the building there's consuming it's been screwed onto the outside of buildings now oh yeah we were not bothered we're not bothered so yeah so a few else right so this was an interesting one so this looks a bit like Gary's garage I would say I was looking for the Star Wars collection in there I asked Gordon just to zoom in a bit I'd have been straight around there trying to whistle them often yeah so yeah so so that was uh so I I've been in hundreds of roof spaces and that was the only roof space I've been in I felt really nervous um you you think titles in the DVD collection it was the spiders yeah that's that's what it was they were they were huge I find a plug set when you um so that was yeah uh that was a house that had an extension and then the extension had had a solar system put on it and the customer was complaining because they thought the um solar system had caused the roof to to cave in or to dip wow and bow in um and when I went up there you can just see from the angle there that those are pre-formed trusses that have just had their last leg cut off the pike there to look along just yeah just by the pipe where that sort of piece of paper is on the left hand side just so you're right if you follow that along you can see the cut Edge yeah closest there that's it yep just there and that should obviously extend down to form a triangle of the roof truss and um I'm sure most people will know who are watching that the strength in those roof trusses are in the triangles we're always told whatever trade we're in not to mess and interfere with those um I rather think that might have been the Builder before the installer But ultimately the installer probably should have walked away from that job um and and not added any more can we've got a picture of the roof let's have a look see what the roof looked like I might have to flick oh no that's the one there right so you can really clearly see there that um even though we don't usually worry too much about the the weight of the solar system on the roof okay you know most roofs are really tolerant to that um this roof in particular it's so badly constructed this had really just been the straw that broke the camel's back and caused the roof there to to we just had a little bit detail to that because we can walk on roofs can't we and we might weigh a few more pounds so um on average one of those modules maybe 15 20 kilos let's say say 20 kilos at worst yeah there's well we've got the 60 180 kilos there then with with those modules um uh then you add in sorry 1860 there isn't there with those then I didn't say 40 kilos for the weight of the brackets and the rails that's being really sort of over over what the weight would actually be so you still got 200 kilos and they might be in there 15 or 20 hooks let's say it's 20 hooks that's 200 kilos over 20 hooks that's only 10 kilos per hook that's 10 kilos of weight pushing down on each each one of those hooks and I know I don't look it but I weigh a little bit more than 10 kilos and I can generally get up on a roof and stand on one foot and it doesn't Bend inwards so fall through the roof deal don't fall through the roof usually I'm not saying that that's a recommended strength test prior to doing solder installs but it gives you an idea on every roof we ever go on you're a very busy man yeah but it gives you an idea that the the weight of the the stuff itself isn't what we've got to think about it's actually the suction that we're trying to and is that when we get sort of the wind underneath the panels pulling up effectively is it sort of an updraft Faith No module systems never get blown off a roof right so if you imagine on that here I'll be very careful don't you worry all right all over this um if you imagine how much wind would be needed to to blow up a tile under there or to blow up the back of the the module what's actually happening when we have these things like slates tiles Etc is the wind in this example would be coming from the back from where those trees are and as it comes over the pitch of the roof it creates a big negative chamber of air right up against where the modules are and that creates a big load of suction and the modules start to get lifted off the roof as opposed to blown off yep a bit like an airplane wing when it's going along and you create that negative chamber of air for for them to to take off so and that can be a force of three four five six tons so that's why manufactures instructions for the fixings are so important right down to the type of screws use right okay and well chosen words there we new way so thank you very much yes old Gary would have said them then so we move on just flick back a few years that was The Loft what's going on on this one here so um all modules have got what they call clamping zones so that's a very specific area on the module where you should apply the clamps either the mid clumps or the end clumps um that one I think was the same site where we had the live cable so everything was good about that particular job we had a lot of shading there as well and what they'd actually done is placed the the clamp far too far up the module yep which meant that there was a sort of flap at the bottom that now could could get knocked about With the Wind as that suction comes over it and over a period of time that starts to cause cracks and Fishes within the module itself the called micro cracks you wouldn't necessarily see them micro cracks then starts to create the hot spot because the current tries to get through little cracked bits of conductor and then after a while that leads to early module failure so those clamping zones are really important they're set out on every data sheet but often people are just throwing roof hooks on without giving any thought to the modules or the well marked on the panels yeah um marked on so some of the panels you'll find on the back of them that there's two little holes um which are designed for really ground array mounting and generally speaking although it's not it's not always the case but generally speaking if you're within those two holes you'll probably be in the clamping Zone but always look at the manufacturer's instructions they'll always tell you exactly where that clamping zone is it can usually be quite broad so that overcomes any issues with having to put your hooks at certain slate runs you can always make it there's no reason not to make it but it's quite a common thing to see is obviously lots of people post lots of pictures on Facebook and social media nowadays and and you often see this where the the module length is just going to be flapping around in the wind for fun but on a positive note they have put the guards in there stop birds nesting on one side yes on a positive note yeah I like it so it's a bit like jacking up your car there's two players the right place to put the Jack it's really good on axle stands someone's put it on break where they are yeah all right let's next one here what's uh oh this is an old favorites um so every everybody should know Thou shalt not drill through a slate um so this is an absolute classic where um really cheap price I would imagine and people are just in a hurry and they thunder bolt Thunder screw coach screw whatever it is drill and screw um straight through the the Slate or the tile and then do it again rather screw as well by the way any washers Penny washers yeah pennywash is on there um and then just throw a bit of lead on it and I think we might have a picture of the underside of this one in a minute um not that long it's a coat I'm there so so if you can zoom in at all I don't know but you can actually see the screws at the other side where people have missed not only have they they screwed straight through the Slate or the tile it's actually like out [Laughter] um they've also completely missed the timber underneath wow um so that's uh Lincoln was at the first sign that made the mistake it was leaking just over to the left-hand side of that particular job the um there were some other more serious issues that's actually got a an AC that cable there that's a bit of white 6040 that's going out to some AC micro inverters um and the other part of the house was on a regular DC string inverter it was a it was all over the shop you are highlighting and all the negatives though aren't you really you're not really giving them a fair trolley right you've just gone in with the one or two things they could improve that's not the greatest teaching technique in the world is he one of yours no there's always there's always a positive always a possible always so this is a great learning experience the next system was in roof the next system because they managed to replace it so this one what's going on this one that was just an example of the roof construction which uh in the sagged roof yeah area there so um again you know for doing a survey you see that kind of joinery you'd start thinking that there's something maybe not quite not quite right with that I'm not suggesting electricians are all going to be Structural Engineers but um there were some real Classics on that that it looked like somebody had had diyed the roof it was it was really really obvious looks like they're like a screw hook as well I mean that's open up the roof by a bit as well actually if you look at that trying to work out what's on the left is that some sort of walking pole is that some sort of guitar case [Laughter] right what about you I've got any more Gordon oh yeah we've got loads it right what's uh what's another roof one yes another roof one again bad badly installed uh roof hook there which you can see how much Gap that's created um so on a system like that you'd expect to be grinding off the underside of that so that can sit down The rules sort of suggest about three millimeter maximum of lift just just to prevent any any wind driving the rain up to the underside but um that can that can depend on the Slate or tile that three mil it's not always constant but clearly there there's a there's a real opportunity for for rain in fact that was rain that had driven in through that which is one of the reasons why I've been called out to to have a look at it sparrows would be happy no is this a problem now is it obviously electricians were great at everything is this Rufus doing this or is this electricians having to go to Roofing because I've watched YouTube videos could be either couldn't it now we're not expecting electricians to be roofers but um if that electrician's responsible for that contract they they should be aware of the the do's and don'ts that that part of it making sure that that hook doesn't lift the tile and also you can see it just see that it's also pressing down onto the the roof below that's also a No-No so they should always sit clear of the roof covering below the Slate or tile and not cause the Slater tile to to lift and there's off-the-shelf products available that you can buy from any wholesaler that nowadays we used to have to use lead flashings back in the day and it would spend hours making those up for every particular job but um now you can go and buy really good flashing kits to to get around this so you don't have to do all the hard work genius flashing kit available there's different things and other makes [Laughter] that was the other side of that particular one um you can probably just about make out the damn that their torn the the slates off uh sorry the felt off as well to to throw the cables through that that Gap so you've got pressure down on those cables as well um now it's tough cable you know but anything that's trapped like that is going to wear prematurely I'm more worried about the lack of labeling [Laughter] yeah yeah a couple of twin and Earth Clips in there I'll hold it yeah so yeah it's all good right okay all right now moving on to inverters oh so this is uh classic isn't it that why do you reckon one of those batteries weighs uh this way a lot they're heavy aren't they yeah so probably I think I think that particular mate probably 20 22 kilos something like that um and we often often find them just SATs so a waiting to fall on somebody's toe but also um there's a there's a real significant risk of arcing if one of those connections was to fail yeah and is this in a roof space is this in a down state I can't work out what yeah it's a lot is it that one was up in the Loft space and there's all sorts going on there combustible materials you've a device on that left-hand side there that that reduces the voltage um before the inverter they're often sold as a as a thing to help the inverter we've we've never actually seen a site where where that's been the case um uh and the invert themselves DC isolated probably probably original install that from memory wasn't too bad the rest of it and the roofing Etc um but very often now we're seeing people replacing a regular DC string inverter with a hybrid as you can see from here almost literally throwing in the batteries um you can just about see the handles on the front of those I think the little Chrome handles are meant to be rack mounted they're meant to be physically supported they're generally designed to go in sort of server racks and cabinets and comms cabinet type thing yet um and here they've literally just been sat on someone's Attic Roof and the other thing that we do see is is okay 20 kilos is heavy but it's manageable people will lift them up into the Loft and they might start stacking five or ten of these units just in one place and maybe don't realize every time it's another 20 another 20 another 20 and before you know it you've got 100 or 140 kilos sat in one very small footprint in someone's Loft space positive again for that then so if they did Mount them okay so if they had mounted them of a lot of their problems gone away generally yes okay yeah yeah you'd want to do something with the DC cabling to tidy that'll make it more secure that that that's a real standout issue at the moment all right okay so that wasn't Beyond retrievable is this the same job was this another uh that was no that was a different different job um they told you I think yeah again that that was the same setup somebody had originally wired a system in and then uh come along and put a hybrid unit nothing wrong with that that's fine um but the way that was mounted I think the issue is actually on that with the connections and the lack of fusing or the lack of isolation for the battery is for example if they were to put a hybrid system in on an old feeding tariff inverter you've got to be careful whether you connect that as an AC coupled system or a DC coupled system because you might start to lose your feed in tariff or part of it any Amendment like that to an existing system you'd have to tell your feeding tariff um Energy company anyway but you do need to make sure you're absolutely right that you don't don't Prejudice that original fit so okay well that's a oh that's a that's another classic um and that honestly that's just asking to fall over I mean that that's just he said ask him by the way you need to be clear with addiction yeah ask him to fall over um and if you look at the way the cables are presented on the right hand side there yes they've got robust connections on them but when you suddenly then have 20 kilos pulling at it um there is a there's a real risk and you're talking about something there that might be a 40 40 odd amp discharge current okay 48 volts but I think we'll see some stuff later on we talk about how that can Arc and Flash and and be a real fire risk and again they're meant to be bolted into Iraq that's what they're designed for so probably wrong battery wrong location not necessarily it's sitting on there which is wrong but it's you've chosen the wrong battery or or or you just haven't put the containment there for it so if it was in proper tight containment properly secured and held down which looks quite difficult with the fabric of the building they're defined you would be yeah yeah so that's to find a location of that solar battery probably somebody looking for the easiest place and often The Loft can be the easiest place to put some of this big kit a lot of consumers don't like it those type of units especially the the there's a lot of modern units now which look the part I'm sure you've seen them they can go outside even go in garages they're almost like like a bit of Eco bling on the side of the house all in one type units so so people don't mind those this just looks quite utilitarian and and for that reason they tend to get shoved in a in a dark hole somewhere yeah okay that's good is that the last one no I think we'll come back out to main screen are we now yes we can come back there we go [Laughter] so so let's bring Ross in on this bit so obviously you're just starting to dip your toe into the the world of solar and Bactrim that came off the back of you dipping your toe in the world of uh if he charges that right yeah sort of yeah Gary yeah I've just been led into it really gone with the times as you do um obviously the trade adapts one one time we're doing loads of the ICS then you get into the car charges you start doing loads of them and then now people are wanting to obviously save money on the bills so um more or less been dragged into it um it's a great business um a bit of interest and uh keeps keeps keeps you interested at work doesn't it so we sort of broke you into EVD and we dragged you across and we did the full install of the very difficult one the zappy installed worth video checking out where we tried to make the worst possible installed in the terraced house ev charger at the back meters and uh a few sport at the front of the property but of course then you let him doing a few more and then what happens is doesn't it the the the customer comes back to you now their electricity bills have literally gone through the roof and the roof hasn't gone in yet that's later on in the system um and you're now the first person they ring hopefully you can do that battery soda so you've now you've gone from yeah so you've gone from installing the charger so then it leaves on to other work yeah they will inquire and obviously ask you to install solar as well so and it's a little bit more money in there so it's a bit tempting not to say no in it yeah that's exactly exactly the reason why yeah one of the main things what drives it so we're all like we're all we all work to make money obviously so um if there's money to be made let's get on with it but obviously make sure you're doing the job to a high standard yeah um getting the relevant knowledge um yeah and and make sure people's houses are safe that's the most important thing so yes that's the roof slipping for me if somebody was coming to it hopefully they will at some point install that solar array eats the roof because when they've gone that is a complete melt and if that starts leaking that's a disaster all round you'd rather go back to where you were before and have the high energy bills than have a roof that's now going to be a major problem and I would be yeah you're on the roof and you've got to go in yeah you've been fitting yeah yeah I've done one so far um just making sure I've got my head around it completely before I start um taking more of them on really um so yeah it's the the tying the batteries in as well with the with the solar it's a bit of a bit of a head scratcher all the systems are different um so yeah just just gaining knowledge um I'm I'm near enough there with the MCS stuff now just there's a bit of waiting list to get registered with them but they're coming out in uh the start of May they're coming out so once we get that MCS registration we've got all we've got all the right insurances in place and we're ready to go so it's good yeah and here's one for you then so Griff we've had a look at the the documentation that associated with all of this and it is a bit of a mindful there is not an easy way to read your way through it and they do slightly contradict themselves all the rest of it yeah we've got someone keen and enthusiastic to get in there scratching his head you know and all the rest of it what's the solution come to a training course with Gtech training thank you very much for watching we'll see you in two weeks when we've got basic approval win yeah okay so that's fine I understand that but it is only it is really difficult we found it difficult when when we started to run our battery courses we've been through now probably eight different kits or sets that we've been sent by different suppliers across the country and we've only managed to get one of them to work out of the box no um but uh even with that one we we had to request the quite a UK specific firmware update so um it's really difficult a lot of the product is designed to perhaps do slightly different things to what we're expecting it to do in the UK again can come down to our earthing arrangements and what we've got here again again those very special things that we have have here um so yeah what what I say is get as much advice as you can from the manufacturers but also the people who've been doing it there's lots of people out there who are doing a really good job who want to share that knowledge and information finding them can be tricky sometimes but reading the instructions especially when there has been a real rush to Market from all manufacturers not necessarily brilliantly translated in some cases it can be really difficult yeah you don't have to answer this question I've done any well have you got have you got a go-to couple of battery sets maybe in two different sort of styles of environment maybe sort of larger larger set that you'd sort of say that would be a good starting place and maybe one for a domestic is there any anything you'd like to pin your hat on as we've got such a wide Market not necessarily pushing anyone yeah no um so the one that I'd go to for a sort of slightly high end because of the software they've got that goes with it would be solar Edge okay and they've got a really nice app they're doing some really clever stuff with tying it in with off-peak tariffs and tying it in for energy demand as well so when there's a big demand on the grid the with your permission you're able to discharge some of your energy and and their base rate is about two pounds 50 kilowatt hour for you to force discharge onto the grid which means um [Laughter] wow okay so so that's really good we we quite like that because it's got lots of stuff that's that's tied together on a really nice clean up so um [Laughter] day day to day stuff if you're not looking for all that that fancy stuff but you still want a good connected system then the sun sync units are really good value wow um you guys have had some experience of those I know yeah yeah we've been learning on it so that just shows you know because we've had I wouldn't say a difficult Journey but we've done all the the Instagram problems aren't we we've had cement border but everything are we we're going to come back to instructions a bit later on oh okay are we okay we have had it we have a super chat no I wonder why the lights are going all over uh I think is the one again try again I think is in South Africa actually oh wow because they have loads of power Cuts but he's asked quite a technical question here why should the bracket not be pressing on the bottom of the tile and is single insulated wires and surface slash twin in the fine in the roof space even if not clipped so the bracket on the tiles um that we're not allowed to impose any additional load onto the Slate or tile so if that's your slate or tile there we can't press anything down on that because they're not a structural element they're not designed to take any weight even if it's only 15 20 kilos they're just not designed to all that will happen is premature cracking with that tile or slate and that that's going to cause problems with the customer right in the future I think was it was our question about the 64-2 probably no clearly not acceptable I mean it was just thrown it was like a washing line in the room space held only with with a sort of whiff of the felt at one end and a bit of fiberglass at the other that looked like it'd have been plotted around it I mean it was yeah it's quite quite an interesting install that one yeah that's good and thank you again for yeah we may have we may not quite get your name as much but we do thank people who do little little things online for so it's really kind of thank you very much it is and I think we'll just need to take a little bit I think we need to recover our thoughts there Gary there's probably people need to go off and start reading data sheets and ringing up customers they've already been to or sweating the opportunity to get on the train because I think we best pop across to Rick's Workshop you can see you've been busy again yes he's had something in the post let's go so we found it at the wholesalers apparently oh we did then he was whiffing around hello and welcome to Rick's tour time last week we took a visit out to our local wholesalers all Fields Skipton while we're there we caught with the chaps from tis while I was perusing the table I came across the tis 1005 socket Checker Let's Take a look at this I'll just plug that in there well firstly I can see that there's no LEDs there which indicates that there's a line open and just turn that on that might help no guys turn power on and there you go we've got three green lights which indicates that it's okay it's also making the ringing sound so if I make my way to the distribution board and take out that circuit you see there that we've lost the audio and we've also lost the LEDs indicating that the power is off right let's simulate a line and neutral reversed let's pop that in there and that one can go in there close the lid on this as we can see there the LEDs we've got two red we've got one green as we scroll down here we've got two red and green which indicates line in neutral reverse now let me turn that back on as you can see I've got the polarity back to correct if I just cover them up you'll see that this illuminates green because the resistance on the circuit is less than 1.8 ohms now let's introduce some resistance into the circuit and rerun that check so let's turn that on there we've got the polarity again we're expecting a good ah we've got a check on this one so Amber that's indicating that we were between 1.8 and 92 ohms if it was greater than the 92 or 93 even we would get the Urgent check LED indicating so picture this I'm down in the cellar I've turned on the distribution board or the consumer unit I've made my way up three flights of stairs ah the loop check's okay but I can't see the polarity instead of turning it on and off if I just hover my finger over here you can see there they've got the three green LEDs indicating that it's okay and the next feature I want to show you is the rcd test button as you can see here if I keep tapping it the rcd isn't popping you need to hold it and there we go the rcd has gone summarize I think this is a great product the fact that I can get a quick overview on the socket circuit and that time delay on the rcd button prevents me from accidentally tripping the rcd but what does it matter what I think is it great or is it a gimmick get your thoughts in until then I'll see you on the flip side Stella there we go a rustly shirt we don't know why we're going to persevere with that although that Rick's got to move his arms away from his body and stop rustling but yeah fantastic as always Rick's Tall Tom and we're going to need to bring the tool from above down so having sat this side Ross well done it means that Griff you're gonna need to go down on your hands and knees son in front of me have we got long enough in this game to do that because it's not as easy as it was don't do a Graham Canyon on me get down on your haunches we'll do it together if you want so really yeah yeah come on down we go so you know we've got to summon the tool from above yes and this are we gonna say [Music] come on look at what's in here have a look then he's in here is it free can I take this with me no you can't oh it's Rick's you can ask him thank you very much can I can I have this well let's talk to the audience join in do you think on the uh as we call it now on the uh Rick to scale yeah is it uh do you think it's good or a gimmick let's just see what I want to send it back up let's send it back up so good great great organic so as we're going up with the tool from above you've got 60 seconds to give you us your vote is it great or is it a gimmick yeah down here or is it up here you're on the Telly so you can see yourself down here there we go Paul Daniels Deborah again so fantastic you want to sit down Griff so then we're going to stick on the bottom it's one of them for you you were sort of yeah uh neon screwdriver person oh not a neon screwdriver no no no I don't don't like neon screwdrivers I can remember talking too many of those away in the Skip and then seeing people jumping after them because it was still a screwdriver even though the neon didn't work you know that's not that's not ideal but it's um but yeah no really useful way of of checking what's going on um maybe not to be used in replacement of a proper inspection and test yeah no no in terms of just checking what's going on maybe doing a bit of fault finding really handy thing to do first thing you go in there and you want to isolate a circuit and you're on your own obviously you can hear the audible noise bang you're off with the right breaker before you get there we know the issues around actual polarity on there because there could be some issues if you're neutral and protective conductor around the wrong way we don't need that conversation or the comments because we're awfully aware of it but I mean the ability to do I know it's quite a 1.8 ohms when you're looking say the on-site guide and you go for those actual values you're sort of in the ballpark of a 32 amp and not really you know so there's a bit of a chance but at least you've got an idea of whether the it's too high so that's quite good and obviously the rcd test give that functional test as well so oh don't say has he been struggling let's just take those off your Griffin we're here on the Telly you've Switched Off on what point and he's got no batteries so if you want to swap him over right okay Karen talking Gordon because people are still watching me and Griff's butt at the moment which isn't it yeah I mean I'm in there all the brands do last longer you look a bit online retailer should be back on how long has he been off just a little while just done yeah just instant days so uh just uh yeah so a little drain the storage there so yeah again Britain rcd and just having that ability to the functional test without being there that's that's a great way as well imagine you've got an unlabeled board and you're trying to just you only want to one circuit off right we're finding that circuit and then rather than clicking through a minute you know we're talking you're going off do you agree with that Ross yeah are you talking about not this specific model but uh well you will love by the end of the night if you want to take out if you want to take it out of the big man's hand you can yeah okay so what we've got then so what's the feeling the feedback is it's a great end oh we see it more technical difficulties were on it so make sure they go back in for charging yeah okay so we're going to put it on the board once we come back in so we're gonna put it on the board our consensus is it's probably and we don't like to mention price but it's probably a reasonably priced item so uh if you want to bring uh the camera back in in a second after our technical issue done so we will be sacking the person who charged the batteries okay we won't name these people we're not outside of a company that name the people Rick um so uh we're going between so we right up here is 11 so if it goes to 11 so I'll let you choose uh Griff and Ross So 11's up here it's unbelievable we can't live without it and uh down there with the uh Makita coffee maker is you just need to get a grip of life so that's where we're between 11. so where would you like to move it across between here and here I mean anything in the top third is truly unbelievable isn't it yeah anything up with my pouches think about it in the top third yeah yeah what I like about hammers he's got two functions yeah you can destroy something with it and be terrible absolutely terrible and Destroy something with it but you can also use a hammer to build something quite beautiful there's not many tools that have both the ability to destroy and create is there a very deep thing yeah that is very deep and something got for harbored for many years that one is that is probably one of my favorite sounds along with the one where I don't speak a mouthful yeah and all the rest of it did you print that from Joe no I didn't and my other the other favorite one no no no no no and the other favorite one is like when he's sorry I I couldn't hear your conversation because I was talking yeah so uh yeah yes they're all Joes they are but I'd go around the country using all these sounds Wherever I Go college where's it going folks it's got a spill other screwdriver set there just here seriously right about there so that's about an eight and a half yeah there we go there we go thank you very much so thank you very much person view person view persevering with us persevering with us as we have our technical issues there on our microphones but it is live so that's the way it goes and I'll come back to why the flat later in the show all right cool right so it's good so the next thing we're going to have a look at that that number one on the on the on the on the list of things that installers do wrong and it's something I try are you right it's not connected it's not tripping the rcd no I said he's got a problem I bet it's been blinded by DC oh we'll come back to that one in another one that's a whole show we'll go in there for a look at mc4 okay no it's not a it's not a rap band not touch this or like Malarkey uh back in the day that was six shades of wrong wasn't it yeah I'll be another one I use from now on this show that's how it goes so the mc4 connect is basically the connector used on almost every solar panel yeah it's actually a brand name the MC stands for multi-contact and it's their Type 4 connector but everybody generally calls all of those mating plugs and sockets an mc4 connector yeah now we did a video at the weekend or Joe did a fantastic video that showed the difference between AC and a DC when it comes to switches and obviously disconnecting which is obviously hopefully the purpose of a switch or isolator it is and uh there's a little bit of an arc but it gets worse doesn't it when it comes to mc4 connectors it certainly does yeah you put a little video together for us I think we can bring that in right we're going to see what happens so what's just before we bring it in we'll do it and then we can talk this through again we might have to watch it again so this is so you just see down the bottom left-hand side cloudy days it's actually last Saturday not particularly Sunny um probably about 480 volts of modules up on our roof so not not massive not like a thousand volt system um and uh you can maybe just say see the screen there's hovering around about 2.9 amps Etc and we're just pulling them apart they're the connectors we we have removed the little lugs that are meant to be pressed in um that quite impressively shows how good the little seals are because the Smoke's coming out the ends rather than from the middle but you'll see in a minute once the middle melts what happens and that's arcing away in there yeah just waiting to pierce the plastic and as soon as it finds a bit of oxygen then you'll you'll you'll see what three and a half amps roughly about three and a half amps yeah that'll increase slightly there just because of the um the the arcing um and that's just pulling them apart nice and slowly wow don't need any words does it oh and when we talk about Arc it's usually really difficult for people to to visualize but you'll see in a minute just starting there you can just see how that Arc is formed which is one of the things that DC does you always expect electricity to take the shortest path but with the DC and an arc um it uh it's an arc right the Clue's in the title so we've seen it curve up there oh is that what we're saying yeah okay just difficult to see with the flames and all the other things that are making you really worried ah wow and this can sometimes be a result of badly assembled connectors not using the proper crimp tools maybe as you said before using two of the different different types of Manufacturers connectors that aren't type tested together in the same way as not using different circuit breakers and different boards Etc so um everything's tested to be as safe as possible and it stopped does it does it well that's because it's slow-mo uh so we just slowed this bit down here just to show that Big Arc there and then um there you go again I think if you get your crimping tool off a well-known online retailer for 14.95 I can't see there being any issues no and that's why you're not on a roof installing solar oh absolutely so you're absolutely right Mark Allison are going in business together on flat roofs in single story buildings as well oh dear so um the really good high quality tooling is is you know 150 200 pounds for a reason Plus for a reason absolutely it makes a really solid good connector that's almost impossible to pull apart with with two people we do a little test with people when when we're teaching to try and get them to pull apart connectors and um it's just it's designed to do the job that's that's what it comes down to so top tip there from Griff if you're in the train you'd be recommending you buy a Quality Tool really high quality yeah there are some that are just just under sort of 100 pounds Mark which are good maybe don't have all of the features of the slightly more expensive ones um also bear in mind if you go on any training if you go on any courses with anybody it's really easy to do in a really nice warm dry classroom don't forget you're going to be on a roof it's going to be the middle of February your fingertips are going to be numb so choose a tool that's going to help you to do that right okay unless you're just a summer electrician maybe well flat roofs in summer days a year me and Mark Allison will be out on them flat roofs yeah watching his old boy do all the work okay so yeah no good piece of advice and we've seen that before I mean people often done that with tools lurched towards something that looks very similar on an unknown well-known online retailer and then ain't as good but they say oh I managed to get mine it looks really so we did with it with feral crimping tools didn't we we've got like the castanets yeah yeah that's it so you can tell the quality too by the sound it was the first thing Joe ever did for us didn't he crimped so many ends feral crimps and the handle fell off on crimp three and slide it all back on and put it all back together that was a great start it was really warming he brought the remnants along yes yes and these are the ones are they they are yeah they're the ones we use during the tests um we did a couple of different run throughs um um yeah yeah give it a bit of a fail off maybe yeah and that could be any any brand any manufacturer it's not the fault of the connector um it's the uh the way that they're assembled and obviously does also set aside why you should never I think you can see on some of those it says do not disconnect under load you turn turn one of them over I'm trying to dig it I can't see what I'm doing is it's out there there we go do not exactly yeah there it is you've got it I've got it yeah it's maybe all burnt off and as you can see it up there oh you've got it there you go yep um so that uh yeah I mean that's why right because if you do that and you're stood in front of that you're you're gonna get a fairly nasty burn from that yeah can we bring my camera back and they're listening to us here bricks like that is I'm watching so uh yeah wow so when you do is there any talk settings on them is there anything that's you know that people are going to miss that you know you're meant to do is a something hidden in an instruction leaflet that we meant to do with these things have you mentioned that okay so apart from having the appropriate tooling to make off the little crimp sort of metal end the pin if you like inside the unit um there's little um sort of water seal a watertight seal at the back end of the the crimp as well which should be talked up that should be just the right amount to talk on that depending on what the manufacturer says so you're not over tightening the cable but you're getting it tight enough to stop the water what we find as well when if somebody goes across the system that's faulty and it's showing a low insulation resistance you'd almost guarantee that it'll always be the end the other way of the array so where you've got all the modules together and you're you're pushing together the connectors that have been made in a factory they're usually really good it's the ones at the ends that the installers have run to the first and the last go to those first remake the connect is off and you'd almost guarantee to clear the fault on insulation resistance and how did you find it when you were making off your first lot of mc4 connectors Bros over I'm just throwing you under them no no problem on my retailer got me done yeah no no no his shoes I mean it's not set on fire so how long has it been up it's been up since Christmas all that cold and damp weather the winter yeah with numb hands yeah still going strong so yeah I mean since we've got a lot to come on MC it's because I've been digging into this a little bit I met the people who originally designed it starably or they bought the business at some point and apparently they're bringing out a whole tool kit yep it's eye-wateringly expensive that we're getting one of them then aren't we you cannot get the bits so they've got some great instructions on how to put them in they've got a little depth gauge you can check if your pins in the right location which some interesting results when you try on those ones you do buy from a well-known online retailer and others that it doesn't quite give the same results so you can definitely see that certain connectors aren't compatible with the other connectors um try to get the torque wrench to do that back note yeah yeah so so rocking horse comes to mind yeah yeah but but that comes from didn't it so they're out there trying to do a great job can you get the great to do a great job absolutely and there's a lot of that at the moment with all sorts of things in in the the low carbon electricity the renewable electricity thing whether it be isolators switches fusing all that kind of stuff um it's all really quite tricky to come come together into a kit that you can easily then install in in your customers house yeah some people have clearly watched that because in those 3.5 newton meters for the back shelf so that was the uh yeah so that's good I've got any questions in there because obviously we've asked for them Dove back through I know it's weird it's been a lot of interest on oh I mean all sorts I think we'll get on the we'll have to at least a lot of people about different products a lot about our mics we'll come back to the mics but we'll come back but we first go we're going to delve into the world of obviously instructions oh right your world Griff said there's obviously a lot of products shipped that come from certain places in the world where English possibly isn't the first language right uh and obviously yeah people use the soilist kit for different things and yeah I guess are we a little bit behind compared to the rest of the world do you think in terms of adoption on probably not we're we're we're you know battery storage energy storage is becoming really popular all over the place especially with this the modern distributed system operator grid the prosumer that we've got in the regulations now all of that's becoming much popular everywhere um I think one of the difficulties is sometimes you can end up with six manufacturers of pieces of kit that then sell through 20 different brands yeah um and then they start to cut and paste bits of instructions from somebody's from the original manufacturer's equipment into another manual I'm sure you've come across some of this I mean I've read a few so I started reading people's instructions and obviously people sometimes just follow the what they see and that will start before that we'll go with some of the guidelines out there and isolate this is always a funny one just bring my screen in Rick here we go so this was a job I found out on social media now and a lot of the guys when it says your typical installation for a solar panel has an isolator near the distribution board you've got an energy you've got an import export meter and you've got a nice local isolator next to the universal special isn't it so what's going on here and someone's followed that guidance to the absolute letter yeah yeah we can't be wrong then can you yeah there's obviously some some yeah obviously I think we could have got rid of I'm guessing we could have got rid of one of the isolators did we need the energy meter though well that's interesting in in today's world where we don't have feeding tariff um anymore yeah um that energy meter is not serving a purpose for for getting any payments usually people who are on something like the smart export guarantee or one of the other fancy sort of schemes around tariff and Export they're always mandated to have a smart meter fitted um if you're lucky enough to live in an area where there is a smart meter but you know I love you um I'm all over that I can tell you so um so in reality unless um there's no other way of just checking what the system's doing which is nowadays isn't that often because most of the systems have got apps and platforms you can log into um I don't see necessarily why anybody would choose to install one of those generation meters there so there's a few quids worth of wasted time and a few goods worth of wasted materials yes and if we're really concerned about energy conservation and carbon there's a few bits of carbon embed embodied carbon in in all the stuff that we didn't need and every connection we make we know in any circuit it's weak it can lead to a weakness in the future so so yeah okay and but but let's defend the people that put the meters in because I've seen some drawings some pictorial drawings that suggest that I should put a meter in but the title is quite important on there what does it say in the title title of which drawing so the drawings that we've had in your documentations of the layouts or typical yeah it says typical yes so is it typical to have a meter now or was it typical to have a meter in the past a typical type of meter in the past so so we've got to be careful there just because the picture shows me it doesn't mean we necessarily meet no that's absolutely right and more often not probably we don't probably don't so there's a piece of top tip for anyone out there yeah you keep looking at those pictorial drawings like we love a drawing don't we and we see that mate and we think we're gonna fit it did you fit one in the last one Russ do you put one in yeah an analog meter or is the new excuse you just thought of very quickly well done I like it yeah yeah yeah so the other one is DC isolators so we've got the inverter we've fitted has got an isolator on the side right and some MC forward Knitters on these do we really need to fit the DC isolator so we have to be able to isolate on load so in the event that something's happening with the inverter so let's say you've got badly matched connectors or it's been badly made off and you need to be able to kill the power on that you need to be able to shut it down so the circuit stops going around the inverter whether that switch disconnector is outside the inverter or inside the inverter actually doesn't matter in terms of being compliant it could be inside or outside and then your real means of isolation is by disconnecting that mc4 afterwards should you say that again the real means of isolation is just to unclip okay to pull out the mc4 connector because that then allows you to work on the equipment replace the inverter safely sometimes you might want to on on different systems replace check fuses or fault find inside the inverter you're maybe having to put a little Communications card in or something none of that there's no reason to have DC in the side of the inside the inverter when you're doing that that's unnecessarily live working so if I can switch off the switch on the side of the inverter and we've got I've got a switch disconnector yep which is capable of switching the load as well and then I disconnect those mc4s out at the bottom and there's no DC present there at all obviously the AC still follows as as would do with any other piece of equipment oh so in other words do you want to quickly just flash ours up just to show that just for quick yeah yeah because this is something we've uh we've been looking at here so so are you coming over or is it just me or not okay I'll just go over on the other side yeah well there is so we got here our lovely Sun sinking which was recommended uh by Griff as as one that you suggest might be a good coach that was not planned by the way that was a Crispin so we've got an isolator here Griff so what I need to work on this I kind of need to isolate it in order to do so I can operate the switch yes yep yep so we can operate this yes so I can turn it off which we're in the offshore let's put it on let's turn it so we turn it off there but to get true isolation I need to just unplug to a plug and socket Arrangement and that is classed as isolated yeah so those um if they're proper mc4s you should actually have to use a tool to disconnect that's right and do it with your fingers you can't nope you can't do it for your fingers so I'll disconnect those disconnect different than a normal plug and socket arrangement for isolation yep but we can do it here yeah we've only then got AC in here we've got a normal AC process for isolation now we can work on lovely lovely isolator next to you on the right hand side here and next to it not next to an energy meter though there's no energy here nothing to see here there's no expense spared here is it every expense bed so we didn't need this do we need this yes we did we needed this we've got some other Arrangement down there that's really cute and we'll come back to that but when we get over here this is not required look we've done very similar to what we're showing on the screen we've done exactly the same thing we've got two isolators doing the same thing very close to each other so that was not required we could have bought a string straight in can't pull these out can't accidentally pull them out can we come down come along and just just drop them out as long as they're mating pairs made by the same manufacturer to the same standard no no so can't pop them out so the young child can't come along and just accidentally pull those out can they shouldn't be able to well I'm a child okay so that's what we've got so we've got two mistakes on our rig okay is what we've got and we thought we'd done a reasonable job so it was down to grifter I think there are opportunities for improvement right I like that yes now we call them mistakes around here so that was failed you're just not yet competent I'll never be confident I'll never be competent so uh so so when we've put one up there on the board so whoever's image that was we're actually we're no better than that image are we we've said they've gone isolator meter isolator and we've gone isolator or isolator on our DC so we've done exactly the same way so we're no better than the next person so I'd hate someone to come back to us and say oh that was my image I feel like you've leaned into us actually we've used you to say we did the same mistake yeah now Mark I was just asked the question what happens when the DC plugs are reinserted on a fault on the inverter is still in place don't you need a tool to reinsert no no because he wouldn't switch the switch on until you've put the floor that does come down to some user uh knowledge to ensure that they're not connecting to live components together they're going to form a circuit yeah yeah that makes sense and what I found obviously haven't worked on that system there there's a lot of switches and isolators across the old system yes it's got the ones on the battery there's a there's a an ISO an MCB and a an isolator and one for the battery but then there's an operating switch for the battery underneath the battery there's a switch on the side to switch the whole system on there's the isolate and the other isolator the more isolate as you have in the system the more chance of missing things you forget and and the more things the consumer might not get right in the event that they need to shut it down and just coming back to that DCR King the more connections we have it just follows it the more chances there are for something to come loose and for an arc to start to happen yeah which is which is interesting yeah really interesting so we've got the call to practice and then obviously you've got to follow the manufacturer's instructions and I found some absolute gems when I started looking in here now obviously electricians we really always you always read the instructions manufacturers instructions yeah yeah all the time absolutely oh good one we'll we'll set it after you've fitted the kit or before well it's gone wrong just all the time before yeah and now I found this one is a good start floor chart that's the yeah that's a lake yeah this was a yeah I don't know where you start on this one and where you end up with it all paths lead back to like a kid's John yeah everything leads to fault mode wow that was the sort of where summed yeah regardless it does not think so that's a good start it's just to bring you in you can never go into waiting mode off yeah you're ready for weight I mean I I actually feel a bit wait for your problem it's like that picture of the staircases isn't it you can't quite figure out where they start and where they stop yep so that was that was it that was a good starter on the old instructions then it gives you a handy list of tools that you need for the installation yeah we love a tool list Hammer we like one of them yeah Hammer which creates things of beauty and also can destroy things maybe when you've had enough use that but it doesn't work one thing you don't need to tell electrician to do is bring a vacuum cleaner along to the project no no yeah we have that as part of our assessment on every course the vacuum Yeah Yeah clean site's a happy site yep that's good the rubber Hammer so clean Workshop when your left's a happy work job from some heat shrink tube some safety gloves but you can use auxiliary tools on site if necessary all right okay so basically this is probably stuff you you're generally got so maybe something to crimp an mc4 that's not actually mentioned actually yet later on in the instructions it gives you incredible detail on how to make off various connectors but the crimp tool isn't mentioned as the essentials so that's a that's a one yeah maybe the equipment with the teeth sorry yep so there we go that's the essential tools required for the install the guy on the challenge the Earth fault alarm so reserved port for Earth's photolum once an earth fault occurs the LED indicator will light up and the system will email the fault information to the customer wow yeah yeah but just in case you've missed the email that went to the customer install the inverter in a high traffic area where the indicators would be noticed so not your roof space yeah so don't put it in the locker yeah I don't I don't answer emails and I go in the Lofts every Christmas it doesn't tell you what color Beacon or anything you should have in the hallway yeah no you should know the remote orange red blue no not fussy it was the Earth's fault alarm now we're working we've had the floor chart we've had the two less alarm now obviously everyone's up on their EMC electromagnetic compatibility Ross oh yeah in there all the time all about that one yeah now the problem the instructions you've read isn't it the instructions keep this one right we've got it yeah hold on let's have a look here we go it's the one right install the equipment away from any High magnetic fields any High magnetic fields in the house Ross worried about them I lose any sleep about if there's radio or a wireless communication below 30 megahertz near the equipment you have to add a multi-turn ferret winding Court the DC input line or SC output line of the inverter or at a low pass Emi filter that is pretty heavy Electronic Engineer and stuff you know you you're up there if you even know what this actually means you're gonna have to have that invert quite a long way down your whole way 30 meters you have got a problem install it at least 30 meters far away from the wireless equipment yeah wow you can give you a nap to measure that for most UK houses that's a long way next door at least wow I'm not in the same street wow yeah that is incredible so again you see what people don't read instructions you've got some more no no that was a powerful one to aim with that was a little yeah so yeah you missed those Ross did you this is the sort of thing you it keeps you interested in these are some instructions yeah yeah head scratching but you flagged up that actually the manufacturers yeah they're all very similar instructions a lot of them are clearly based on one or two original documents that have then been merged and then they've added little bits here and there um and again when they're not designed specifically for the UK Market it makes it really difficult for the contractor to go to a whole say let's say I want X Y and Z here's some boxes and to go and install them it actually becomes really difficult to do that yeah yeah and I think I'd agree with that because it's it's a yeah from just doing that install and that's it and we've chosen a great one by all accounts so Sunset win yeah probably said the instructions need some work yeah yeah but do you want to look in the camera and do that don't you need to work the instructions probably need some work because yeah there was a lot of head scratching different things on different pages that are all essential as part of the installation like you know talk settings scattered around you know like raisins the floor for the birds tough the one thing they win at is Keith who runs something has got a YouTube channel with tons of videos on there there's far too much information on there yeah but you tend to be able to find and his enthusiasm comes through his videos I just like to say that his enthusiasm go into his videos don't it he loves it yeah and I say they've supported us in terms of getting that one up and running adding the the extra bits on that people might want to do so but I do feel for contractors going into this if suddenly you just get one of these out of the box and think right my first job I'm dead excited yeah there's a there's a real win for suppliers of this kit there's probably I could name five or six different system type setups and for a manufacturer bit sunsync solar Edge solux whoever to just work with those suppliers come up with a kit set of instructions UK specific you've got all your isolators in a box and no there you go no but they're drawing we made the Earth Bond relay for that one for the off-grid which is the challenging area which worked perfectly it worked we needed a software upgrade but it worked perfectly yeah yeah yeah we were quite pleased with that yeah we didn't want to get the start did it didn't work at the start but we had a few read instructions but it was yeah but it looks like yeah Rick's you're right yeah all that support because we had to find the isolator for the um for the for the battery uh then suddenly you're into making up cables which obviously those cables between the inverter and the battery are quite quite Hefty cables yeah yeah and obviously you need special crimp tools and stuff like that and again branded or not branded but matching connectors so the right brand to go on to whatever's on the the inverter terminals or the the terminals of the the battery itself you've got a lot of current okay low voltage but there's a lot of current going through those terminals does that give you the same problem you've got the mc4 connector you've sort of got the option you've got a lot of voltage yeah it does we're just trying to find someone stupid enough to run that same experiment with mc4s with the connectors on the battery so watch this space we nearly did it here oh don't just just manage to get some sleepover just describe what we were doing well we were just we were just we'll just put the unit in and uh Rick passed me the leads and I'm sort of wafting them around and I've said I mean he's connected at the other end yes they were nice oh and it was like so tempting to just tap them together we were a few inches away from yeah and in fact you know anybody's dropped uh dropped a spanner on a live terminal in the car right we're not talking about much different but that's 12 volts 80 amps maybe yeah um we're talking about 48 volts 40 amps yeah you know so it's it's a it's a it's a lump of power coming through there I think on that mc4 there was um something right yeah was it one half kilowatts of energy or something so we're talking about a lot of heat there yeah yeah that'll make a good short video if we do that one in the chat if we've got 48 volts and 40 amps yeah how much power have we got going through that all right yeah fantastic then easy that's uh yeah I mean that's a I really want I don't know if you know the terminals on the battery obviously there's a little functional switch underneath the battery for the BMS system yeah yeah does that that doesn't isolate the terminals of the battery no no there are I I'm not sure what the age of that is there's there's been some updates to some of the newer kit on that that might start to address stuff like that yeah and talking about dates do we expect the documentation to be quickly updated again is that something you can give us a sneaky peek into the future which documentation yeah just just any random documentation any random documentation so I think we'll do another in terms of energy storage there there is work underway for the IET code of practice to be updated um uh that that's probably probably a year away in in reality it changes big updates uh lots of lots of small changes right so we've gone from a market where we had the the sort of metal black case batteries were were almost the go-to people realize there's a big Market in the UK now and they're doing much better up putting in almost sealed units you know the stuff that's that's a bit easier to set up a bit easier to put together um and on the back of that some of the stuff that's contained in there we could almost almost have um have a a little sort of key section of you know these are the important parts if you're dealing with domestic batteries and doing this and then if you want more technical stuff you you read the paragraph underneath it sort of thing because a lot of the kit is now coming in as as almost pre-assembled yeah yeah thank you thank you yeah yeah which is great right it is it is yeah yeah because at the end of the day people want to go to work and do a great job I don't think any electrician gets up in the morning really jumps into vandas and think I can't wait to do an appalling job today but again if it's easier to do a great job absolutely why why make it hard and we've seen that with all sorts of things over the years where where manufacturers do need to play a little bit of catch-up just to understand the market understand what's required and we have seen the last 12 months Leaps and Bounds with people realizing what's needed in the UK and starting to adapt and change to to make it happen yeah and for me it's got a whiffer where the EV charging Market was a few years ago when we were all banging Earth rods in left right and center and yeah so the metal structure of the building yeah no separation so Carnage there were some people out there doing some yeah pourings I would like I think most installs have gone up in the game on EV yeah I think it's come on a line it's got a lot better than it was yeah again the Kit's easy to fit yeah moved on yeah we've got cables that can help us out we've got post blocks and EV charges that you can Commission in 70 seconds Gordon and you had to type the number in because the QR code got wet yeah it did yeah it would have been quicker than 70 seconds it was just going to talk the numbering yes it was uh look out for that video when it comes are getting easier yeah definitely don't say easy simple simple can't say easy not this week with the news okay things aren't going easy so I think we see what the register to do so if we have had millions of comments so we can have a little miniature break so um no we can't do the register we're going to shake it oh dear we can't we can't do the register is that right [Laughter] okay so to have a look see if there's anything I mean the DC isolator thing is contentious for some people they're uh that he wrote the book does that help all right I'll argue with the person who wrote the book yeah professionals as always admitting DC isolation need to think very carefully so I think we're admitting it no we're not admitting it at all yeah yeah no no no no no no don't don't admit it that's not not a good idea disconnected out of the inverter just buzz them in live it'll be fine I mean you saw the welding right it was weld itself better connection no no always have a means of isolation but not within 30 30 you know 300 mil of each other you know again we're just trying to ensure that we can switch off the DC on load somehow whether that's inside the inverter or outside of the inverter doesn't matter and then for me remove those plugs because then you taking away all of that DC from the inside of the inverter and then the AC isolation then we can work on it so same as any other Appliance you'd work on on the AC side but there's no need for duplicate DC isolators on on a system but there's nothing wrong with it you just don't get along with it nothing wrong with it again just think it just think of the amount of time and energy and I mean physical energy not personal energy that's gone into making something you didn't need and that's the annoying bit we're doing loads of green stuff and then doing loads of stuff we don't need to do as well yep so people bonding water pipes we're in going then you don't need to should we go for testing next someone this will be an area that people are really interested in because obviously this is developing for us okay we've got to test these things can you name me the tests I have to carry out Griff what do I need all of the ones recommended by bs7671 right okay so okay oh you want names face rotation that's going to be done so the panels are on so what am I doing so just on the DC side alone so the AC is the AC it's gonna it's gonna fall into your regular one I'm comfortable with that um so on the DC side there's a few really important checks I need to check the voltage first so the open circuit voltage I want to know what's going on and you should be comparing that to the number of modules times the module voltage so that gives you a fairly good idea whether the modules are doing what you'd expect them to do and honestly which isn't sometimes if you've got multiple arrays or different you've got portrait and landscape going on sometimes you can miss connecting a module yeah so it's a really good check because if I've got a 30 volt output on module and I've got 10 modules what would I expect at the terminals 10 times 30 300 volts and if I've only got 270 then there's a good chance I know I've missed I've missed a module out upon the roof quality Panel test the panels before you put them on Multi panel you can test them before you put on the roof as well yeah yeah [Music] so to do that to to absolutely the book there are there are some things about temperature correction and things that you should probably look at as well but honestly it probably doesn't make too much difference because at this stage we're just interested knowing all those modules are doing about what they should do and and the temperature fluctuations won't won't affect that check that sanity checking words you used in the opening part of that everyone's ruled that one out so we've done the first what we've done the open voltage what's next so um I would probably next go to insulation resistance on the panels on the panels themselves okay so are we doing that then so I've got a nice little test box that allows me to plug the cables in that's coming down from the string which is the two ends of the cable from the the PV array um and from that box then I can access two little test points yes and I can test from one or either of those test points because remember that cable is going all the way around and back again so it doesn't matter which test point I I use um and I'd probably be looking to test that to the array frame first to make sure that I haven't done any damage I haven't caught any cables Etc what instruments gone into these banana plugs I went to the banana plugs that's the insulation resistance what's that they explain that instrument to me what is it is it the one I've got in the van already uh yeah probably as long as it's got the right range on for the voltage which you can find in in the reg's book or in guidance Note 3 you just look that up you're applying the same rules as doing doing that test um and yeah it's a conventional insulation resistance tester good and you're going to the frame because we're probably worried that that one the effect of the string is snagged on the frame that's the thing that's going to obviously we're insulation resistance testing two string and or maybe the the module itself might have got some damage somewhere so we're just doing a check on that to make sure that the the level of insulation resistance is is high enough and usually you'll find that's almost off the scale or it's dead it's right down um there's usually not a lot of middle ground in that right okay so that's just again effectively just to make sure that cables haven't been damaged you might not have put me in the roofers put them in yeah have we nicked them have we caught them on a clip or anything like that we've got them wedged under a tile yeah yeah yeah yeah all the stuff we saw earlier yeah if you've done all this stuff early you probably haven't tested it so okay so there's a big risk then in it if if you know like I said with that Felix window I've gone out there with me and if we haven't tested it could all be touching something out there you could be but you'd also have to be touching the other half of the circuit yes so remember for any shock we've got to have the potential difference yeah thank you um so yes possible How likely that is is going to be very circumstance dependent I wouldn't want to to give you a steer on that but ultimately what we don't want is any live part at all because that's going to introduce the potential for a tingle under some circumstances we just don't want that okay so insertion resistance test is carried oh good yeah what's next all good so uh next one I would do is is checking the actual performance of the module such a short circuit current test right um so there's a couple of ways of of doing it that's some people if you don't have a little test box with a switch on you can now plug it into the inverter so start the inverter up and that is effectively going to create a circuit going around what have you plugged into the inverter the string cables the the mc4 connectors or equivalents so they're in um what we have is a little test box so we can plug it into that and then we just turn the switch on the test box and that effectively just shorts the cables out so now you've got one Loop going around and you can put a clamp meter on then DC clamp meters got to be at the right range but they're quite easy to get hold of nowadays they're a difficult back in the day and you can check and see what the current is of of that particular system so what we're checking for there really is to make sure that depending on how sunny it is and how bright it is that the current is about where we'd expect it to be so most panels are tested at a certain light level it's a thousand watts per meter squared and it will tell you it will give maybe eight amps or some of the newer panels are giving off 14 15 amps um that's under a thousand watts per meter Square I can buy a little instrument that tells me what the radiance level is or what the watts per square meter is and if I'm stood there going oh it's 500 watts per square meter with an 8 amp panel I'd expect to see about four amps now it it can be a little bit vague because some of the the sensors on the radiance meters are really quite small and you have to get the right angle to the module Etc um but that gives you an idea again if a module's gone down or are they underperforming if I started to see that I was expecting four amps and I'm only getting one amp right I know I've got a bad connection or I know that there's a module that's gone down so and next test we saw somebody do it we're watching it we'll tune into some other YouTube channels is it where you're thinking yeah you just take your uh you just take your multimeter on the current scale yeah and just Ram the probes in on the top of the DC isolator it's fun fun coming on and off yeah the cassette to current yeah yeah it's a dead short yeah yeah yeah yeah that's gonna that's gonna blow those tips off isn't it yeah yeah you did yeah said he was gonna have to buy some new leads yeah yeah I'll send you a link to the video you'll enjoy it not say who it is on here yeah yeah and videoing himself and put it out on YouTube as best practice so we've got Clarity checks but but they're probably already done as a result of us doing the voltage test in in the first place um and visual inspection of course making it sound too complicated all right no it isn't it really is really straightforward I think what you've just said there about how you approach that test is really important just trying to make sure that that we we don't introduce a short across that that DC positive and negative because that's where you're going to have something like that mc4 arcing going on with your test leads yeah no yeah no we did yeah we did yeah you watch this and it was like oh I'm pulling off yeah it's great yeah really good fun yeah but is that a training thing for people because obviously a lot of the system on DC you are working in a live environment and you can't isolate it's pretty much always live right and unless you're dedicated to installing these systems in the dark it's pretty much always going to be live so um nothing wrong with that there's systems processes you can do systems of work starting off by making off your connectors downstairs or next to the inverter first see so then running the cables up to the rooftop and then connecting them in so you always know you've got made-off connectors at the bottom which should be fingerproof so you know all that kind of stuff we we go through when we teach people um but yeah the the biggest risk is likely to be somebody who's just just not understanding what's going to happen when they shot that short that those two cables out bring in the footage yeah yes sir so that's good so a few Myth Busters there on the testing again so what we're really saying is come along to your great training center absolutely which is all over the UK and you go everywhere don't you even do the world I think the world yeah we've done battery PV storage training in um Greece recently for a very well known manufacturer uh we've just completed some in Bahrain as well and um we did a stint in brindisi at one point Camp Bastion when it was a military siters okay thank you very much for watching we'll see you in two weeks oh how lovely all over the place yeah fantastic like it yep so again it's so it's like anything in it get the really good training yeah do some do some installs get this we support post training so I've done the training with you I've had a moment I've forgotten something is there some sort of additional help you can give me yeah so it's a re we will run a sort of open service we can't guarantee to answer everybody's questions we're not about to design for people but we're quite quite clear that we can give people the skills to go out but you're going to really learn when you've got a particular brand of Kit and you're trying to install it on site you're trying to get to grips maybe with their software Etc we've got loads of contacts in the industry and and we we often will be passing people on people like Keith's videos on on the sun sync stuff you know just little hints and tips for people to go to to help them out it's a show more Brands don't do that I know he's done a lot of videos and it's a shame there isn't more information out there yeah I mean I think yeah obviously we're going to do lots more on it um yeah not to say we're never going to do training courses and stuff like that I could see it we're not going to do training courses yeah I'm going back to that world again yeah no I wasn't nothing at all Joe I think we're gonna I mean I think yeah we could go on I mean we've nearly been on for two hours I think we're gonna have to do the register first so again you can quickly go over the register there's loads of people still on so this is a long register yeah thank you come on man let's have a long register let's bring them in is that time again welcome to the register uh just before we get started I'd like to say thanks to sockets for donating 10 pounds earlier his message was well done Griff on the challenge wall so oh thank you very much so let's get straight into it so we've got Michael Sparky Allison Nick Vamo tell me more Andrew Watson Sean the spark mad Professor early years learning is fun Andrew Brown Aaron Billy toy Chris Osmond the Sparky James Keen there is a lot tonight it's Richard cockerline liberato Del Greco short circuit Mike Paul Elms Matt Marine Eng Sergio Fernandez Carl Robson Ryan Davis Ben Skylark Sean Gary Julian Blake Gadget man Steven Skillen x-force's electrician Les Winspear in true serve Kevin Osborne Lumen electrical Sean Dempsey Jim O'Donovan Nathan Addison Raymond Burke Oliver Dawson Dan the V8 man and that tool guy and I'd also like to shout out the international viewers tonight so we've got Roger and Nadu from South Africa we've got the 1985 from Greece we've got nine plus inclusion is from Tenerife and my old friend Chris Fireball from India ah Chris we've had Chris on some of our courses yes absolutely fastest person overseas fastest person to come over on a plane I mean followers for me I think we're probably definitely need to do a CPD on DC safe isolation yeah I think so I think I think there's a lot of people struggling with the concept uh and I don't think an isolator definitely saves you I think there's still a lot of mistakes people can can make there so I think that would be one yeah working on them still live yeah all was live yeah which will be um yeah and one and yeah people are still out here we could go on for hours we could do shed and we've got some stuff coming up on the island mode which we're not quite through yet there's probably lots more to look at on that just and interesting there in it because obviously is it is it class one class two equipment only that you can plug into that soccer Outlet it's all right that you know whether it's just class two okay when you've left if that fridge needs to come back to life I'd imagine that's not a Class 2 item so we've got a really interesting bit of Kit there and we're Gordon yeah I think it's a big Journey for everyone ahead on this yeah including me but I would say yeah again I've popped over the training center a great setup um obviously I think if you're going through training having someone who actually understands and just reeling off the old uh reeling off the the course notes and can actually you've obviously been able to ask a lot of questions we have had so I'd be I'll be over there straight away and I did leave a link in the description and you're on all the social media from Tick Tock apart from Tick Tock yeah we'll get you we'll get we'll get on there yeah we'll get on The Tick Tock uh but yeah I think we've had some great guessing like we have great thank you ever so much thank you very much thank you very much for coming across again the second or third time you've been on you're still top of the leaderboard yeah I don't know yet toppled for a long time and you'll remind me at some point you've still got one go left because you did that in two goes didn't you so you still got a chance of coming to redeem yourself I've got a game in hand we'd like to thank our sponsors that allow us to come live to every Fortnight we'd like to thank the great people with us oh we've got some winners we'll come back to them we're still going to thank the sponsors I'm halfway through it now we'd like to thank the great people at the LA Seco group for their support Marshall turflex Doncaster cables and ludum palazzoli for allowing us to come to you every two weeks and it is next time out gonna be Doncaster cables though when we're looking at a basic and the approval system maybe we'll Strain To The World of Sy flex and how that has or hasn't got approval oh that's in two weeks so we'll have to get back let's go over and do the prizes next don't forget to hang on for the very end and find out if your name is in the credits we only forgot didn't we can't be can't be forgetting this so we've got the GT time familiar and the correct time was Griffith with 351 and the closest person was d-a-e with 359 welding Dae we know the drill by now go to the link in the comments get involved page fill out the form and we'll get you pass to you as soon as possible uh we won't just as uh well we won't we just get lots of complaints but yeah obviously the reason our mics went flat earlier on is because we've had an epic video producer yesterday that we sat around for nearly two hours while it was located because later next week we will be announcing the winners of the e-fix awards we did a two-hour video oh yes oh yes it was two hours ago those words hey yeah when you watch that I'll tell you I was I was Diamond I'll virtually carried Joe there I don't know he got through his little bits that he had to do you got to watch the awards that bloke is an absolute Legend he produced uh the awards last year and this year and every single one of those words came out of his mouth that he'd produced himself um I struggled in some of the sections um personally to get through them okay yeah he was crying yeah I did I did I I had a little yeah a little moment where I was struggle to get my words out because it's quite emotional so if you want to see Gary get emotional uh that's next Thursday and we're all going to be in the comments as

Channel: eFIXX

Views: 54,695

Keywords: solar power, solar energy, solar panels, gtec, gtec training, griff thomas gtec training, griff thomas, gtec hawes, solar panel installation, solar panel installation training, solar battery storage, solar battery storage installation, dc isolator switch, efixx tv, solar panels for home, solar energy explained, home solar panels for beginners, solar panel installation wiring, solar panel safety, mc4 connector

Id: _1vHVUAMkzs

Length: 116min 6sec (6966 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 22 2023