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