Planning ahead with solar installation

SD_DRACULA

So my solar PV system is going in soon and I would like to get people's ideas on what other "cables" I can have them run thinking ahead.

There will be a conduit running from the attic to the consumer unit on the outside of the house which I am guessing it will have an AC cable and a cat5 for the CT clamp.

I don't have an immersion boiler anymore (combi boiler looks after hot water) but it might make sense to add one again and add an eddi to it in the future so what would be good to add here? Another cat5 cable going to the consumer unit?

Anything else that would be a good idea to do now "in preparation" for future upgrades?

slave1

Always a good idea to run at least two CAT 6 cables (CAT 6 not CAT 5) whenever you're laying cable anywhere, they are cheap as chips.

By the sounds of it there is no need to lay EV Charge Point cable?

SD_DRACULA

EV charge cable is already there nicely buried in the wall and connected to dumb charger.
If I ever go for zappi should be a straight swap and would probably go for a wireless CT clamp (if even needed) as to not add another cable on the wall.

slave1

SD_DRACULA wrote: »

EV charge cable is already there nicely buried in the wall and connected to dumb charger.
If I ever go for zappi should be a straight swap and would probably go for a wireless CT clamp (if even needed) as to not add another cable on the wall.

You can also connect the CT clamps to the EDDI instead of the Zappi2 if that's easier.
The units communicate by proprietary radio wave so makes no difference which one in connected as the data is instantly shared.

SD_DRACULA

Good to know.
I already have a wifi power monitor (Shelly EM) on my mains cable that I use for power values in my home automation, shame I can't use its value and need another clamp on the same cable.

Deagol

SD_DRACULA wrote: »

So my solar PV system is going in soon and I would like to get people's ideas on what other "cables" I can have them run thinking ahead.

There will be a conduit running from the attic to the consumer unit on the outside of the house which I am guessing it will have an AC cable and a cat5 for the CT clamp.

I don't have an immersion boiler anymore (combi boiler looks after hot water) but it might make sense to add one again and add an eddi to it in the future so what would be good to add here? Another cat5 cable going to the consumer unit?

Anything else that would be a good idea to do now "in preparation" for future upgrades?

You're not supposed to run mains and signal cable in the same trunk / conduit for safety but also for signal reasons. Best practise to run split conduit, plus that'll give you space for additional cabling later on.

SD_DRACULA

I was actually wondering about that, can't be good for the signal to have a live wire beside it but then again if the cat6 is shielded?
I'll mention to have them split anyway

Deagol

SD_DRACULA wrote: »

I was actually wondering about that, can't be good for the signal to have a live wire beside it but then again if the cat6 is shielded?
I'll mention to have them split anyway

Cat6 isn't typically shielded (UTP=Unshielded Twisted Pair). There's tens of thousands of houses in Ireland who have COAX cable beside mains who's TV points give crappy signal (analogue days) - same thing.

Really though, it's code not to have power beside signal as well, can be easy enough to make a mistake...

If you're happy to ignore code, I'd recommend to use STP (shielded twisted pair) though I think it's considerably more expensive.. not looked at it in years though.

SD_DRACULA

For sure 2 pipes makes sense, short run anyway, from attic to board it's probably 2-3 meters if even.