SCIOS scope 12 inspection of PV installations
Scope 12 concerns solar PV installations, including the ancillary equipment that feeds the generated electricity back into the grid, and on large-scale roofs is almost always required by the insurer. Appfront builds the app with which your inspector records on the roof what they see and measure, including where there is no signal, and in which the installation remains traceable per string and inverter.
What a scope 12 inspection involves
Scope 12 falls under the SCIOS sub-scheme for electrical equipment and covers installations with photovoltaic panels and the associated ancillary equipment for generating electricity and feeding it back into the grid. In other words, the whole system: the panels, the DC-side cabling, inverters, the connection to the installation and the mounting on the roof.
The immediate trigger is usually not a legal obligation but a policy condition. Following a series of fires, insurers have become stricter about large-scale PV and require an inspection for new installations and at renewal. This means the client needs the report for their insurer, and the turnaround time between inspection and report is commercially significant.
What makes this work technically demanding is the environment. The inspector is on a roof, often in the sun, wearing gloves and without signal, and has to establish for each string what they are seeing. A system of a thousand panels consists of dozens of strings that look alike. Anyone keeping track of this on paper and writing it up later can no longer be certain, back at the desk, which string a particular fault belonged to. That is the problem this software exists to solve.
How we build your scope 12 app
We start on the roof. A form that seems logical in an open-plan office often proves unworkable up there, and then it ends up being filled in from memory afterwards.
How you record a PV installation: per inverter, per string, per panel group or per roof section. That choice determines whether you can trace faults later and whether a series of readings over the years tells you anything. We also look at how you handle extensions, because PV roofs grow.
For each component, the points that are assessed: mounting and roof penetrations, the condition of the cabling and connectors, earthing and surge protection, the inverters and their alerts, and the connection to the installation. For each point, whether a measurement or a photo is required.
We work in sprints and begin with the inspection itself. Your inspector goes out onto a real roof early with an interim version; that teaches you more than any workshop, because that is where you discover that a menu of choices can't be operated with gloves on.
We align the report format with what your client needs to submit to their insurer. Then a handover, with a trial run in which we check a completed file against the questions your certifying body asks.
What the app does in practice
Six components that make the difference between ticking off a list and having a record in which a finding can be traced to the right string.
Installation by inverter and string
The installation structured down to string or panel-group level, with a floor plan or roof layout where possible. A finding is attached to a specific component, so the engineer who repairs it knows exactly where to go.
Recognition on the roof
Codes on inverters and distribution boards open the correct part of the file directly. With dozens of virtually identical strings, that is the only thing that reliably prevents mix-ups.
Thermography linked to the finding
Thermal images belong to the component where they were taken, not to the visit. A hot connector is only useful if you can later trace which connector it was and what the ambient temperature was at the time.
Measurements on the DC side
Insulation resistance, string voltages and currents, compared against the value appropriate for that type of string. Differences between strings that should be identical stand out immediately.
Findings with classification and remediation
Every finding receives a classification, a photo and a status, and remains open until it has been rectified and verified. At a re-inspection, the inspector can see what was still outstanding.
Report for the insurer
The report is generated from the recorded data, with the photos and measurements placed where they belong. Your client can forward it straight away, which considerably shortens the time between inspection and policy.
Who we build for
Four situations where this applies. The main difference lies in who pays for the inspection and who ultimately reads the report.
Certified inspection companies
The core. If you also offer scope 8 or 10, this is the same system with different forms; see scope 8.
PV installers with their own inspection service
You install the system and then inspect it periodically. If this connects to your existing quoting and installation software, the installation doesn't have to be entered twice.
Owners of multiple roofs
Commercial property owners, distribution centres and agricultural businesses with PV at several locations. Their requirement is a central overview: which roof was inspected when, and where something is still outstanding.
Work arising from policy terms
The inspection is a condition for cover or renewal. What matters most is that the report is verifiable and delivered on time, and that the remediation of findings is recorded.
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What we deploy follows from how you work. For roof work, offline use matters most, along with legibility in bright light and operability while wearing gloves. These are design requirements, not afterthoughts.
Why Appfront
We go up on the roof
Before we design anything, we accompany an inspection. The difference between an app that gets used and one that gets abandoned lies in things that only become apparent on a roof.
Mix-ups are the real risk
With dozens of identical strings, the problem is not the measurement but knowing which string it belonged to. We solve this with identification on site, not with a longer list.
Turnaround time matters commercially
Your client is waiting for the report for their insurer. By completing it on location, the week spent writing up between inspection and delivery disappears.
Alongside what is already running
Your scheduling and invoicing stay as they are. We build the layer in between through integrations, so that an inspection doesn't have to be entered twice.
Security and privacy
The file contains little personal data, but it does record which inspector produced which report and under which professional competence. That can be traced back to an individual and touches on their certification, so we focus reports on the installation rather than the inspector.
The nature of the information weighs more heavily: open defects in a PV installation are sensitive with respect to your client's insurer and, at times, the installer who built the roof. Access is therefore strictly per client, with a portal that shows only their own sites. A finalised report cannot be altered silently: corrections are visible as corrections and do not overwrite the original. Photos and thermal images are timestamped, because in the event of a fire this file becomes evidence, and then reliability matters. How we handle security ourselves is set out in our information security policy; reports from outside reach us via our CVD policy.
Frequently asked questions about scope 12
Installations with photovoltaic panels and the associated ancillary equipment for generating electricity and feeding it back into the grid. That is the whole system: the panels and their mounting, the DC-side cabling, connectors, inverters, earthing and surge protection, and the connection to the electrical installation. Scope 12 falls under the SCIOS sub-scheme for electrical equipment, as do scope 8 and scope 10.
Not as a general statutory obligation. In practice the requirement almost always stems from a policy condition: insurers have become stricter about large-scale PV and require an inspection at handover and periodically thereafter. In practice that makes the requirement just as binding, because without a report there is no cover. In addition, the usual obligations concerning a safe electrical installation continue to apply.
This follows from what the insurer has included in the policy and from the risk assessment of the installation; it is not a fixed period set by law. In practice we see an inspection at handover and then a periodic cycle. Because the interval may differ per client, we make it configurable per installation rather than per customer or per type.
Yes, and here that isn't an extra but the core. Large roofs rarely have coverage, and the inspector can't keep going back down. The app stores data locally, including photos and thermal images, and syncs as soon as there is a connection. We also pay attention to readability in bright sunlight and to usability while wearing gloves. That sounds minor, but in practice it determines whether the app actually gets used.
Yes, and they should be linked to the component rather than the visit. A hot contact is only useful if you can later trace which connector or string it was and what the conditions were. We therefore link every image to the installation part, with timestamp and environmental data. For fire-risk inspection of other electrical equipment, there is scope 10.
Yes, and that is worth it because you then record the installation only once. If you already run software from quote to installation, we build the inspection layer on top of it and pull the installation data from there. That not only saves data entry but also prevents two systems from holding a different picture of the same installation.
That is a trade-off, and deeper is not always better. Per inverter is often sufficient for a clear overview of a roof; per string is needed once you want to trace and compare deviations. Per panel is rarely workable, except for very large installations with monitoring at panel level. We advise based on your roofs and your inspection pace.
That depends on how deeply you model the installation, whether thermography and measurements are included, and whether a client portal is needed. The inspection app itself is usually quick to put into use; the portal and integrations cost more. We give a reasoned estimate after the discovery phase, once we know how your inspectors work.
Building a scope 12 inspection app?
Tell us how many installations you inspect and how the report is currently produced, and we will help think through the structure per string, the thermography and the turnaround time to your client. We build this as a standalone app and as part of a broader custom software or an app project.