Discuss consumer unit smoking in the Solar PV Forum | Solar Panels Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Welcome to ElectriciansForums.net - The American Electrical Advice Forum
Head straight to the main forums to chat by click here:   American Electrical Advice Forum

Reaction score
14
Here is a picture of the garage type cu that connects my 15kW solar to the main fuse. The brown wire was too short so two pieces were joined with a choc block. My electrician suggested that the chock block screws were too loose & caused the smouldering. He has replaced all the wires & in doing so noticed the screws in the mcb were not tight either. The image shows that the metal case was a couple of millimetres from the live insides of the melted chock block. That was lucky as I was messing about with the tripping fuse the evening before & it had 30 Amps running through it! Also we were told we were days away from a serious fire.
I suppose chock blocks should not have been used & if so made sure they were tight. I am so grateful that my wife smelled the burning & turned it all off until my good friend turned up to fix it. Solar electricians may need their work checking, what do you think.

consumer unit smoking garage consumer unit fire - EletriciansForums.net
 
Here is a picture of the garage type cu that connects my 15kW solar to the main fuse. The brown wire was too short so two pieces were joined with a choc block. My electrician suggested that the chock block screws were too loose & caused the smouldering. He has replaced all the wires & in doing so noticed the screws in the mcb were not tight either. The image shows that the metal case was a couple of millimetres from the live insides of the melted chock block. That was lucky as I was messing about with the tripping fuse the evening before & it had 30 Amps running through it! Also we were told we were days away from a serious fire.
I suppose chock blocks should not have been used & if so made sure they were tight. I am so grateful that my wife smelled the burning & turned it all off until my good friend turned up to fix it. Solar electricians may need their work checking, what do you think.

View attachment 49386
Need to get that looked at PDQ Mate, who ever did that butchery want reporting to the Electric Police
 
To be honest,that looks pretty standard,for that type of installation...seen dozens as good or worse.

The bit i would be interested in,would be if the panels were correctly and professionally attached to the roof...and if they were pointing at the sun...
 
Don’t get me started on solar PV installers :mad:

I was pointing out,that the emperor had no clothes on,many years back,with some of the larger compliance outfits,accusing me of trying to spoil the party...

I have had a few calls,since,from the same folk,asking for suggestions on methods of rectifying and retro-fitting...

I suppose,it's like,say...somebody had incorrectly and without thought,injected cavity wall insulation,in thousands of houses,with various schemes,bonuses and incentives,to keep the job happy for all....and then the problems start,and returning to square-one,is exceedingly troublesome:rolleyes:

But that's just hypothetical....could never happen:cool:
 
hmmm, I'm sure there are many solar installers who know what they are doing but there are also a lot that jumped on the get rich quick band waggon as soon as it took off.
The gas safe people wouldn't allow a 3 day intensive course for people who wanted to install only micro-generating boilers, so why is it acceptable for people to do a short fast track to install electrics in peoples homes?

In that 1 small box, there are so many things wrong, I wonder what the rest of the install is like.
 
It's a classic poor connection that's overheated due to poor workmanship. Obviously isolate the power and get a decent sparky in for half an hour to fix it.

If the same installer worked elsewhere on the electrical installation I'd suggest you get the sparky to make a fully inspection of the CU and test the final circuits whilst he's there, it would be money well spent to ensure your safety and peace of mind.
 
It was always a time bomb waiting to go off when they decided to mix Proteus rubbish with the Curve rubbish IMHO!
 
Here is a picture of the garage type cu that connects my 15kW solar to the main fuse. The brown wire was too short so two pieces were joined with a choc block. My electrician suggested that the chock block screws were too loose & caused the smouldering. He has replaced all the wires & in doing so noticed the screws in the mcb were not tight either. The image shows that the metal case was a couple of millimetres from the live insides of the melted chock block. That was lucky as I was messing about with the tripping fuse the evening before & it had 30 Amps running through it! Also we were told we were days away from a serious fire.
I suppose chock blocks should not have been used & if so made sure they were tight. I am so grateful that my wife smelled the burning & turned it all off until my good friend turned up to fix it. Solar electricians may need their work checking, what do you think.

View attachment 49386
How many days away were you?
 

Reply to consumer unit smoking in the Solar PV Forum | Solar Panels Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc
This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by Untold Media. Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

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.

I've Disabled AdBlock