The Australian Standard for home battery installations is quite strict about where solar batteries can and can’t go. [Read more…]
Bird Proofing Solar Panels: Lessons Learnt From Bitter Experience
Image Credit: “a rat with wings smashing a solar panel, in the style of Banksy” DALL-E & Finn Peacock
Protecting Your Solar From Sky Rats and Other Feral Disasters
I recall the days installing solar panels on a petrol station roof and the distinct feeling we were being watched. [Read more…]
One Point Two Five; It’s Like Orwell’s 1984, But For Solar
Image Credit: Glen Morris. Typeface & Design Credit: Beelzebub & his helpers from Standards Australia.
The recently updated Australian Standard for solar installations, AS5033:2021, contains the following clause that has caused a few headaches for solar installers and designers: [Read more…]
The One Question You MUST Ask Any Solar Installer (+ 6 Other Solar Buying Mistakes)
You may have read Finn’s original ‘7-mistakes’ article, followed by ex WA-installer Kim’s take and SA Installer Chris’s version. Now here are the biggest mistakes I’ve seen people make buying solar during my years on and off the roofs of South Australia: [Read more…]
My Shed Is 75+ Metres Away, Can I Put Solar Panels On It?
Image: StarryAI “Big Shed With Solar Panels”
Top tips for installing solar on your man-cave. Or lady-lair.
So there’s a shed at your place that seems ideal for solar panels, but it’s well down the back of the block. Can you install solar panels on it, and if so, how much? [Read more…]
The Most Challenging Solar Installation I Ever Did
(trigger warning for solar nerds – this story has a very sad ending)
Finn asked me to write a post on the worst solar installation I ever had to do. The worst? Ah, let me count the ways I could interpret that… this could become a series. [Read more…]
The Pragmatist’s Guide to Violating Solar Panel Exclusion Zones
When it comes to installing solar arrays on buildings, one particularly edgy subject is exclusion zones. [Read more…]
Conduit & Solar Inverters: The Good, Bad & Fugly
Looks fine from my house…
The $200, 2-inch thick, spiral-bound ‘AS/NZS 3000 Electrical Installations’ is also known as The Wiring Rules, The Book, or The Bible. Electricians use it to beat each other over the head when they feel a fellow sparkie has strayed from the true path of holy electrical compliance. [Read more…]
The Ugly Truth About Conduit And Solar Panels
Cable conduit can look awful on a solar roof, and is overused by crap installers. But sometimes a little bit of rooftop rigid conduit can be justified. Image: Crap Solar Facebook Group
Protective electrical conduit is a small part of every solar install, but using it properly can make or break both the compliance and the aesthetics of that job.
This post will explore the use of cable conduit in and on a solar roof. [Read more…]
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