Solar panels electrical connection to mains.

Isolate?

If I ever get around to rewiring this house with solar and storage etc..., I'll probably move the lighting completely onto extra low voltage (<50v AC), adding other 24/7 circuits like IT that have suitable power supplies.

I'd leave heavy, mostly resistive loads, on the grid.

Dunno where I'd get lower voltage domestic light bulbs. Probably would have to adapt or make them.

Just checked the tag on mine - no identifying marks It was replaced with the smart meter and new tails install.

when I was at university (c 1960) there were 50v tungsten light bulbs available. One of the colleges used 50v AC.

There are lighting systems that work on 48v power-over-ethernet. You just wire some cat5 to each fixture. It's handy for offices where they can use the same wiring for lighting, sensors and wireless access points, and also do central control, like dimming across the building based on sunlight.

Theo

Use centre-tapped 100V supply (so only 50V per conductor) to run SMPS LED drivers that can handle down to 90V feed?

One of the main reasons I'm not letting anyone into the house to "save me money" scam by fitting a "smart meter".

My old meter temporarily lends excess electricity to the neighbours when it's sunny then takes it back when the sun goes in.

No electricity "theft" going on as all units in excess of those produced are paid for at the going extortionate rate.

tnp is no expert on solarthermal.

If you read the government requirements it says that "smart" meters are preferable. Nowhere does it say that they are compulsory, and here is where my surplus solar energy starts. It cannot have a "smart" meter at my property and because just about every sphincter who writes policies for electricity companies cannot understand the difference between the words preferable and compulsory I am struggling to find anyone willing to purchase my surplus power. Today I have had an aircon unit running and at times added fan heaters outdoors just to dump the surplus. Morally a criminal act in these days of fuel poverty.

In my (limited) experience the next electricity company man will fit a new seal after a few questions but without charge.

The last time was after everything including the breaker box had been replaced. We had rubber wiring. In contact with a thatched roof.

Andy

What will happen if you break the tag/wire on the main fuse - absolutely nothing.

If you (like I did) need to do something rather fundamental with the incoming wiring it makes *much* more sense to pull the main fuse and do the changes safely than to leave the fuse in place and risk 'working live'. As long as you haven't done anything 'naughty' then whoever sees that the wire/tag on the fuse has been removed really isn't going to care.

At one time some prisons had 50VAC lighting in the cells.

Bill

I cut the seal on the cutout fuse when I replaced the CU, none of the meter readers noticed for about a decade until they came to fit my smart meter.

They upgraded the fuse from 60 to 80, upgraded their 16mm tails to 25mm to match mine, and re-sealed fuse fuse and the isolator I'd fitted.

No questions were asked.

Tim

Invest in your own battery system ?

Like mine :-) (but I have moved the single ring main to a separate MK CU with RCD protection and separated the house into 2 rings, then powered the MK CU by running some 10mm t&e from the original 30amp wylex rewireable fuse to power the MK CU).

Lights,cooker and immersion are still on original rewireable fuses.

Relative removed his company fuse without breaking the seal by waggling the carrier back as far as the slack in the seal would allow and getting a long thin insulated screwdriver inside and undid the entire carrier that the seal was attached to.

You really are clueless. There is (or was) bathroom fitting company in the village and they also fitted solar water heating system. They had a demo installation at their showroom with the panel at the front of the building at head height and all the pipework and pumps etc on show inside. I went in to get some brochures on an overcast winter day (mild outside). The pipes coming from the panel were definatelya lot warmer that I would have expected.

I got sunburnt while working in Fiji on an overcast day

That because you dont do sums

Anyone who ever operated a camera before the days of automatic meters knows that you are at least tow stops down in overcast, that is at best one quarter of the power, and generally in winter its less than 10%.

And for less time in the day too.

Another f****ng liar. I have worked in the tropics too. Extensively.