Is it true that if my system is installed in accordance with MCS Standards, good quality equipment used and I use an approved installer, then the system is safe?
There have been numerous cases of fires that have started due to equipment that was considered ‘high quality’ at the time it was installed, only to have been recalled by the manufacturer years later due to manufacturing or design defects. Often these defects do not show up until the system has been operating for several years.
Installing solar systems on roofs is a difficult and, at times, dangerous task; particularly in often hot and uncomfortable conditions. These conditions are not conducive to perfect workmanship, and it only takes a momentary lapse of concentration to not tighten a junction box or DC isolator to the correct torque – which will eventually fail due to water ingress. Practical experience is that even the best tradesman can make mistakes occasionally and with DC systems these mistakes can have catastrophic consequences.
The MCS Standards go to great lengths to try to eliminate all of the likely causes of DC arc faults within a solar system (what is a solar DC arc fault?). There are rigorous inspection regimes in place (much more so than any regular electrical installation) and still there are numerous examples of catastrophic DC arc faults occurring on DC solar systems every day around the world.
This alone should answer the question regarding whether following the existing MCS standards is sufficient to eliminate DC arc faults. The only way to eliminate the risk of DC arc faults is to eliminate the dangerous DC voltage itself from the system or use a technology specifically designed to reduce the system voltage to safe levels in the event of a fault.
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