New Standard Bans Solar Battery Storage In Lofts

- Coming up on this week's news, installers should stop putting batteries in lofts experts are warning. A contracting firm is fined 40,000 pounds after an electrician is badly burned in an arc flash and City & Guilds falls foul of the education regulator. Welcome to Electrical News Weekly in association with Solar Trade Sales, your easy one-stop shop for all things solar. Whether you're listening in the van, onsite or down at the wholesale counter, I'm Joe Robinson and I've been through the best of the electrical industry news to save you the trouble. And if you think you've spotted the two words that I've been challenged to slip into this week's show, comment with them below for the chance to win a prize. Electricians should not put battery systems in lofts. That's the stark warning in a new standard that's been fast tracked by British Standards this week. Publicly Available Specification 63100 says that the systems which are often connected to solar panels should never be placed in a roof space. It's understood that the ruling was taken in consultation with the Fire Service. Fire experts worry that in a blaze, the heavy batteries are more vulnerable while in the loft and even risk collapsing onto occupants and firefighters below. Instead, the document recommends that batteries are located outside the property. An adjacent garage is acceptable as long as the compartmentalization and ventilation rules are followed. The other major requirement is that the wiring can't be accessed by small hands. Disconnecting a cable from a battery can lead to a powerful and extremely dangerous DC arc, which can cause serious burns and not a mutation to your genetic code despite what all the superhero films tell you. Therefore, the specification states that access to cells and monoblock batteries should be possible only with the use of a tool. The full document is freely available to installers. I've popped a link in the show notes to where you can download the PDF. And speaking of installing batteries in the great outdoors, we turn to last week's question of the week. It was taken from our free training package made with Lewden Palazzoli on the subject of IP and IK ratings. We fully updated it to reflect the changes in amendment two, and there's a link to the course in the show notes. The question was what is the maximum number of letters and numbers following the IP in an IP rating? And the answers to choose from were one, two, three or four. The correct answer is four, and it wasn't a great showing on YouTube with only 58% of people getting it right. However, that absolutely smashed it out of the park compared with LinkedIn where only 23% of people got it right. If you're mystified as to where this answer's come from, then check out that free training package that we mentioned earlier. And speaking of Lewden, they're back on tour in their roadshow van. Starting on the 9th of April, they're heading from the south of England, all the way up to Scotland. They'll be at Rexel in Stroud on the ninth, Screwfix in Gloucester on the 10th and Edmo's in Gloucester on the 11th. So if you're interested, in the area, click the link in the show notes, get signed up and find out how they can help you with your instals. Further dates are to follow in future updates. Going back to renewables, the launch of the battery guidance coincides with the introduction of two major solar panel subscription services, which are expected to dramatically accelerate the uptake of PV technology in the UK. Otovo is a leasing platform that householders to have solar panels installed on their homes for a monthly fee rather than having to excavate their savings and pay thousands of pounds up front. There is no down payment and the company will take care of the installation and upkeep of the panels, which come with a 20-year warranty. Customers will own the panels outright after 20 years and the battery after 10 years. They can also buy them out at any time during the payment plan. Meanwhile, a similar scheme has been launched, but this time for new homes. Wondrwall aims to create a zero carbon home by combining solar panels with artificial intelligence. It does this by analysing the habits and movements of occupants. Each Wondrwall light switch is in fact bristling with 13 sensors, including motion, light level, humidity, and temperature. The house learns how a family behaves and when they need and don't need electricity. It then optimises the clean energy generated from the solar panels on the roof with a hybrid inverter. A typical six kilowatt hour battery saves the solar energy for use at night and recharges from the grid in the early hours when rates are cheapest. Some families who use the system say they can receive monthly energy bills as low as 13 pounds. Still on solar, a company has been fined 28,000 pounds after a worker sustained a severe brain injury while installing panels on the roof of a house in Gloucestershire. The 41-year-old fell three metres from the roof and suffered a fractured skull, leading to a severe brain injury, which has left him unable to walk or talk. Health and safety inspectors found that Everyone's Energy UK Limited had not provided adequate scaffolding around the roof and there was no appropriate means of getting materials onto the roof. HSE inspector Ian Whittle said it was a serious incident, which could have been avoided if the employer had acted to identify and control the risks involved. The Hertfordshire-based company pleaded guilty to breaching the Work at Height Regulations and was fined 28,000 pounds plus 6,000 pounds in costs during a hearing at Bristol Magistrates' Court. Also in the courts this week is an M&E firm after an installer sustained serious burns to his body. Electrician Carl Lowery had been working on apartment blocks in Salford in 2020 when an electrical flash blew him backwards and burnt his arms and face. The then 37-year-old underwent multiple surgeries and required a skin graft from his thigh. Lowery had been working alongside a colleague at SRE Cabling and Jointing Limited. SRE was in turn subcontracted by Aberla M&E Limited to carry out cabling and jointing works on the site. The pair were working on the building's main switchboard with nearby busbars left live and covered by a guard panel. However, a freak accident occurred when a gap in the guard panel led to a metal nut rolling behind and coming into contact with the live busbars. This led to an electrical flash, which blew Lowery backwards and burned his arms and face. A health and safety executive probe into this incident found Aberla M&E Limited had incorrectly assumed that the guard panel was sufficient separation of the men from the live busbars. The company failed to take into account in the ga p in the guard panel, which risked nuts, bolts, tools, and even fingers coming into contact with the busbars. There was also a failure to issue a permit to work on or near live components, which resulted in the main switchboard being left live. Finally, there was a distinct lack of live works monitoring by the company with the electrical site manager rarely visiting the work area. Aberla M&E Limited of Bolton, Greater Manchester pleaded guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined 40,000 pounds with 20,000 pounds in costs at Manchester Magistrates' Court. In other news, City & Guilds has been slapped with a 200,000 pound fine this week from the education watchdog. The regulator, Ofqual, wasn't happy with the way the organisation was managing its systems and procedures. It says there were errors in City & Guilds assessment materials, which should have been detected by its quality assurance processes. The organisation also failed to tell the regulator about the mistakes quickly enough. City & Guilds says it's committed a multimillion pound programme to improve its business operations. However, Ofqual boss Sir Ian Bauckham said his organisation placed the interests of students at the centre of its work. He said it was the regulator's job to make sure that City & Guilds and others produced high-quality qualifications that can stand the test of time. In product news this week, Signify, the manufacturer of Philips Lighting, has launched its LumXpert app in the UK. The app has been specially created for electrical installers and it brings together all the necessary tools for day-to-day tasks, such as quotes, lighting calcs, ordering, and tracking. You can find Philips and EcoLink lighting products by type or application and order from your usual wholesaler. You can compare prices, check stock levels, and track your order. There are also special financing options. Additionally, you can create exportable lighting calculations to share with your customers. You can also get help and support on lighting issues. You'll need to register that you're an electrical professional, and then you'll get a 15% discount on your first order. You'll get an additional 5% with the special eFIXX code eFIXX 20. I've popped the link to the app, as well as a reminder of the eFIXX code in the show notes and our usual reminder that we're in the market for your stories, your project, and your recommendations as we'd like to share them with the wider eFIXX community. Now we're in April, we're focusing on cables and containment and industrial circuit protection. So send us pictures of your instals or let us know if you've come across any new kit that's making your job easier. And just before we get to your favourite bit of the show where I reveal last week's challenge words and winners, we want to thank our premium partners. We couldn't make the news without you. First up, they're the people who've created the Swiss Army Knife of solar inverters, along with all-weather batteries, very much the Boy Scouts of the solar industry, it's Sunsynk. Now, who doesn't love a freebie with their incredibly simple and totally free EV charger management platform? They're helping installers win jobs and save their customers thousands a year. It's Tap Electric. With their high-quality and reliable EV charging equipment and industry-leading customer care, you could say they're leading the EV-lution, it's Hydra EVC. And with over 35 years of manufacturing and supplying components to the electrical industry, from connectors to terminal blocks through glands and enclosures, you could say they're making all the right connections. It's Hylec APL. The best thing to come out of Yorkshire since stainless steel, the home of EV-Ultra and other groundbreaking and quality products, it's Doncaster Cables. And if you want a lesson on how to reinvent a commodity product into a stylish but discreet feature, then look no further than D-Line trunking. If you want to get your cables organised and tidied away in any situation, they've got a solution. With an incredible range of equipment from EV charge points through industrial sockets and switches, to kit for explosive areas, plus they supplied gear for a Campari factory, so they'll always have a place in my heart, it's SCAME. Big thanks to you all. We really appreciate your ongoing support for the news. If you think you know the words I've smuggled into this week's show, pop your guess into the comments. We'll take all the correct guesses and select one at random to be the winner of an eFIXX goodie bag prize. Answers submitted after about lunchtime on the Thursday after release will not be entered into the draw. Last week's words were baronet and husky, and apparently, they stuck out like a sore thumb as loads of you got it right, including Tim Gauntlett who wanted to know if we play the challenge word game on LinkedIn. Absolutely we do, Tim. Whether you guess on Facebook, LinkedIn, or YouTube, your name goes into the pot if you get the words right. So in that spirit, we put all of your names into an electronic hat, and the first one to be plucked out as a winner was bongyb9407. Quite the username that one. Hard to believe that there were 9406 people who got to bongyb ahead of you. Anyway, well done to you. Make sure you click the get involved link in the show notes to claim your prize. Thanks for listening to this episode of Electrical News Weekly in association with Solar Trade Sales, your easy one-stop shop for all things solar. Make sure you subscribe to receive the next update. Thanks for listening, and until next time, have a great week. Stay safe out there. And remember, there's no such thing as a torque-calibrated arm.