Owners of photovoltaic systems must carry out some important checks regularly. Ignorance or disregard of these obligations can have serious consequences.
Anyone who has a photovoltaic system (PV system) on the roof will be happy about cheap green electricity from their own production. In order for it to stay that way, owners of the devices have to fulfill some obligations that only a few people are (consciously) aware of. Anyone who ignores these obligations risks expensive property damage or, in the worst case, even their health.
Specifically, it is about the regular inspection of the solar system, as the German Statutory Accident Insurance e. V. (DGUV) explains. This is divided into several time periods:
The operator of the system must check the generator surface once a month for obvious defects. He should check the PV cables, the mounting frame parts, hanging modules, the module clamps and any other hardware.
Once a year – ideally after winter – a visual inspection should be carried out by a specialist company. The module fields, the mounting system, the cables, the FI circuit breaker, the connection box of the PV system and, if available, the storage are checked.
The entire system must be checked by a qualified electrician approximately every four years. This is provided for by several standards – including DIN VDE 0105-100, DIN EN 62446-1 VDE 0126-23-1:2019-04. They state that visual inspection, measurement and functional testing of electrical systems must be carried out regularly and must also be documented. A test report must be created for the test. “Only qualified electricians who have ‘knowledge from testing comparable systems’ are allowed to carry out tests,” explains Tüv Nord.
Outside of this four-year interval, the inspection must always be carried out when changes, expansions or repairs have been made to the system, it continues.
If you don’t regularly maintain your rooftop solar system and the associated components, you run the risk of a fire breaking out under certain circumstances (more on this in this article here) or of receiving a severe electric shock during maintenance work or generally when touching the system can have health consequences.
