Discuss MCS Accreditation in the Solar PV Forum | Solar Panels Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net
hi there easy mcs,
im a subby & working for a company at present installing solar pv. is it hard for a sole trader to gain mcs as i may have to possibly sub out between jobs & hopefully do my own jobs.
what do i need to get in order to prevent a million conformities??
i did the nic eic course for pv which was poor imo. anyhow i think it's pretty straight forward & any approved spark can do it after one install & being taken through the commisioning.
I am little confuse as to what is exactly needed and what costs are involved from day one to being granted MCS accreditation for a company, could somebody please list each step, what qualifications are needed, the costs of each step and qualifications, I need to submit a financial proposal and I need to get it right first time, there is different conflicting information and I have failed to find somebody to give me simple step-by-step, cost-by-cost guidance
I see electrical qualifications needed, I see schemes have to be joined, I see courses have to be taken, I see QMS have to be set up, I see inspections have to be made, so a little clarification would be appreciated.
Assume that I have no formal training or qualifications (although 20 years building experience)
Any help or information would be appreciated, and also pointing to the best places (and most reasonably priced) to gain all that is needed.
I am little confuse as to what is exactly needed and what costs are involved from day one to being granted MCS accreditation for a company, could somebody please list each step, what qualifications are needed, the costs of each step and qualifications, I need to submit a financial proposal and I need to get it right first time, there is different conflicting information and I have failed to find somebody to give me simple step-by-step, cost-by-cost guidance
I see electrical qualifications needed, I see schemes have to be joined, I see courses have to be taken, I see QMS have to be set up, I see inspections have to be made, so a little clarification would be appreciated.
Assume that I have no formal training or qualifications (although 20 years building experience)
Any help or information would be appreciated, and also pointing to the best places (and most reasonably priced) to gain all that is needed.
Hi Graeme,
I am happy to offer an insight into the process required to gain MCS accreditation.
Stage 1 - Product Training.
During the MCS inspection the assessor will look to see that you have been on an approved training course which covers the necessary elements within the MCS documents e.g. MIS3002 MCS guide to solar PV. The most common courses are NIC EIC, Logic, Bpec & the new and improved city and guilds 2399. The training will cover the requirements for mounting the panels, ensuring the roof is correctly sealed, connecting the inverters and completing the installation including informing the DNO and completing the G83 or G59 forms.
Stage 2 - you must have a quality management system that conforms to the standards outlined in the MIS001 Guide to MCS, this includes internal documents, external documents, forms and procedures. in the form of a document issue list. The assessor will spend around 70% of the day on this and will look to see that you have not only used it for an example installation but also that you fully understand it and can maintain the QMS going forward. This is the element that we offer and please feel free to contact one of our team to discuss this section further.
Stage 3 - Example Installation, you must use your experience in your chosen area i.e. electrician or heating engineer and the knowledge gaining during your product training alongside your management system to produce an example installation. This can be on your own property or a client’s house and once you are accredited will be full eligible for the FITS or RHI although only one installation can be completed prior to assessment.
Stage 4 - Assessment - The day would consist of around 70% on your QMS and 30% on the technology / example installation. They will look to see you have followed the procedures in your QMS and completed the installation in line with your training and experience. The assessor will take for granted that if you are qualified to do the work i.e. Part P and 17th edition you have the experience so will be more interested in the paper work. In 12 months’ time you will have your annual audit which will be conducted by a more technical inspector who will pick an installation at random to assess but will still be keen to see that you are maintaining your QMS.
I hope this helps and please keep the questions coming!
So to ensure I am reading it correctly the steps would be
1. Carry out appropriate Solar PV course
2. Set up or buy into a QMS/back office certification format
3. Complete sample install
4. Apply for assesment
Is this correct?
Morning guys,
Do you need to be NICEIC (or other) registered as a domestic installer or approved contractor for the MCS registration?
Regards
Hi Eco-Logic received our MCS accreditation last week. Great news 1 non conformity. However as members of easy mcs have you any templates which can be used to address the criteria for the Operation and Maintanence which is handed to a client. This encompasses the emergency shut down and operation of the system.
Anyone with any suggested references would be grateful accepted.
Mark
Hi MCS, We are currently looking to become MCS certified and have pretty much done most of the documentation, and have setup procedures, and quality management systems. We are in the process of creating handover documentation and wondered if there were any templates for the following requirements:
Procedures for verifying correct system operation
A checklist of what to do in case of a system failure
considerations for any future building works
And in terms of the warranty information, would we expect certificates from our product suppliers, or is it good enough to refer to stated warranties on websites and data sheets etc?
Thanks for your time,
Hi Imprints,
unfortunetely we can only advise on our own documents as we produce the entire quality management system, if you find that your management system needs any additional work we will be happy to provide you with one of our systems.
Hi, thanks for replying. Sorry for my ignorance, but I'm particularly interested in help with the handover documentation. Are you saying that we need to buy a package of some sort in order to get those (related) templates?
If so, how much?
And what about my question regarding the warranty information provided to customers. Is this included as part of a documentation package, or do you refer specifically to Product supplier information/docs (i.e. website, invoices, installation manuals etc)
Thank you very much for your help
Hi Imprints,
Easy MCS produce bespoke management systems for companies looking to gain MCS accreditation along with a mentor who will train you on the documents to ensure you are fully aware of how to use and maintain yoru system. Within our pack you will find some hand over documents although as you have mentioned the majority of the hand over is installation specific and contains relevant schematics, manuals and literature for that installation.
Thw warranty information is once again job specific as it relates to the products you supply and the warranty you give on your installation work.
I am sorry i cant be more specific as this falls out side of the QMS requirements.
Informative and very helpful
Hi all, We had our assessment yesterday and came out with a few NCR's. Can anyone recommend a good free version software package that produces a design plan? We were also picked up on not having a structural report, did others have this issue? Any recommendations? Money is tight so looking for anything thats free/cheap for the time being until we get a flow of work coming through.
Hi, we had the same issue with the structural considerations. We got a structural engineer to write us a letter for £50 declaring the safeness of the roof/house with the added weight. (plus wind/load considerations). We were told that we could have passed this bit (for free) by reading up on BRE 489 & BRE 495 documents (that are available for free online) and to do our own calculations. The problem was we didn't have the time, also the fact that although you can do your own calculations, there are no figures (that we could find) that shows what to compare our figures with. (to say whether we were ok or not). In terms of passing the MCS, they just want to know that we have taken wind/load into consideration, and as long as there seems to be some justification for our actions, this kinda helps them to remove liability from themselves. Hope that helps. Regards.
Cheers for that, did the engineer come out to site, or did you just provide him with the site survey?
It was all done remotely
(i know, the cheek of it!)
hi there
where can i find a copy of the solar irradiance map and also the sap calcs table H2 and H3.
apart from bre sap 2009 as i cant fing it in there
cheers
phil
Hi, we had the same issue with the structural considerations. We got a structural engineer to write us a letter for £50 declaring the safeness of the roof/house with the added weight. (plus wind/load considerations). We were told that we could have passed this bit (for free) by reading up on BRE 489 & BRE 495 documents (that are available for free online) and to do our own calculations. The problem was we didn't have the time, also the fact that although you can do your own calculations, there are no figures (that we could find) that shows what to compare our figures with. (to say whether we were ok or not). In terms of passing the MCS, they just want to know that we have taken wind/load into consideration, and as long as there seems to be some justification for our actions, this kinda helps them to remove liability from themselves. Hope that helps. Regards.
BRE489 is for wind loads and has calculations
BRE495 is for roof loads but I can not find calculations
so you can do the wind loads cals but not roof load or are the two the same ?
I never done the cals myself but paid for them to be done by local company ! but could save a few bob if I do them myself
Reply to MCS Accreditation in the Solar PV Forum | Solar Panels Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net
We get it, advertisements are annoying!
Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.