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

  • 18 March 2024
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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?

 

 

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Best answer by BPLightlog 18 March 2024, 15:37

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Userlevel 7
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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.

Userlevel 7
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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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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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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

 

Userlevel 7
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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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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. 

Userlevel 7
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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 

Userlevel 7

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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