Having the panel fitted, and a socket put in outside

What you can do yourself

The specification is written for panels that an ordinary person can install and use. You can stand it up, connect it and put the plug in a socket without calling anyone.

The same document is clear about the rest of it. Anything that means testing your house wiring, or changing it, is a job for a qualified electrician. It also tells you to get an electrician to look at any socket you have doubts about, and to ask your insurer whether the panel changes anything.

The socket in the yard

If the plug and socket are outside the house, the socket has to be rated IP55 or better. On a terrace with the yard behind it, that is usually the only real work in the job, because the nearest indoor socket is often on the other side of a solid wall.

Where cables run from outdoors into the house, the manufacturer has to supply the DC connectors and written instructions for the route. The inverter, plug and socket can all be indoors if that suits the house, so a house with nothing outside can still take a panel.

Things you cannot use with it

Four items are ruled out. The warning has to appear on the panel itself and in the instructions.

• Extension cables
• Multi-way adaptors
• RCD adaptors
• Travel adaptors

This matters for a panel standing out in a yard, because that is the situation where people reach for a reel out of the shed. If the socket is too far away, you need another socket.

When the circuit needs work

Only one plug-in panel is allowed per final ring circuit, and the network rules bring that down to one per household anyway. If connecting it means changing the final circuit, for example replacing the overcurrent protection device under section 551.7.2 of BS 7671, only a qualified electrician can do that work.

Older wiring is common in this part of the country, and it is a reason to have someone look at the consumer unit before you buy rather than after.

Checking a product listing

You can check most of this against any product page yourself.

• 800 VA of apparent power to the mains, and no more than 3.5 A of current.
• The panels can total up to 2000 W on the DC side. Panel wattage and output are two different numbers, so a listing that quotes one of them is telling you half.
• Above 960 W of panel capacity the specification advises a professional assessment of whether the installation suits the building.
• One inverter can take four panels at most, with two in series as the limit inside any one string.
• The manufacturer has to register the device on the ENA Type Test Register and get confirmation that it was assessed as compliant before selling it. Check the register yourself before you buy. A kit that has skipped that step will not be on it.

Questions about fitting