Solar panels and power cuts.

Just wondered if a house with solar panels suffered a power cut like large swathes of the south of England suffered at Christmas, would the solar panels still work and provide (albeit limited) electricity for the house they're on or would these cease to "work" as the grid is down? I'm assuming of course the fuse box isn't under 3ft of water and is dry.

That's an interesting question. I'd have thought so providing the panels are generating sufficient when the power is cut. If they don't then maybe it's to stop power flowing back into the grid if engineers are working to fix the cut (shocks etc).

Don't think they do work as they have inverters which need power. In emergency with the know how I think you could rig something up?

The Inverter is activated by grid supply.

This keeps everything and everyone safe.

So unless modified or built from scratch the panels do not provide power during an outage.

A competent person could create a system but:

It would likely invalidate the house insurance.

Invalidate and any agreement made with the supplier regarding warranties etc.

Would have to be designed to protect the grid and its operators.

Would have to be designed to protect anyone in the house including decorators and installers.

The excessive cost.

The length of time and amount of power available on a stormy winters day is minimal.

Consider how many outages there have been in your area as the grid is more robust in the North and particularly in cities.

There are alternatives which may include:

Stand alone wind and solar generators using/batteries to power low voltage lighting.

Use laptop for telly.

Candles.

Go to the pub.

Laptop for the TV when the power is down? Maybe if you tether it to your phone and the local mobile network isn't down, and you have sufficient data. Otherwise, no.

The Inverter is activated by grid supply.

This keeps everything and everyone safe.

So unless modified or built from scratch the panels do not provide power during an outage.

A competent person could create a system but:

It would likely invalidate the house insurance.

Invalidate and any agreement made with the supplier regarding warranties etc.

Would have to be designed to protect the grid and its operators.

Would have to be designed to protect anyone in the house including decorators and installers.

The excessive cost.

The length of time and amount of power available on a stormy winters day is minimal.

Consider how many outages there have been in your area as the grid is more robust in the North and particularly in cities.

There are alternatives which may include:

Stand alone wind and solar generators using/batteries to power low voltage lighting.

Use laptop for telly.

Candles.

Go to the pub.

That sounds like a resounding "no".

Thanks for info!

I had a read about this (googled it), there are systems in the US now where the inverter has a separate physical circuit that it regulates directly, basically just a single 15A socket accessible on the inverter itself.

That way in a power cut the grid stays safe and the household has at least some limited power supply available still.

There are a hand full of systems available in the UK that will allow you to have a solar PV system off grid - which means that there is not grid connection and will work in the event of a power cut. There are also automated battery systems which will connect to the grid, store surplus generated electricity and allow you to use this in the event of a power cut.

All are allowed under UK grid connections regs, and you will still qualify for feed in tariffs for the electricity you generate.