So easy to fix many bad solar panels.

softdown · August 11

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. · August 11

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 · August 11

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 · August 11

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 · August 11

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 · August 11

It's to make them impervious to the elements

softdown · August 12

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 · August 14

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

Or causes them in some.

softdown · August 14

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.

softdown · August 18

Found that it is helpful to cut the diode wires with needle nose type wire cutters or similar cutters. The beveled edges of the cutters will depart a “sharpened” wire tip if cut at the same plane and at 90 degrees. This helps greatly with forcing the wire tips into the tiny slots for the wire tips. They somehow seem to be “spring loaded” so it helps to have a sharper point to force the tips into place. You will feel it grab when successful. Give the diode a tug to ensure that you successfully seated the diode wires.

So easy to fix many bad solar panels.

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