Got Solar PV? Don’t let the kids play on the roof
Would you like a 240Volt shock with that?
In Australia, shonky fly-by-night installers are botching the wiring and not screwing the panels on properly. As many as a quarter of solar panels pose a high or severe “electrical safety” risk. Since there are two million households with solar panels, that’s half a million homes sitting under a live problem.
By mismanagement and delusional climate-changing schemes the government has entirely and artificially created the solar bubble. Hopefully people won’t die like they did in the Pink Batts Bubble. Back then, to stop droughts and storms and save the nation from the Global Financial Crisis, the government decided to rush out home insulation. The artificial bubble brought in poorly trained workers and four people died. Kevin Rudd (former PM) now says he wouldn’t have done it if he’d known the risks. But heck, way back in 2010 no one could have realized that artificial government industry bubbles wouldn’t mix well with 240 Volts. Sure.
Australia’s big advance seems to be to stop unnecessary deaths under roofs, and start doing them on top.
Warning of deaths over solar panel installations
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Simon Benson, The Australian
Energy Minister Angus Taylor has written to his state counterparts to warn that lives could be at risk from unsafe or sub-standard solar panel installations, with a national audit report finding up to one-quarter of all rooftop units inspected posed a severe or high risk.
The national audit of the Renewable Energy Target has revealed that between 21 and 26 per cent of small-scale rooftop solar installations inspected every year since 2011 had been found to have faulty wiring and unsecured panels. Some posed a “severe risk” where wiring was exposed. This required units to be shut down immediately and remediated.
A total of 35 licensed installation contractors have been warned they face the possibility of suspension…
There are so many upstart sharks in the solar installation industry that the faulty panels they leave behind are known as “solar orphans”.
Fly-by-night operators installing faulty solar panels
Sam Buckingham-Jones, The Australian
Rod Grono spends about half of his time repairing poorly installed and cheap solar panels in Sydney’s west. ‘‘Solar orphans’’, as the 50-year-old boss of Western Sydney Solar calls them, are installed quickly by companies that fold, change their name or simply don’t answer phones or complaints.
“I get a lot of calls. A lot of them are solar orphans. The sharks have come in, they’ve whacked it in. No design, no care, poor workmanship,” Mr Grono said. “There are thousands that have closed. They change their name, they have a different director. Half of my customers are solar orphans. The companies may be there, but they don’t answer.”
I know a team who’ve been installing panels for ten years and they plan to get out because the margins are wafer thin, and they can’t compete with cut-price teams who won’t survive long enough to honor their warrantees. More fun coming in Australia.
If the cat goes missing, check the roof (and turn the power off).
h/t Belatedly to Pat