Coming up on this week's news, installers refuse to install plug-in solar kit, says the IET. Courts hand out big fines following two high-profile electrocutions, one of a footballer and one a 10-year-old boy. And Octopus unveils a plug-in battery system for domestic customers. Welcome to Electrical News Weekly in association with Shelly, helping electricians offer smarter buildings and better energy management. Shelly's range of smart relays, sensors, and control devices makes it easy to add automation without the cost and disruption of rewiring. 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. We're being lit by Flex 7 with their lightning fast pre-wired modular lighting connection system that keeps your installation times razor sharp. 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 this exclusive cap branded with friends of the Show QuickWire and Chump Tools. And while you're there, click the links in the show notes to check out what our sponsors offer. On the show notes web page, you'll also find our bonus story section covering a wide range of subjects. It's definitely worth a read, and stay tuned to the end of the show to catch up on our regular features, including the weather from Joe3PO, learner of the week, and the light side of the news. Electricians are refusing to install plug-in solar equipment. That's the bombshell claim from the IET. The organization reports that desperate householders who've bought the kit online are calling its helpline to say they can't find an installer willing to connect it. The organisation's senior engineer Joe Cannon told trade magazine utility week that early adopters of the tech are now stuck between a rock and a hard place. He believes that's because electricians have no guidance on how to do it. Cannon says that plug-in solar goes against all the rules that electrical professionals currently abide by. Under the current law, anyone with a kit must use a qualified installer and notify their local DNO. Canon says the fact that anyone can buy one today without standards and safety mechanisms in place is a big worry for the IET. He says that one can imagine that probably for political reasons, the government jumped the gun with its announcement that plug-in solar is coming to the UK. Canon's comments are part of a war of words between five industry organizations, including the IET and the government over the issue. Last month, energy secretary Ed Milliband fast tracked a UK product standard for plug-in solar. The government also released a report from an independent consultancy saying that the systems are safe and ready to use in the UK. A consultation on the technology and its rollout closed last week. For a deep dive on the tech and the safety implications, check out the recent bench test video made by my colleague Gordon, seen here in his final Pokemon form. I've popped the link in the show notes. And if you think the ongoing battle over plug-in solar is tough, then DeWalt can give it a run for its money with tools created specifically for the electrical industry. They're tested on site and in the hardest possible ways, dropped, covered in dust, abused, and driven to their absolute limits so that they'll keep working exactly when you need them to. In the courts, a Blackpool hotel operator has been fined £120,000 following the electrocution of a 10-year-old boy. Jack Piper-Sheach suffered a fatal electric shock in the lobby of the Tiffany Hotel in September 2023. No details of what actually happened have been released. Why Seven Hotels Limited appeared at Preston Crown Court earlier this year where it admitted two health and safety offenses. These breaches were not directly linked to Jack's death. At a sentencing hearing on the 26th of June, the company was fined £120,000 and ordered to pay £24,000 in costs. The council's probe found that although EICRs had been carried out at the hotel, necessary remedial work had not been properly completed. A condition report carried out in 2020 had highlighted potentially dangerous issues, but these were not adequately addressed. Commenting, Blackpool counselor Dave Flanigan said the case should serve as a wake-up call for all hotels and business owners. An improvement notice was issued to ensure electrical systems were brought up to standard and the hotel was only allowed to reopen once compliance had been confirmed. Meanwhile, another big fine for an electrocution was handed out this week. This time to a leisure facilities management company over the death of a footballer. 34year-old Albert Xhediku died after coming into contact with a faulty flood light at Mountbatten Leisure Center in Portsmouth in 2016. Xhediku was playing five-aside football with friends when he went to retrieve the ball which had gone over the boundary fence. While climbing back over the fence, he made contact with the mast of the adjacent light. He screamed and went into a seizure as he suffered an electric shock. HSSE inspector Michelle Canning told his inquest in 2019 that previously other players had received minor shocks from the control box at the base of the flood light. The box was damaged and had apparently been repaired with cellar tape. The inquest was told another man who climbed the fence to retrieve a ball had also received an electric shock from the flood light just months earlier. HSSE inspector Dominic Goucher said the electrical system of the flood light had already been identified by Parkwood Community Leisure Limited as being in poor condition. Yet they failed to take action to remedy the faults. The company based in Duxbury Hall Road, Charlie pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at work act at a previous hearing. At Portsmouth Magistrate's Court, the company was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay costs of £40,000. Now, some exciting news from friend of the channel Green Cable. If you're not familiar with the scheme, it's a mobile scrapyard that comes to you. The company gives you a green wheelie bin. There's no contract or service charge. You simply put in your offcuts of twin and earth and other non-ferrous metal. They collect it, they give you money, and that's it. The big news is that Green Cable is expanding across the South Coast. It now covers Hampshire, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex. And the response from installers has been immediate. In the first phase, Green Cable has completed over 65 collections collecting tons of copper and other non-ferrous materials. Even better, those materials have been turned into real value for electricians. If you signed up, they'll be in touch to advise the next steps to receiving your bin. If you're not signed up already, this is your opportunity to do good for the planet and earn more extra cash. If you work on large jobs, remember they'll collect from site and issue legally compliant documentation to prove responsible disposal of waste materials. The link, as ever, is in the show notes. And speaking of being responsible, why not try installing the range of high-quality smoke alarms from Kidde? From battery powered to hardwired, there's an easy to install solution that suits your customers with the latest sensing technologies to detect potential fire hazards and comply with strict European standards. Our very own Joe Hammonds made a great video on the new range with one very surprising feature. You know where to find the link. In promotion news, we've got no fewer than three great competitions for you to try your hand at winning. The first comes from Whisker and their brace system, which is designed to make cable gland installation quicker and easier using a simple push fit fixing to help save time when working with enclosures, panels, and other electrical equipment. And now, Wiska UK has teamed up with eFIXX to give installers the chance to get their hands on a serious prize bundle. The Bracy Self Competition is offering one lucky winner 1,000 worth of Wiska products and merchandise. That could mean a big boost for your van stock, workshop shelves, or stores with practical kit from a brand already well known across the electrical industry. But it's not just one prize up for grabs. There are also 20 runner-up prizes available with each runner-up receiving a braced contractor kit, giving even more electricians and contractors the chance to try the system for themselves. The competition runs until the 20th of July with winners announced on the 3rd of August through eFIXX channels. To enter, simply head to the competition page, fill in your details, and get yourself in the draw. Next up, a reminder that Spit's special World Cup giveaway is up and running. There's three prizes, three winners, and one gold to bring football home, of course. And the prizes aren't too shabby. The top three winners will each receive a Spit 27E starter kit, which includes its acclaimed electrical nail gun, a battery, a charger, and a hard case. The top winner will also get two tickets to see an England International Football Match in the UK. The second name out of the hat will receive an England football shirt with his or her choice of player name and number. The closing date is World Cup final day, Sunday the 19th of July. Winners will be selected at random from all valid entries and announced on the news on the 27th of July, 2026. I've put a link to both promos in the show notes. Next up is BG's buy spin win promotion which is proving a big hit in the trade. That's because on offer are trips to Octoberfest, New York and Las Vegas. There's also lots of instant prizes such as BG and Knipex kit and discount vouchers. When you buy a selected BG consumer unit, you'll get a unique code which you enter online to try the spin to win wheel. This gets you the chance to win an instant prize as well as entry into one of three major prize draws. In July, the draw is for the Munich trip. You get flights, accommodation, access to Octoberfest, a guided tour, and £1,000 spending money. In September on offer is a four-night stay in New York, a New Year's Eve cruise, a helicopter tour, attraction passes, and £1,000 spending money. The November draw is for a five night stay in Las Vegas, including a Grand Canyon helicopter tour, excursions, and again, £1,000 to spend. No wonder it's a huge hit. The promo ends on the 31st of October. All the best for all those competitions. And if you'd like to stay competitive on the job, we can hardly recommend the new MI3136 tester from Metrel. It's faster, more functional, and has a better screen than its predecessor, the MI3125, which was already great with features you'd only expect to find on a more expensive tester. This is an exponential upgrade. Check out Rick's full review video in the show notes. In product news, energy giant Octopus has unveiled its own small battery pack for households. The Nook range makes the firm the first major British energy supplier to launch its own battery range. Customers can snap up the tech in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain from next year. The range includes a plug-in battery designed for renters and apartment dwellers alongside a standard wall-mounted electrician installed system for homeowners. The packs will store clean electricity when prices are low and use it later when energy is more expensive. Until now, the benefits of home batteries have been largely out of reach for Britain's over 10 million renting households. So, this news will make them happier than a kid in a Haribo factory. The Nook Cube, as it's known, is about the size of a shoe box and has a capacity of 2 kW hours. You simply plug it into a standard socket. Controlled through the Octopus app, extra units can be added to boost storage up to 10.5 kwatt hours. For homeowners, they'll be the wall-mounted Octopus Nook Colossus, available in 5 kW hours and 10 kilowatt hour models. The battery can stack units up to 30 kwatt hours for larger households. Both battery systems are compatible with solar panels and come with a 12-year warranty. And to make good use of all this stored energy, try the seriously flexible and smoothly illuminated neon LED lighting from UltraLED. Perfect for extremely tight spaces with a dot-free seamless glow in a huge range of colours and effects. Perfect for both outdoor and indoor applications. All this and it's incredibly quick to install with their quick connect system. You know where to find the link. In tool news, DeWalt is currently marketing one of the most impressive wall chasers we've seen in ages. It's got a suitably chunky name. It's known as the DCG200 NTXJ XR Flexvolt, but it has some very precise features, including two premium diamond blades for perfect chasing. It can cut up to a depth of 32 mm, and there's a choice of four spacers, so you can adjust the width. It has a load speed up to 9,000 revs per minute and a blade diameter of 125 mm. It also comes with a chisel, a hex blade wrench, and a cool kit box. Meanwhile, Flex Connectors has unveiled a wireless control system based on the brand's famous plug-and-play kit. Mesh 7 uses the Thread wireless protocol to configure and control Luminaires. Whether you want to do a single room or a whole building is completely scalable. For instance, you can set lights to come on automatically when you enter or leave a room. You can get them to dim down or turn off when there's natural light. You can also keep lights in corridors illuminated when the adjacent rooms are occupied. You don't need modified luminaires. To set it up, you simply start with a standard Flex 7 lighting distribution box. You just need to connect the permanent line, neutral, and earth. Once that's done, the rest of the system just plugs together. If you're already using Flex 7, you can easily upgrade. Just swap out the Flex 7 lighting controls for Flex 7 ones by unplugging the old and plugging in the new, and you're ready for enhanced control. Still on lighting, Cucumber has unveiled the Cu Connect, a lighting control module that's designed to cover every application. This runs from basic marshalling boxes to fully addressable connected ecosystems. You simply choose the number of outputs you need. Until recently, sizes of four, eight, and 12-way connectors were available, but they've just been back and filled in the gaps with two, six, and 10 way options. So, now you can select from two all the way up to 12way. As with all cucumber kits, installation is straightforward. You put up the metal fixing bracket first, and then you clip the LCM securely in place. It's suitable for drop rod, cable tray, slab, or beer box installs. The Cu Connect is built on the tried and trusted Bluetooth protocol, meaning it's reliable, secure, and easy to upgrade. This means you can add new features over time without major rewiring. Its features are simply set up with a cucumber app. Now, how about this for a bright idea? It's the Paul Russell's lamp of the week. This week, we have an unusual one. This T32 pairs an E27 base with a tubular glass body. The glass is tinted and encloses a helix style LED filament with a cozy colour temperature of 1,800 Kelvin. It gives the same light as an old school 25 W incandescent, but uses just 4 watts of input power. It has a lifetime of 15,000 hours. You can see the full range of lamps at paulrussellles.com. Now, it's that great moment where we get to celebrate the sterling work being done by the next generation. Our learner of the week slot is brought to you by XS training with their online electrical courses for beginners and experienced sparks covering inspection and testing, solar, battery storage, EV charging, and their specialism NVQs and AM2 online prep. And our learner this week is Josh Crompton of City College in Plymouth. Rob Kennedy from the college tells us that Josh is a keen and earnest student who's done exceptionally well in the first year of his apprenticeship. He's faced a few challenges along the way, but has always approached them with a positive attitude, determination, and a willingness to learn. He consistently demonstrates a strong work ethic, takes pride in his work, and is always looking for opportunities to develop his knowledge and practical skills. Josh is genuinely enthusiastic about the electrical industry, and has embraced every opportunity to gain experience and improve. All in all, a very deserving winner. Congratulations Josh on being this week's EIX learner of the week in association with XS training. And now to the lighter side of the electrical news. Yes, it's time for a tea break with Quickwire and its range of incredibly rapid electrical connectors. Now last month we bemoaned the UK's celebration of the International Day of the Electrician. Let me rephrase that. We bemoaned the complete absence of any UK celebration unless you count a modest post on ECA's corporate website as wild merrymaking. Contrast that with India, whose TV channels have screened a short film celebrating the people who keep the lights on. The video shows wide eyed installers walking on stage to a thunderous standing ovation from Grateful Householders. It almost brings a tear to the eye. That's the lighter side of the news in our tea break with QuickWire and their range of incredibly rapid electrical connectors. Click the link in the description to check them out for yourself. Now, just before we get to your favorite bit of the show where I reveal last week's challenge, words, and winners, we want to thank our premium partner. We couldn't make the news without you. They're 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. 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. Now, let's reveal the winners of last week's challenge word competition. Last week's words were banjo and spangles. And the first person to come out of our electronic hat was friend of the show and absolute legend Dave Friselle. Well done to you, Dave. Our Jen will be tearing her hair out about what to send you for a prize, but make sure you click the get involved link in the show notes. And now it's time for this week's weather from Joe 3PO and Fox ESS. So, England beat Mexico, which means social media has become completely unusable. Everybody's suddenly a football expert and apparently we're definitely winning the World Cup now. We'll see. In the meantime, let's look at a forecast that I'm reasonably qualified to talk about. But before we get into this week's forecast, a quick shout out to this week's Fox ESS premier partner, Brandon Brothers Company Limited. They ain't heavy because they are brothers, I guess. And for this week's solar barometer, we're heading to Park Road in Hartley. A quick look down the street shows rows of traditional homes with decent roof space, but surprisingly few solar panels. So, if you're based around Hartlepool, it might be worth taking a closer look. Okay, the weather. Tuesday, a warm and mostly dry day for much of England and Wales with some decent sunny spells around. Scotland and Northern Ireland look a little bit more mixed with the odd cloud and the odd shower trying to spoil the party. For solar owners further south, generation should be pretty healthy. Wednesday, high pressure starts to take more control. That means more settled weather, more sunshine, and temperatures starting to climb again. Thursday and Friday, the warmth really starts to build, especially across central and southern England. We could be looking at temperatures pushing into the high 20s, maybe even the low30s in places. The northwest may still see a bit more cloud and the odd shower, but for many areas, this is looking like a strong solar week. By the weekend, most places stay dry, warm, and bright. The best of the sunshine looks likely across England and Wales, while the far north and west may hang on to more cloud at times. So, drink plenty of water, find shade, and maybe don't book a loft job at 2 in the afternoon. Thanks for that update, Joe. This week, we've been lit by Flex 7 with their lightning fast pre-wired modular lighting connection system that keeps your installation times razor sharp. Don't forget to click the links in the show notes to find out more. Thanks for listening to this episode of Electrical News Weekly in association with Shelley, helping electricians offer smarter buildings and better energy management. Shelly's range of smart relays, sensors, and control devices makes it easy to add automation without the cost and disruption of rewiring. 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