Fighting Fires With Solar Panels

Fighting fires with solar power.

Fighting fires with solar panels. Among these alternative energy uses are buildings equipped with solar power systems which can present a variety of significant hazards should a fire occur. The first way is by turning off your inverter by a simple flip of the switch located on the front panel see picture below. Currently the national fire incident reporting system does not detail how many structure fires included a solar array or how many firefighters have been injured fighting fires in solar powered. Since solar panels are everywhere from home roofs to roadside signs to supermarkets firefighter training is intended to deal with all the challenges that may arrive when fighting fire with solar products involved.

Today in the united states demand for solar is at an all time high and the fire service must become educated and trained on the. By selene lawrence deputy director of community development at sullivan solar power. Although the flames were finally extinguished after 29 hours the building was completely destroyed. As a result when battling fires in buildings with solar panels firefighters need to be prepared to apply the same tactics used for fighting electrical fires and be continuously aware of electrical shock hazards.

The increase of wildfires has become a worldwide problem with. It is not just californians that are opening their morning newspapers to images of smoldering trees menacing flames and fleeing families. Such technologies are in the form of micro inverters and certain dc optimised systems such as solaredge with a safe dc mode. When fire departments arrive to a house fire where solar panels are interconnected to the power grid they have two options to kill the power on your solar panels and both ways are very quick.

Further complicating matters the scene lighting used in night time emergencies could be bright enough to electrify photovoltaic panels. In 2013 rooftop solar panels caused firefighters to change tactics while fighting a fire at a 300 000 square foot delanco new jersey meat warehouse. 1 2 courtesy of u s. A revolution which has become increasingly popular within the last decade to help mitigate the risk associated with dc arc faults and further more solar panel fires.

By spw august 23 2018. Fire fighting strategies and procedures.