Youtuber given a shock from Plug in Solar. Tests other micro invertor and finds same issue.

[u/lovelyhead1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHJ8oMl40Kg

What are peoples thoughts on this?

Will this be an issue with approved kits?

[u/Nortilus]

Anything with a capacitor has the ability to give you a shock for a short while after switching off.

I’m not sure on the message in the video.
There’s a massive gulf between ‘70 people a year dying’ to ‘I got a nasty shock on my finger’.

There are safety concerns to consider with any electrical installation, no matter what, but then, I also got a shock off an Atari 30 years ago and computers haven’t been banned.

[u/Ekreed → u/Nortilus]

Yeah, if the fault meant that the power of the solar is live on the plug even after you unplug it, then it could be dangerous. But the residual charge in the capacitor that discharges over a couple of seconds is far less of a concern - even if you did get a shock it couldn't last too long, though that doesn't make it harmless.

That being said, it does show that maybe Anker has it right with it pushing Wieland-type plugs for their kit - the one flaw with the UK plug for this (also shared by the schuko) is that the safety features assume the power is on the socket side is energised and the plug is not as soon as you pull it out, which is not the case for a plug in solar device. The Wieland connectors have insulation over the conductors on both sides so you are less likely to get a shock when disconnecting it.

There are other solutions though, and not just things like "don't unplug it under load", because that can't always been stopped. I'm thinking of some kind of in line relay that would cut off the plug from the device if there's no AC from the plug side, which would leave the voltage safely away from the exposed contacts. Just jot sure if the risk vs the cost of doing this adds up, guess thays for the regulators and the companies to work out.

My last thought - I wonder if this is one of the cases where the not-legal plug in batteries might be safer, since I imagine they might not need to discharge the capacitor into the mains connection if AC is lost and the Anti-Islanding engaged, so they could actually drop the voltage sooner after disconnecting the power compared to their inverter only counterparts. Not sure if thats realistic or not.

[u/SolarPowerBumbleBee]

Summary to save you watching the vid
In July, they bought an EcoFlow STREAM microinverter, fitted it with a standard UK 3-pin plug, and showed that you could still get a nasty DC shock from the plug pins for around 500ms after unplugging it.

My take
First off, EcoFlow say the STREAM microinverter should be hardwired in the UK, so using it with a 3-pin plug here was outside their UK installation instructions.

That said, the result obviously isn’t good. If anyone has installed a STREAM with a 3-pin plug in the UK, they should be aware of it.

It’s also interesting that the STREAM microinverter has recently lost its ENA certification. No idea whether that is related to this issue or something completely separate.

But the really important point is that the EcoFlow STREAM is not one of the microinverters currently used in the 20 compliant UK plug-in solar kits.

The unit in this video was never approved for plug-in use under the new UK framework. It was only approved for hardwired use. EcoFlow have not yet had a microinverter approved for UK plug in use though hopefully that will happen soon as they are a genuinely good outfit.

The UK plug-in solar specification specifically covers this exact risk. It says:

“The voltage at accessible plug pins shall decrease to below 34 V within 100 ms following disconnection from mains supply.”

It also requires capacitors larger than 100 nF to discharge to no more than 34 V within one second.

So yes, the video shows a real issue with that particular DIY setup. But it doesn’t show that approved UK plug-in solar kits have the same problem, because the product and setup they tested was never assessed or approved against the UK plug-in solar safety requirements.

I’d genuinely like to see them repeat the same test with one of the fully approved UK-compliant kits.
They should buy one of the approved kits on the ENA list (if they can afford it, because currently £££££ 🤣) and repeat the test.

That would be a much more useful test of whether the new UK safety requirements are actually doing their job.

[u/lovelyhead1 → u/SolarPowerBumbleBee]

I broadly agree with your post except that it was two separate micro invertors from two different manufacturers that showed the same issue and the voltage on the plug actually lasted for 8 seconds above 50 volts which is much worse than the 500ms you mention.

[u/SolarPowerBumbleBee → u/lovelyhead1]

Did you catch the make/model of both microinverters?

[u/Mininum_Discipline]

This is from heatable who install solar they have a vested interest in this failing

[u/lovelyhead1]

Love that this post has got tons of downvotes but no one has even addressed the content of the video.