Location of Solar Panels

happydude742

I live in a story and a half house with cut-in windows that make the roof less than ideal for solar panels.... I'd fit some but not enough I reckon. I'm looking at the idea of ground mounting in my garden possibly. The next problem is getting the power from my panels into the house. If I have a light fitting at the far side of my garden, would I be able to set up my solar panels near there (or connected to that light fitting cable) to feed my power into the house through that cable rather than have to go digging up the tarmac, etc?

TIA.

allinthehead

You need a dedicated circuit directly back to a distribution board.

happydude742

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119604573#Comment_119604573

But could the wire that is already running underground be utilised for that?

allinthehead

If it's the correct size and goes directly to the board then yes. It's unlikely the correct size. Probably a 1.5mm sq cable.

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058262951/location-of-solar-panels

Do you have garden walls that you could run ducting along

bullit_dodger

Depends a little on how many panels your are thinking of fitting, and as the lads above have mentioned the gauge (thickness) of the wire going out to your lamp. The more current (amps) you send over a wire, the thicker the wire needs to be to cater for the load or it gets hot, and could cause an issue, a fire basically.

Most light fittings are on a 5amp fuse and use thin('ish) wires as they don't need to draw a huge current. If you have access to an external 3 pin socket, you might be able to use that.....again depending on how many panels your thinking of.

If it was 6-8 panels, you could use micro-inverters and then hook into an existing circuit. You'd need a spark to sign off on it though and submit the NC6 form into ESB, but most of the work could be done by yourself assuming your fairly handy with a screwdriver.