80V is not life threatening even with DC. If you do feel the need to put breakers on the panels, Just use a couple of Normal AC breakers. DC breakers are very expensive and no matter what any safety sissys might say, are just not needed in this application.
OK George so I am a safety sissy!! I have never heard anybody give such stupid advice on a public forum before and it is completely irresponsible,
Yeah, should have known. The typical saftey zealot high and mighty reply that ignores FACT and just subscribes to the cotton wool mentality.
The one giving stupid misinformation here is YOU!
Clearly you don't even know about what you are so quick to jump on the high horse and put shit on others about.
Look up the standards in the EU and most other parts of the world including Oz and most other western countries and see what 80V is classified as. Extra low voltage ( up to 120V in DC) that has low risk. I can't find the regulations for the UK and couldn't be fked looking for them as I'm sure they would be the same and even when I showed you they were considered low risk/danger, I'd get some typical reply like " Well I don't care, I don't think it's safe" or such idiotic excuses as so often trotted out by those who think what they think must be right regardless of regulations they just made a song and dance about.
DC breakers may be expensive in your opinion but they are essential for fire safety even if not for personal safety.
No, not on an 80V system. According to your country's regulations and many others, 80V is low risk and is NOT essential for personal safety at all. You should know what you are talking about before slagging off at people for giving bad advise when you own comments are so flawed.
QUALITY DC breakers ARE expensive here and in most parts, unlike the fleabay china crap that floods the market in the design you illustrated. There are decent DC switches out there but there are a lot that are dangerous junk and YOU should have noted that.
You may have been lucky so far, I hope your insurance assessor is kind when confronted with your burnt house and excuse for proper circuit breakers!
Ahh geez!
Not the insurance assessor fear mongering and ignorance. The favorite fall back of the safety zealots.
The FACT is, in this country at least and I suspect the rest of the western world ( with the exception of the US because they are safety/ insurance mad there) an insurance claim cannot be denied because of something unrelated.
In other words, If I have a kitchen fire or a flood, they can't deny it because the solar system on my shed isn't using a DC switch and had nothing to do with the problem.
Now I know that will send the saftey sissys into a flat spin of protest and denial and where you are -may- be different ( but probably not) so look it up and make sure you aren't spreading more FUD before a melt down over that. Here it is law.
As for luck, yeah right!
Just went through a very hot summer and I had the system cranking out more than it is rated to ( a feat in itself) and I had not one problem. I probably checked EVERYTHING 25+ times keeping an eye on temps, currents and everything else and the ONLY problem I had was during a bad storm one panel on the end of the string ripped it's fastenings right though the metal beam it was correctly attached to and flipped over. Of course homes round here lost roofs and sheds ended up 300M from where they were, but there was NO chance of fire or anything else with my setup because it is all done to well in excess of capacity even if it does not meet your personal proclivities and ignorance.
And luck has nothing to do with it. The insult in comments like yours is in fact you presume a person to be as ignorant as you and those like you, would be. I didn't just install these AC breakers thinking they would be ok, I suspected they may not. Like everything else I do that uncovers bullshit fear mongering like yours, I TESTED the things with a lot more power than what I intended putting through them BEFORE I installed them. I destructively tested a couple to see what they would do. $4 ea, what do I care as long as I know what they will and won't do. I also read up on a lot of things that are related so I had a good idea of the things taking place in relation to what I was doing and then put my theory to the test.
I posted what I did on another forum that has several electrical engineers and electronics experts on it and one guy also tested what I said and came back saying I was right. He was surprised but admitted he could not fault what I said no matter how hard he tried.
I would certainly you or anyone else conducting your own tests and showing the results. If' I'm wrong then I'm happy to learn but don't go spreading bullshit with things you don't know but just think don't agree with the safety crap you have been brainwashed with.
I only use the breakers as switches because I also learn that they won't work in an overload on DC. As such I have them 4x over rated which I don't think makes a lot of difference to the contacts but the trip current. In any case the AC side is equipped with lower rather breakers than the inverter manufacturer strangely suggests. Why they suggest breakers with a higher load rating that the inverter is capable of I do not know, but I put in lower ones so if there is any problems, they trip asap not allow the inverter to keep pushing current beyond it's rating however that may happen. Worst happens my system switches off. I can live well with that.
Like so many other things I have found in so many other areas, the parroted High horse safety mantras parroted by the ignorant are flawed and are not applicable in the practice I am putting them to.
I do NOT suggest anyone go do anything that goes against normal application unless they test it for themselves and find out the story. The number of things you read on the saftey obsessed internet that don't stack up are more in my experience than the ones that do.
I also have a couple of over temp sensors installed so if anything does get too warm, the system again shuts down.
Don't assume just because someone does not use the regulation equipment they are not being cautious or know what they are doing.
I'd stack my setup against anything built to regulation in real world failure testing. Of course there is also the subtle fact this is on the shed which can burn to the ground and poses no danger to people or my home nor anyone elses.
[/quote]Here is a picture of what I use, I think it cost me ~£7 on Ebay and is a sound investment that should not be skimped, in the UK at least it is illegal to fit inappropriately rated switchgear and if someone happened to be injured or serious property damage result you would probably be facing a custodial sentence. [/quote]
BWHAHAHAHAHA!
In the 2 min of research I did on your laws, I found enough to see what you have there IS illegal! Oh the irony!!
Hope no one does get injured from what ever you are running because YOU will be facing the custodial sentence.
Unreal!
People are so quick to jump on others with BS safety sooking and make a big deal of rules and regs and then prove their ignorance in SHOWING that they are in breach themselves!
You seriously couldn't make this up but it's certainly nothing new. And NO, I'mknot going to tell you what is wrong with it. I'll do you a favor and encourage you ( not that I think you will) to look up the laws you are so passionate about and see where you have gone wrong IF you were running an over 120V system but in any case shooting yourself in the foot in your comments and indignation here.
IF the voltages you are running DO come under the regs, then you ARE in breach of them.... not that you even realised despite the grandstanding. One look at that Picture and I said to myself that's not right and looked up YOUR regs and sure enough!
The fact you accuse me of stupid and irresponsible advise and then show that would be laughable if it were not so hypocritical and potentially dangerous itself.
Again, proves to me that the people whom are the most dangerous of all are not the people who know they are not following rules and regs, but the ones that THINK they are!
The thing that also makes me laugh is you are promoting the use of those cheap switches completely oblivious as to how many of those have CAUSED fires and the HUGE amount of known problems with them! You say in the same sentence they are a sound investment and should not be skimped on then you mention that it is in effect potentially some cheap arse Chinese switch from Fleebay. The one you have may be OK but many of those cheap shit switches are pitifully under rated and have all sorts of problems which if you did any home work, you would see are responsible for more problems and fires than any other component in a solar system. You are in every way better off NOT to have one of these cheap switches installed IF it is not approved as so many on the market are not.
It would pay to clarify this so you are not giving the irresponsible information you accuse others of.
These switches are NOT all the same and need to be looked at carefully to make sure they are decent and up to the task.
Normally I agree with much of what you say but in this case I do not.
I quite like people disagreeing with what I say -IF- their position is based on sound and intelligent facts or reasoning. I learn a lot that way. I still learnt something with you talking garbage but it reflects much more poorly on yourself than I.
In this case you launch into calling my comments stupid and irresponsible when in fact they are anything but and every rebuttal you give is completely flawed, laughable and even illegal in what you are doing yourself when you take issue with what I suggested.
You can call me or what I say anything you like. Just make sure you are not making a Hypocrite of yourself by talking crap and basing your position on flawed and incorrect assumptions rather than KNOWING what you are talking about.... especially when it can be factually shown what you said was wrong.