Poor installation blamed for two inverter fires at UK care home solar array

2026Published 20 Sept 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor

MinorElectricalProvisional0.101 MW

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From the recordRoot cause Failed part

Where: UK care home solar installation
What: One wall-mounted inverter caught fire twice
Cause: Not reported
Outcome: Site unable to monitor system performance

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What happened

Electricians who inspected a UK care home's solar installation reported that one wall-mounted inverter had caught fire twice. The array is described as 228 panels rated at 445 watts each, about 101 kilowatts peak, feeding three 30-kilowatt inverters. The inspecting firm, Artisan Electrics, said it found several installation defects, including loose MC4 connectors, missing DC isolators on two of the three inverters and poor cable labelling. It also said the burned inverter had been swapped out before proper DC isolation was available, so workers reportedly had to cut live cables while arcing was visible, and that the replacement unit was never fully commissioned, leaving the site unable to monitor system performance effectively.

The care home, which has high round-the-clock electricity demand, was said to be still facing steep monthly power bills despite the size of the array. The date of the fires, the site name, the original installer and any fire service attendance are not reported.

Contributing factors

Reported by the inspecting electricians and not independently confirmed: loose MC4 connectors, missing DC isolators on two of three inverters, poor cable labelling, inadequate isolation arrangements during inverter replacement leading to live cables being cut with visible arcing, and incomplete commissioning of the replacement inverter.

Lessons learned

Loose MC4 connectors on a solar PV array can cause arcing and fire, so operators should check all DC connections during routine inspections.
Missing DC isolators on inverters force live cable cutting during replacement, so isolation equipment must be fitted before work starts.
An uncommissioned replacement inverter leaves the array unmonitored, so full commissioning and monitoring must follow any swap.

More lessons on electrical protection and isolation, detection and monitoring, from every incident on the register.

Not yet known

Date of the fires
Site name
Original installer
Fire service attendance

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Source

thecooldown.com

Published 2026-09-20. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.

The record behind this entry

The record behind EIR-1133 holds the capacity, the root cause, what failed and the fire service response as fields you can filter, count and export, with its 2 sources and their verification status. The cause is not hidden: the contributing factors above give it as the sources report it. The record adds it as a field. Companies are named in the roles the sources give them. Being named is not a finding of fault.

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