Ooops, Wiring question.

System
System Posts: 2,511 admin
in Solar Beginners Corner #1
Hi Ya'll,

New to the forum. Thanks for having such an informative spot. My problem/question is this. I've got 2 Kyocera 130w 12v panels, somehow, they basically got miswired. The positive of one was wired directly to the negative on the other and vice versa. To make matters worse, this was done on the up stream side of the diodes. No I'm only showing about 11v out of each of them even completely disconnected from all components and in the direct southern Arizona noon sun.

Have I just screwed up $1000 worth of solar panels? These were supposed to be used to charge a battery system to run a remote camera and well, I'm at a loss. Any advice would be appreciated.

Mac
:blush:
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  • System2
    System2 Posts: 6,290 admin
    #2
    Re: Ooops, Wiring question.

    "The "upstream" side of the diodes"

    Do you mean between the actual solar cells and the diodes, amnd not at the output terminals?
    The actual cross wiring itself should not have hurt the PV's, unless there is more to the story, and if they were wired somehow before the diodes, may I ask why?
    Seems to me the cross wiring is a simple mistake that could easily be made if not paying attention when trying to parallel the panels, but to wire them before the diodes would have taken extra determination. Just trying to figure out exactly what happened, as that could shed light on the cause of the symptoms.
    It's possible you are not measuring the output voltage at the right spots, as 11 volts sounds like it could be the half way point, electrically wise of the panel. 22 volts open circuit could well be expected from this panel.

    Cheers
    Wayne
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  • icarus
    icarus Solar Expert Posts: 5,436 ✭✭✭✭
    #3
    Re: Ooops, Wiring question.

    What Wayne says,,,

    Plus, wiring them plus to minus just wires them in series so that the net output voltage would be doubled, won't hurt the panels.

    Now if there was a battery in the circuit (connected reverse polarity) you could be feeding voltage backwards. I suspect that you could have then blown the diodes, but I think you would have had some indication (arcing).

    Icarus
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  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    #4
    Re: Ooops, Wiring question.

    the diodes could very well be blown so please check them. there won't necessarilly be an arc when diodes blow out either as they've been known to pop like a fuse, but you can't count on visually seeing them popped so a dmm is needed.
    on the other hand if the upstream side of the diodes means the pvs were tapped before the diodes you could very well have blown the pvs themselves. if all else fails contact kyocera to be sure of what happened and if they are still good.
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