Solar PV Fire Safety & RC62 Compliance.
Protecting people, property and your solar investment. Specialist fire safety solutions for new and existing Solar PV systems.
Bright Spark Energy provides specialist Solar PV fire safety surveys, system upgrades and bespoke retrofit solutions for commercial buildings, schools, healthcare, public sector estates and residential properties.
Is your existing Solar PV system designed for today’s fire safety expectations?
Thousands of Solar PV systems across the UK were installed before today’s fire safety guidance and insurer requirements became established.
The installation may still be generating electricity perfectly well — but its emergency isolation, DC cable routes, signage, roof layout or shutdown arrangements may no longer represent current best practice.
Bright Spark Energy specialises in assessing these installations and developing practical, bespoke fire safety upgrade solutions. We can work on systems installed by Bright Spark Energy or by another contractor.
Helping building owners respond to current fire safety guidance.
RC62 provides detailed recommendations for managing fire risk associated with photovoltaic installations. For building owners, facilities managers and estates teams, understanding how an existing Solar PV installation compares with these recommendations can be difficult. That is where Bright Spark Energy can help — we inspect the installation, review its design and emergency arrangements and turn the guidance into a practical set of actions for your building.
Emergency isolation
Can the PV installation be quickly and clearly shut down during an emergency?
DC voltage risk
What remains energised when the AC supply or inverter is isolated?
Firefighter safety
Are emergency responders provided with appropriate isolation, information, access and warning?
Cable routes
Are DC cables routed and protected appropriately through the building?
PV array design
Does the roof layout appropriately consider access, compartmentation and firefighting?
Labelling & documentation
Can emergency services and maintenance teams quickly understand the installation?
Maintenance
Is there evidence of appropriate inspection, testing and preventative maintenance?
Your Solar PV system doesn’t necessarily need replacing.
Many older PV installations can be significantly improved through carefully designed retrofit works.
Bright Spark Energy can survey the existing system and develop a bespoke fire safety upgrade package, retaining serviceable equipment wherever practical.
Advanced shutdown solutions for SolarEdge installations.
SolarEdge technology provides additional options for creating sophisticated Solar PV emergency shutdown strategies.
Bright Spark Energy can design and retrofit SolarEdge fire safety solutions to suitable existing installations as well as incorporate them into new commercial PV systems.
SolarEdge Firefighter Gateway: a suitable solution can allow a SolarEdge PV system to be shut down manually through an emergency control or automatically through integration with the building’s fire alarm system. With compatible SolarEdge equipment, SafeDC technology can reduce DC voltage at module level, helping reduce electrical hazard to emergency responders.
How an integrated shutdown works
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01
Fire alarm
The building’s fire alarm system detects an event.
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02
Interface / emergency switch
An interface relay or manual emergency control triggers the shutdown.
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03
Controller / Firefighter Gateway
The SolarEdge ONE Controller or Firefighter Gateway commands the system.
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04
Inverter shutdown
Inverters stop exporting and isolate the AC side.
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05
SafeDC voltage reduction
Module-level SafeDC reduces DC voltage, cutting the hazard to responders.
Not every PV installation can be solved with an off-the-shelf product.
Large commercial and public sector systems can have multiple inverters, different roof areas, long DC cable routes, plant rooms, fire compartments and existing fire alarm systems.
Our electrical and renewable energy engineers can develop a solution around the individual site.
The objective is a system that is not only safer, but simple for facilities teams and emergency responders to understand and operate.
Specialist support for complex estates.
Bright Spark Energy has extensive experience delivering and maintaining renewable energy installations across commercial and public sector buildings.
For organisations managing multiple installations, we can undertake surveys across an entire estate and produce a prioritised programme of remedial works.
The portfolio approach
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01
Survey
Every installation across the estate inspected and documented.
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02
Risk & compliance review
Each system benchmarked against current guidance and insurer expectations.
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03
Prioritise
A prioritised programme of remedial works across the portfolio.
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04
Retrofit
Upgrades delivered site by site, retaining serviceable equipment where practical.
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05
Maintain
Ongoing inspection and preventative maintenance keep the estate compliant.
Fire safety doesn’t finish when the upgrade is complete.
Electrical faults, deteriorating connections and damaged components can develop throughout the life of a PV installation.
Regular inspection and preventative maintenance therefore form an important part of managing the system. Thermal imaging can be particularly valuable on larger commercial systems by helping identify abnormal heating, failing components and connection problems before they develop into more serious faults.
Renewable energy expertise backed by electrical engineering.
We don’t simply identify a problem. We design and deliver the solution.
We can help bring its fire safety strategy up to date.
Your system may have been installed to the standards of the time. If you manage a school, commercial building, public building or property portfolio with an existing Solar PV installation, talk to Bright Spark Energy about an initial fire safety assessment. We can review the existing installation against current guidance and provide a practical roadmap for any recommended upgrades.