Electrical News Weekly
Electrical News Weekly
Electricians Warned: Untested Solar Panel Danger!
A consulting engineer issues a stark warning to the trade about untested solar panels…
…Octopus says it’s setting up a club to decide the standards for smart electrical kit…
…and how an electrical contractor is using artificial intelligence to make big savings…
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Show Notes
Free industrial socket training 👉 https://training.efixx.co.uk/course/requirements-for-industrial-socket-outlets-in-association-with-lewden?previouspage=allcourses&isenrolled=no#/home
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00:00 Electrical News Weekly 28/10/24
00:40 Warning about un-tested solar panels
02:04 Octopus setting up club to decide smart kit standards
03:16 92 data centres account for a fifth of Irelands electricity
03:42 Electrical contractor uses AI to make savings
04:46 Question of the week
05:27 Over 800,000 meters set to be replaced
06:27 Nissan EVs' soon able to power homes
06:58 Fluke unveils digital multimeter for solar installs
07:23 unit to upgrade fluorescent lights to LED
08:00 BG prize draw goes live
09:01 Thanks to our premium partners
09:50 Challenge words and winners
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#enw #electricalnews #electricians
coming up on this week's news a Consulting engineer issues a stark warning to the trade about untested solar panels octopus says it setting up a club to decide the standards for smart electrical kit and how an electrical contractor is using artificial intelligence to make big savings welcome to electrical news weekly in association with Solar Trade Sales your easy One-Stop shop for all things solar make sure you click the link in the show notes to access their online store whether you're listening in the van on site 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 a Consulting engineer and fire expert has issued a stark warning to the trade about untested solar panels Luke Gonzales says there's been a significant increase in their use in installations where the PV modules are integrated into the building's fabric he says their inclusion will almost certainly not comply with current UK building regulations they will also in turn invalidate any certificate issued by MCS the Watchdog for the installation of domestic renewable energy Gonzales who runs a fire safety and Building Services consultancy in Cardiff says installers have a duty of care to ensure that the products they're installing are suitably compliant and are safe for use in his professional opinion he says they should not be making any assumptions of compliance on this matter Gonzales knows the specific brand of solar panels involved but won't name it publicly he says the products could be putting homeowners at risk and in validating insurance policies and that he's raised the issue with the manufacturer to no avail Gonzalez has asked if the company involved should not at least notify their customers of the importance of only using suitably tested modules or he says would they rather say nothing watch unfold and be complicit in its non-compliance the consultant has also alerted various UK associations and certifications recently Gonzales has taken to social media with his concerns it's understood that behind the scenes the MCS is exploring this issue it's expected that the body will publish an explanatory statement in the coming weeks in other news Octopus has revealed that it's setting up a club to decide the standards for smart electrical kit the energy giant surprised the trade with the announcement that it's inviting other firms and utilities to join an alliance dubbed project Mercury this body will write the clean tech standards so that electrical equipment utilities and grid operators can all talk to each other octopus says it already manages what it terms the world's largest virtual power plant this comprises over 200,000 connected devices including solar panels EV Chargers batteries thermostats and heat pumps in total it represents over 1 GW of power which can be flexibly deployed Octopus says that the global Consortium of Hardware manufacturers will simplify the integration of the 200 million pieces of clean tech kit that are predicted to be in use by 2030 devices which use the standard will be known as mercury enabled the communication protocol will allow energy grid operators to balance the load by controlling appliances such as battery packs freezers and EV chargers octopus says it will also Drive the uptake of Smart Energy tariffs octopus founder and Archbishop of energy Greg Jackson says he sees project Mercury as similar to the development of Bluetooth which set a global standard for tech devices the standard could eventually help balance the electrical load in Ireland where it's been revealed that just 92 data centres now account for over a fifth of the nation's electricity in fact 64 of the buildings use between 10 and 50 megawatts of power 50 megawatt is enough to power a the size of reading 2 thirds of these are accounted for by what are termed hyper-scale operators which include Amazon web services Microsoft meta and Google the research was compiled by bit power Consultants still on technology an electrical contractor in America says he's worked out how to use artificial intelligence to make significant savings Eric Owski Boss of Treehouse says one of the biggest costs for his firm is sending out an electrician to site if there's any uncertainty over an installation the first thing he used to do was send out a van not anymore now for 90% of jobs such as EV Chargers no van is sent out prior to the install day for those jobs Treehouse asks the customer a handful of questions such as what are the major uses of electricity in their home like water heaters that helps the company determine if the homeowner will need to upgrade their electrical connection or main panel for more complex jobs the company will ask the homeowner to submit more details including photos of their home's dis board if the company still needs more information it'll try a virtual visit with the customer and only if that fails it'll roll a van treehouse then quotes the job designs the installation and applies for any permits while it has its own Workforce of electricians it often hands that off to a local independent electrician to do the work it's a business model that's becoming more common in the United States would it work in the UK let us know what you think in the comments and if you're not quite ready for AI electricians but still want to learn more about your trade our last question of the week was lifted from our free training package on Industrial socket Outlets made with Lewden Palazzoli the question was for a socket Outlet supplying a caravan pitch which of the following statements is true the rcd protection must disconnect and of course the correct answer was all live conductors 85% of you got it right on YouTube and for the first time in a long time even more of you on LinkedIn got it right with 91% meanwhile on X the platform formerly known as Twitter a very respectable 79% nailed it be sure to check out that free training package which is now fully updated to incorporate amendment to by clicking the link in the show notes now over 800,000 electricity meters are set to be replaced in the coming months in an urgent upgrade program the reason the longwave radio signal which tells them to switch between on and off peak is set to be turned off next summer the outdated units known as radio Telly switch or RTS meters have traditionally been used to switch storage heaters or immersion heaters on at night they enabled special tariffs such as economy 7 if the meters are not replaced in time some homes schools and businesses could be left without Heating and hot water the other possibility is that they won't be able to turn off their heating meter upgrade takes around 2 hours to complete but some jobs can be more complex if a DNO is needed or if a unit is not accessible electricians are being asked to advise any of their customers with an RTS meter to contact their energy supplier immediately a big thanks to our correspondent Sergio Fernandez from the Costa Del Watford for the heads up on that story and if you want to hear an interesting story about the time in economy 7 Tariff was waylaid ask Gordon about his 5-year battle with his energy provider it makes for a great story in EV news Nissan say says that soon its electric cars will be able to power up homes the Japanese giant is planning to introduce two-way charging on some of its vehicles from 2026 the initiative will start to be rolled out in the UK and then to other European countries vehicle to grid technology allows motorists to either power their homes using their car's battery or sell it back to the grid Nissan was the first automaker to gain the right to upload power to the UK grid it estimates that the function could potentially Halve the annual cost of powering an electric vehicle in product news Fluke has unveiled a digital multimeter and clamp aimed at electricians working on solar installs the 283 FC meter and wireless clamp are designed to test individual photovoltaic panels strings or inverters in large scale arrays with the addition of stably mc4 test leads you can make secure connections to modules or strings to test DC voltages of up to 1,500 volts a special unit has been unveiled which makes it easy to upgrade lights from fluorescent to led the recess is designed to replace existing T5 and T8 fluorescent tubes the light stays in the ceiling and the design of the recess allows it to sit in the existing fluorescent lamp holders but crucially it only used them as a mechanical fix not as an electrical connection instead it's powered by a remote driver which sits in the ceiling the existing ballast is bypassed this avoids all the technical issues associated with LED tubes recess has just been recognised by the judges of the Build Back better Awards they've given it both a gold and a green award so congratulations to the Regen initiative which developed the product finally the big promotion this Autumn is from BG circuit protection and it's just gone live installers who buy a product from the BG circuit protection range will get entered into a draw whose top prize is a European city break so soon you could be sipping port in Porto beer in Bratislava or vodka in Vilnius the runner-up prizes aren't too shabby either they include a Porsche Driving Experience an annual pass for Merlin theme parks and attractions and a smart TV to enter buy a product from the range accessories are not included upload your receipt or invoice to the special BG website and well that's it I've popped a link to the competition website in the show notes the promotion ends on Tuesday the 10th of December all the very best everyone and our usual reminder that we're in the market for your stories your projects and your recommendations as we'd like to share them with the wider eFIXX Community as we transition into November we'll be looking at commercial EV charging testing equipment and Innovations within the electrical industry send us pictures of your installs or let us know if you've come across any new kit that's making your job easier now 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 it's 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 up next they're resolving ventilation problems one property at a time offering a simplistic ventilation design service and high quality products made right here in the UK breathing fresh air into your home its envirovent the best thing to come out of Yorkshire in stainless steel the home of EV Ultra and other groundbreaking and quality products it's Doncaster cables and 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 admitted after about lunchtime on the Thursday after release will not be entered into the draw now let's reveal the winners of last week's challenge word competition last week's words were catfish and gashes and I obviously did a really bad job of hiding them as simply loads of you got both of them but the winner we plucked from our digital hat was Jason fkm 5mq so 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 remember to click the link in the show notes to check out their online shop 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