So easy to fix many bad solar panels.

softdown

We took off the protective panel and found extremely simple electronics. Basically just a few diodes connecting the power output. Diodes are cheap. We looked for “solar rated” diodes in the proper voltage range. Could be 45 or 50 volts for example. 

Took us a couple minutes to try a few diodes and the burned out panels worked perfectly. 

Could be a good idea to stock some diodes in the event of a lightning strike? A batch starts at ~ $8 or so. 

BB.

Depends if Lighting Damaged the protection diodes, or damaged the solar cells (also diodes).

Better would be to do mitigation such as surge suppressors, proper grounding, etc.

In the end, a direct lighting strike can very easily damage even properly installed solar power systems.

-Bill

softdown

Fair enough. But why not invest in some diodes at ~ .25 cents/panel, or so, for additional insurance. 

I have some personal experience with how remarkably easy it is to kill panels. They were even ~95% covered from the sun. Or so I thought. In hind sight it is likely that sunlight leached through a cheap plastic tarp. 

littleharbor2

That's great if you have accessible diodes in your panels and they need to be replaced. A lot of them are potted in some weird orange/yellow synthetic amber.

softdown

Wonder why they do that? Sounds messy.

Yea, takes about 5 minutes to do a complete diode swap on my panels - from start to finish including accessing the diodes and finishing up. One panel read 13 volts, the other read 0 volts. So 4 or 5 bad diodes out of six - is my guess. 

littleharbor2

It's to make them impervious to the elements

softdown

O ring on the access plate should do that. Should.

A single O ring keeps catastrophic disasters away in tens of billions of applications. 

mike_s

>A single O ring keeps catastrophic disasters away in tens of billions of applications. 

Or causes them in some.

softdown

Yea, O ring failure is not rare. Opinions vary greatly but I suspect that O ring quality and proper sizing play important roles. “An O ring is an O ring” does not ring true in my opinion. 

However, being on the back of a solar panel mostly protects it from the elements. I would bet that O ring failure is not a leading cause of panel failure. If the O rings are somehow exposed to the elements then potting the diodes becomes a prudent measure.