For about 18 months in Germany.....there's been this 'craze' going on about balcony solar panels. You basically go to a do-it-yourself shop or a grocery, and you buy a box with a panel (easily hung on the typical balcony) and the cabling which goes to a 'converter' box.....which you plug into your apartment power.
If I drive around Wiesbaden and observe apartment building....I'd suggest well over 1,000 apartments having the solar panels in use.
So....today via Focus....an electrician went and bought the package and took the 'converter' box apart.
There is no protective relay system in the converter box. Meaning? Well....legally, it can't be sold or installed.
The protection certificate which should be there in the box to cover the panel/converter sold? Nothing.
The lack of a built-in circuit breaker? Well....it should not have been sold in this fashion.
The guy doesn't complain about the quality of the panel or the general operation of the converter....just that it wouldn't be acceptable 'as is'.
All of them sold this way? You can't say that....the one he took apart came from one single grocery store, and reflects only that brand.
All of this to trigger some government reaction? You just wonder about how this will be handled. As a minimum, I'm guessing the apartment owners will want some reassurance, and there's probably some 100-Euro fee involved here....for a guy to come in....note the product and sign off on 'safety'.
On the funny side? Well...it just goes that you don't necessarily go to a grocery to buy non-grocery items. But Germans might be convinced it's Ok.
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