Another Day, Another Near Death Experience In Solar

A recent solar social post made a vivid point about the economic cost and outright danger posed by bad workmanship and ignorance.

So I thought it would be worth examining here to explain why we have standards and why, in a first-world society, you have to be prepared to employ people who know what they’re doing.

The photo above shows a garden variety AC power cable that was run through a tile roof by a thoughtless imbecile or DIY enthusiast.

That hole you can see punched through the cable was made by a tile bracket screw. To quote the industry professional holding the screw gun, he “nearly [florid expletive] died” in the process and I don’t blame him for swearing.

Why didn’t this bloke with the power tool look where he was pointing it? Well, he did, it’s just that the cable in question was placed illegally and rendered invisible by a conductive layer of foil sarking.

Rules Are There For A Reason

Threading wires over the top of a rafter might be quick and easy, but anyone familiar with AS3000 knows full well it’s a cardinal sin to run wiring within 50 mm of a finished surface, precisely because it’s easy to drive a screw or nail through it when you don’t know it’s there.

Roof tiles are a finished surface, and if you’d like to argue the rafters are 50 mm below it, there’s a special place in hell for you to listen to kids who lost their Dad in an industrial accident. Thankfully, this accident didn’t claim anyone because the circuit breaker tripped as designed, the safety standards were adequate, the system worked.

And that’s just the thing. A true patriot gets a parking fine and rejoices that the system works! So I guess we should be pleased when laws are enforced, and people realise the consequences of their actions, but the grubs who did this little bit of wiring aren’t likely to be caught.

Exceptions Are Few

You can carve a channel into masonry walls, secure wiring, and plaster over the top with sand and cement; that’s acceptable for a single-leaf brick wall on edge or a solid stone wall.

Australian houses are generally framed with 90 mm timbers. Once you add 10 mm of cladding on both sides, there’s enough wiggle room to run a cable down the middle and still be 50 mm from each surface. If your walls are thinner or there’s some obstruction, the wiring must be mechanically protected by at least 2 mm of steel. The easiest way to imagine that is a piece of galvanised water pipe, or in other words, something pretty much nail-proof.

RCD Safety Switches Save Lives

It’s a legality that if you change the supply by adding a battery, everything downstream must be brought up to current standards. Sadly, some unscrupulous operators ignore the requirement or lay it as a trap when offering a cut-price quote.

When considering a solar, or especially a battery system installation, you’ll often need to put aside a separate budget for switchboard upgrades, even if it’s just to make more room. The fact of the matter is that the rules were updated in April 2021, so if you haven’t had an electrician visit in the last handful of years, there’s work to be done. From 30 April 2023, Type AC RCDs were prohibited in new installations, alterations, additions, and certain replacements.

Type AC safety switches (on the left) are better than nothing; however, if you get a quote for a switchboard upgrade over the phone and they ask for pictures, these symbols must be legible. Otherwise, you are better off replacing the whole lot.

Electrical Fires Aren’t Uncommon

I’ve recently attended a house to examine the aftermath of a fire that started under an inverter, next to a battery, in a domestic garage. It didn’t make the news, and when I quizzed the Office of the Technical Regulator, they didn’t really raise an eyebrow. These things happen sometimes, and when you put in large solar power systems, they’ll crop up more often.

Not to be alarmist, it’s just a fact that when you’re using more electricity in a modern all-electric home, there will be more chances for things to go wrong.

Every day is a thermal cycle: every time you use an appliance that draws heavily on the mains, or every day you move lots of power to or from the grid for hours on end, the wiring and connections are heated and cooled. Eventually, the connections can relax, and when things start to get loose, then bad joints under high load cause excess heat, and the vicious circle ramps up until a terminal blowout or blowup.

I digress because that’s a story we’ll cover in more detail soon.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

I’ve written before about standards and about DIY electrical. I’ve been flamed by the handymen in the cheap seats and I get it, you’re out to save money like they do in the UK. The thing is, many don’t appreciate rules, like keeping cables 50 mm away from walls, floors, roofs, or ceilings. Even if they’re not deliberate, they simply don’t know they’re cutting corners.

Electricians, and indeed the general public, rely on everyone adhering to standards, following conventions, and abiding by the law because it keeps us all safe.

And remember, when you buy a few items from the hardware shop, on the shelf with a “licensed trades only” sticker on it, you might not save much. When you ring an electrician and ask for a price, there’s every chance they’ll double the estimate if you say “I’ve already got all the gear” because nobody likes working with cheap junk for cheapskates.

Pics Or It Didn’t Happen

I’ve broken this short video down into the salient points with a few explainers. Shout out to Paul from Brightside Solar for making people aware of this crap.

Perfectly standard tile bracket screwed down to a rafter

Screw out & zoom out to see the blue foil sarking has been cut to find out what’s going on here

Remove the stainless steel bracket

The plastic packer prevents the bracket from crushing & breaking the tile. Different profiles need different spacers or brackets.

WHAT have we got HERE?

Oh that’s no good. That doesn’t belong there. Hopefully, there’s enough slack to cut and repair this cable.

Even if it wasn’t pierced, the cable had been crushed so tightly under the bracket that it’s now impressed a pattern on the timber rafter.

Grubs… It’s the understatement of the year.

What I’d really like to see is better-resourced state government regulators who could inspect and police this sort of practice. While governments have spent well on incentivising the new energy systems we need, they haven’t put additional money into the technical regulators who have the power to impose fines or strip licences from dodgy operators.

If a hidden wiring fault can nearly take out a professional electrician, it’s worth knowing what to ask before anyone touches your switchboard. Standards exist because they save lives. Get quotes from vetted installers who won’t cut corners like this one did.