BS 7671 : 2018 + A4 : 2026

I see 551.7.1 has been expanded, I wonder how this will impact the plug in solar debate?

Not at all as BS 7671 does not deal with anything that plugs in to and installation other than caravans.

Have you received your copy already? I'm not expecting to see mine before the weekend, at the earliest.

Ross C said:

Have you received your copy already?

I believe those who use VitalSource platform can see it already.

John, I agree that BS 7671 imposes no requirements upon anything which may be plugged in, but what about 411.3.3? Whether there must be additional protection for a socket-outlet depends upon who is using it and where it is being used.

Then there is 551.7.2, which prohibits connection of a generating set by means of a plug and socket-outlet. Arguably, whatever plug-in solar is connected to becomes an inlet just as a caravan has one (721.55.1).

Mark Coles did not rule out the possibility of an Amendment 5 this morning. I cannot help feeling that BS 7671 cannot ignore small-scale solar just because it is plugged in.

Do we know who will be delivering it please? (The postman has already been today.)

I have the digital copy, it turned up this morning

Chris Pearson said:

I cannot help feeling that BS 7671 cannot ignore small-scale solar just because it is plugged in.

I agree that it's now a reasonably-foreseeable use-case, although there are currently no product standards that cover such devices.

John Peckham said:

Not at all as BS 7671 does not deal with anything that plugs in to and installation other than caravans.

I would, however, agree with JP's point ... if there are "integration issues" with plug-in solar, those "integration issues" aren't going to go away just because a future amendment of BS 7671 is aligned with the use-case. There are millions of electrical installations in use, and the products must take that into account somehow.

If the product standard's answer is to put a line in the instructions to get the electrical installation checked out before you connect ... well, that's not going to flick the switch on the up-take of safe plug-in solar, is it?

I've no specific information on this occaision, but on previously I think it has been DHL.

I would gather that a plug in solar appliance will need it's own standard anyway which provides for safety and takes precedence over BS 7671.

The big one back to BS 7671 would be the recent content on bi-directonal devices. But if the truth be told that's just a solution to the manufacturers failing to read the upstream MIs from the sensor chip manufacturers - hence virtually all new RCBOs are bi-directonal. 

And of course issues to do with overload protection on 32A ring finals.

I would gather that a plug in solar appliance will need it's own standard anyway which provides for safety and takes precedence over BS 7671.

The big one back to BS 7671 would be the recent content on bi-directonal devices. But if the truth be told that's just a solution to the manufacturers failing to read the upstream MIs from the sensor chip manufacturers - hence virtually all new RCBOs are bi-directonal. 

And of course issues to do with overload protection on 32A ring finals.

Keir Stitt said:

upstream MIs from the sensor chip manufacturers

I though it was a 'design'/circuit configuration issue in the main, and there was no upstream sensor chip that said something different. The design didn't include switching off of the 'sense'/test line after tripping in a 'reversed' operation.

Any extra info on such upstream sensor chip limitations?