Sunology Solar Station - will this work?

jagdipa

I was looking into solar energy and batteries, and found this - https://sunology.eu/en-gb/products/sunology-play-kit-solaire?. It claims to be a solar panel that you can directly plug into a wall socket and it will start feeding electricity into your house. Will this actually work?

CSI_Yorkshire

It's a solar panel and inverter in one package.  So apart from being a French plug it'll work well enough.

Not really a lot of power coming out of only one panel though.

lohr500

Not a good idea as you could end up electrocuting anyone working on the mains feed to your house if there is a power cut. You really need a proper two way mains switch which toggles between the mains input supply to your house and any external power supply.

 I presume that the kit fitted by professionals to allow generated power to be fed back to the grid from solar panels etc is designed to avoid feeding power back somehow when mains voltage is lost.

CSI_Yorkshire

lohr500 said:

 I presume that the kit fitted by professionals to allow generated power to be fed back to the grid from solar panels etc is designed to avoid feeding power back somehow when mains voltage is lost.

So does the inverter in this device.

You don't need any sort of "two way mains switch", and it will not electrocute anyone working on the mains.

lohr500

Thanks for the clarification. I should have read all the info contained on the webpage link 👍

jagdipa

Thanks everyone - I'm wondering how much electricity it can generate.

I have an EV that sits on my driveway most of the day (the advantages of working from home!). So I was wondering whether I could use something like this to trickle charge the EV?

Dolor

jagdipa said:

Thanks everyone - I'm wondering how much electricity it can generate.

I have an EV that sits on my driveway most of the day (the advantages of working from home!). So I was wondering whether I could use something like this to trickle charge the EV?

It will not work. Under EV charging standards, OBCs need a minimum of 1.3kW to charge (as per the Zappi 2 Eco+ mode).

This is what it states in the FAQ:

‘Being a novel technology, you may connect the AC module output directly to a standard power socket (13A or more) for photovoltaic outputs of up to a maximum of 800W.

According to the Connection Procedures Guidance Document provided by the Nationalgrid DNO, microgenerating systems fall into 4 categories.
Type A: Greater than 800W & less than 1MW 
Type B: 1MW to less than 10MW 
Type C: 10MW to < 50MW 
Type Greater than or equal to 50MW or where CP is >110kV

Note: The threshold refers to the power of the inverter, not the solar panel.

Due to this jurisdiction, we have limited the maximum amount of PLAY stations per household to 2 to fall under the 800W threshold. It is important that the socket is grounded and protected by a residual current circuit breaker (RCD) of at least 30mA, which should be located in the main electrical panel of your home.’

QrizB

jagdipa said:

 Will this actually work?

Yes it will work.

No it will not comply with UK wiring regs (unless you install a dedicated circuit as described in the previous post).

Whether this bothers you or not is for you to decide.

Edit to add: at £749 for 405 watts, it's not all that much cheaper than (so 2-3x as expensive per watt) this 1kW kit:

https://www.bimblesolar.com/ongrid/solar-grid-nostorage?product_id=1380

There is a bit more work involved with the Bimble kit, but if you're capable of installing a dedicated circuit you're also capable of plugging together the components. Or if you employ a sparky, they can do it all for you.

CSI_Yorkshire

jagdipa said:

Thanks everyone - I'm wondering how much electricity it can generate.

I have an EV that sits on my driveway most of the day (the advantages of working from home!). So I was wondering whether I could use something like this to trickle charge the EV?

Not enough to charge an EV.  It's about 1/7th of the power of a 13A plug charger. .

And nowhere near the "17% of your bill" that they claim on their website.

Dolor

It would be wise to have a word with your home insurer. They are happy with PV solar as it requires an electrical safety certificate but I suspect ‘plug and play’ would give them something to think about.

CSI_Yorkshire

Don't bother.  Your home insurer will not care.