Solar COC Findings

thehuman said:
propertyprofessional.co.za

Understanding how solar system installation CoCs work - Property Professional

More and more sellers have solar systems installed, which require a valid CoC. Simple right? There are key criteria without which a solar CoC could well be invalid.
propertyprofessional.co.za propertyprofessional.co.za
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You are missing the point here, any person can do any work on a building, they by no means have to be an electrician, plumber, builder etc... whether that work is legal or not is up to the inspector who is signing off the various certificates after the work is completed.
 
Wrath of Khan MD said:
You are missing the point here, any person can do any work on a building, they by no means have to be an electrician, plumber, builder etc... whether that work is legal or not is up to the inspector who is signing off the various certificates after the work is completed.
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True , but problem is when house burns down and insurance going after master electrician who was supposed to supervise the install ( person who signed coc)
Side note i installed our own solar system
 
The typical DC breaker in SA is terrible and not a replacement for fuses.

Its only really good for disconnecting once everything has been shut down and there is no current through them. You can find lots of pictures of them online after catching fire.
 
Wrath of Khan MD said:
fuses are faster than breakers and are completely fail safe, breakers are not....

  • how many strings have you got? As far as I know the regs state that if it's 3 or more then you will require fuses.

the regs normally don't say you can have this or that, it will just state that there must be protection for reverse current flow.
circuit breakers are normally for over current, whilst fuses can protect on reverse current flow <-- and I think this is what your insurance company is saying why they will not cover you.
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Is a string an array of solar panels? If so I have 4, but 2 inverters in parallel so each inverter carries 2 sets of panels.
 
Syphonx said:
Is a string an array of solar panels? If so I have 4, but 2 inverters in parallel so each inverter carries 2 sets of panels.
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a 'string' is just a series of solar panels all connected. The key being "series" so lets say your panels make 50V & 5amps each and you have 10 of them, then you've got 500V % 5amps.

the string would be per inverter which is dependant on the mppt etc. So if your inverter can have 2 mppts and you have 2 inverters in parallel then you can run 4 mppts, but each inverter voltage must be respected obviously. So with your setup it sounds like you are running 2 mppts per inverter (2 strings of panels going into each inverter, 4 total) each mppt string has X amount of panels on them, that string will be determined by the total DC voltage those panels produce, with some leeway for temperature fluctuations.

  • if the OP insurance company is questioning the fact he doesn't have a DC fuse, then just install one it is so easy... chop chop and your insurance company is happy? why take the risk... a DC fuse is probably like R100 and 5 min to install.
 
Wrath of Khan MD said:
a 'string' is just a series of solar panels all connected. The key being "series" so lets say your panels make 50V & 5amps each and you have 10 of them, then you've got 500V % 5amps.

the string would be per inverter which is dependant on the mppt etc. So if your inverter can have 2 mppts and you have 2 inverters in parallel then you can run 4 mppts, but each inverter voltage must be respected obviously. So with your setup it sounds like you are running 2 mppts per inverter (2 strings of panels going into each inverter, 4 total) each mppt string has X amount of panels on them, that string will be determined by the total DC voltage those panels produce, with some leeway for temperature fluctuations.

  • if the OP insurance company is questioning the fact he doesn't have a DC fuse, then just install one it is so easy... chop chop and your insurance company is happy? why take the risk... a DC fuse is probably like R100 and 5 min to install.
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Yes so I have 2 strings per inverter.

Insurance wasn't questioning the COC because I hadn't submitted it to them. I wasn't sure if they would question it at all, but if I did claim I didn't want the flag to be a reason to invalidate the claim.
 
Syphonx said:
Yes so I have 2 strings per inverter.

Insurance wasn't questioning the COC because I hadn't submitted it to them. I wasn't sure if they would question it at all, but if I did claim I didn't want the flag to be a reason to invalidate the claim.
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They either will accept it or not. If they accept it as is then you are insured and have been up front about the state of the installation and they accept the risk or will add an exception to your agreement.
As I understand it the law requires over current protection on DC circuits if your breakers meet that standard you should be good. But its probably better to send it and ask if they are happy than find out its not sufficient after something happens.
 
B-1 said:
They either will accept it or not. If they accept it as is then you are insured and have been up front about the state of the installation and they accept the risk or will add an exception to your agreement.
As I understand it the law requires over current protection on DC circuits if your breakers meet that standard you should be good. But its probably better to send it and ask if they are happy than find out its not sufficient after something happens.
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ja but imagine your house burns down and they refuse your claim, because after digging they find out that you had no reverse current protection, just something weird... now because you didn't spend R100 they won't pay you out for your R5m house... the point of an insurance claim is for the insurance company to find any and every loop hole for them NOT to pay you out.
 
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