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Why do i have 35 volts DC in my house? Something wrong with my solar panels?


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  • Carbon Cutter****
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An electrician has just checked our meter and told me i have 35 volts DC, he said its not normal, what do i do? i have Solar panels, could there be something wrong with them? i just recently had smart meters fitted so should that not have been checked at the time?

 

 

Best answer by BPLightlog

Cazbob wrote:
BPLightlog wrote:

You want to check where the DC voltage is @Cazbob . Solar PV does use DC but that should get changed to AC when it passes through your inverter. 
Are your appliances working ok? 

How do i do that please? Appliances are all working, however we did have a problem with a power tool

 

It’s nothing you can do but the electrician can tell you where they found the DC. 
It may be that there’s a problem with your inverter but if the appliances are working ok, it may have been a temporary issue. 
Did the electrician check because of the faulty power tool? 
It’s a strange comment to make actually as most measurement devices only show either AC or DC. Some do show both but a 35v level is rather low and may have been some strange situation when they were measuring 

One other possibility is a poor earth connection but again, that is something your electrician can test

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8 replies

Blastoise186
Plan Zero Hero
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  • Plan Zero Hero
  • 7974 replies
  • March 18, 2024

That’s probably not the Smart Meters - they feed AC into your house rather than DC.

You might want to get a second opinion from another electrician, just to be sure.


BPLightlog
Plan Zero Hero
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  • Plan Zero Hero
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  • March 18, 2024

You want to check where the DC voltage is @Cazbob . Solar PV does use DC but that should get changed to AC when it passes through your inverter. 
Are your appliances working ok? 


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  • Carbon Cutter****
  • 10 replies
  • March 18, 2024

Thank you, he is a trusted leccy tbh. He tested it last year after he did some work for us and there was nothing then. 

 


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  • Author
  • Carbon Cutter****
  • 10 replies
  • March 18, 2024
BPLightlog wrote:

You want to check where the DC voltage is @Cazbob . Solar PV does use DC but that should get changed to AC when it passes through your inverter. 
Are your appliances working ok? 

How do i do that please? Appliances are all working, however we did have a problem with a power tool

 


BPLightlog
Plan Zero Hero
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  • Plan Zero Hero
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  • Answer
  • March 18, 2024
Cazbob wrote:
BPLightlog wrote:

You want to check where the DC voltage is @Cazbob . Solar PV does use DC but that should get changed to AC when it passes through your inverter. 
Are your appliances working ok? 

How do i do that please? Appliances are all working, however we did have a problem with a power tool

 

It’s nothing you can do but the electrician can tell you where they found the DC. 
It may be that there’s a problem with your inverter but if the appliances are working ok, it may have been a temporary issue. 
Did the electrician check because of the faulty power tool? 
It’s a strange comment to make actually as most measurement devices only show either AC or DC. Some do show both but a 35v level is rather low and may have been some strange situation when they were measuring 

One other possibility is a poor earth connection but again, that is something your electrician can test


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  • Carbon Cutter****
  • 10 replies
  • March 18, 2024

he did check because of the power tool tbh, we had 2 of the same item stopped working withing a few days, so asked him to check the all the sockets and the meter. it was doing this check that he said we had 35DC showing and it sounds high to him. 


BPLightlog
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  • March 18, 2024
Cazbob wrote:

he did check because of the power tool tbh, we had 2 of the same item stopped working withing a few days, so asked him to check the all the sockets and the meter. it was doing this check that he said we had 35DC showing and it sounds high to him. 

Your meter can only pass through what it sees coming in so it’s either from your solar PV or as I mentioned, something where an earth fault or similar is causing a higher DC level than normal 


Emmanuelle_OVO
Community Manager
  • Community Manager
  • 2562 replies
  • March 19, 2024

Our community members have provided some really helpful advice here @Cazbob. If possible, it would be really helpful to other members with a similar issue if you pop back once you have an answer from your electrician. 


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