DIY PV install

Thank you, yes South East.

I read that nesting pigeons and such can be a fire hazard and they do hang around between our roof and the neighbours shed in close proximity next door so I installed a bird guard, it was easier to do it as we were fitting the panels, the off the shelf option is crazy expensive so I made my own from some old galvanised mesh fencing I had left over from a rabbit run we had years ago, knew it would come in handy for something one day😁

we used galvanised wire left over from a stripped armoured cable and tied it to the hooks

Around 11k, I recon we could be saving a few k anyhow, we are on a tight budget so doing our best to keep the costs down

Thanks, yeah getting it from the North sounds like a good option, I believe the pound is weak against the euro so could be a good time to do that 👍

Yes we may add eddi diverters at a future date but we have run out of money now, pretty much used my life savings on this.

same for batteries, can’t really afford them right now but it would be nice to have them some day😊👍

Thank you so much Gerry😊👍

Thanks, yes will be adding a CT clamp to the tails from my meter, I think the issue is though when two inverters are both running on the same circuit there can be conflicts with them communication wise or similar or they just won’t work properly.

The plan is to connect both inverters to the data manager, one data logging stick is then connected to the manager for monitoring and also a CT clamp from the manager back to the tails between the electric meter and consumer unit at the cottage😁

Yeah I hear you, just going on what my Dad told me to be honest, neither of us are super knowledgeable about this though,some trial and error at this point, I will pass on your information to him, if it does turn out we don’t need the power manager then all the better as it will save us a chunk of money, thank you👍

My next step is getting the 10mm2 cable, hopefully tmw, need just over 5m, will get 6m to be on the safe side.

Our plan is to wire the ac line outs from the inverters into a breakout box (small consumer unit, seen in my pics), each to a 32a mcb, then connect them both to the 10mm2 cable and out to the consumer units 63a RCCA (main fuse) input, we had discussed adding another RCCA to the breakout box and adding a mcb for one socket and another for one light (for the outhouse), still undecided about what way we will do this though🤔, what way have others done this?

Ok thanks for the advise, I wasn’t sure, this is my current set up on my consumer unit at the moment

Thank you, so basically in regards to what materials I need:-

1. A Double pole over-current protection - 63A RCBO - for the cable feeding the sub box
2. A surge protection breaker installed at main board (none installed inside the box by the way), any recommendations on what type?
3. Two rcd's - 32A would suffice I take it?, type B?
4. Replace the RCCB with a 63A RCBO (when we got it we asked for a RCBO at wholesalers and were given this (possibly by mistake), we assumed they did the same thing at the time but I looked it up and they are obviously not, RCCB only detects Earth leakage as I understand it🙄)
5. 6m of 16mm2 cable

The immersion (3kw I think, small tank) is running off a 2.5mm2 cable, If I recall we put a 32A instead of a 16a mcb temporarily as we didn't have a 16a on hand at the time, completely forgot about this, will swap that out, thanks for reminding me 👍️

On a side note:- our consumer unit (at our annex) is feed from the consumer unit at my parents cottage, with that in mind when I get the CT clamp it will have to travel some distance (not measured yet, perhaps 50m) to the meter tails at the Cottage, I will have to extend the cable and bury it, part of the way at least, there is some existing conduit along the path