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Solar Panel Weather Protection

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chuck

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What weather protection is needed for a solar panel? I mounted a 12" X 12" panel in a wooden frame. It worked fine for about 6 months, but now it only output in full sun about 17 volts and less than 3 ma. I assume weather did something. The panel had no extra material on the back side.
 
What's the voltage and current rating?

Solar panels are normally very reliable, did you check the datasheet to see whether it's weather proof?

The cheap Chinese solar panels I bought from Maplin had contradictory information in the manual in one part it said the solar panels are weather proof and in another it said they sholdn't be permanently mounted outside. I've had them mounted outside on my shed roof for nearly 12 months now and they seem to be fine.
 
The cheap Chinese solar panels I bought from Maplin had contradictory information in the manual in one part it said the solar panels are weather proof and in another it said they sholdn't be permanently mounted outside.

LOL, what the heck are they good for then if you can't permanently mount them outside? So many engineers just don't understand how to use the products they are designing.

I was just working with a programmer trying to write a connector to Symantec Scan Engine in Java. I was explaining that it is a client-server architecture, and he asked "Can you explain what client-server architecture means?" That just floored me.
 
They were designed to be connected to a car battery so it can be float charged.

I think it was most likely a mistake in the translation from Chinese to English.
 
What's the voltage and current rating?

Solar panels are normally very reliable, did you check the datasheet to see whether it's weather proof?

The cheap Chinese solar panels I bought from Maplin had contradictory information in the manual in one part it said the solar panels are weather proof and in another it said they sholdn't be permanently mounted outside. I've had them mounted outside on my shed roof for nearly 12 months now and they seem to be fine.

Maybe it depends on the environment.
There are thousands of solar panels mounted in the desert .
There is a great amount of sunlight and it,s very dry.
I would imagine locating them in very wet locations or where it snows a lot could cause problems.
 
It's fairly damp where I live.

It gets cold in winter but not as cold as Canada, typical daytime highs around 6 to 7°C falling to near freezing over night, occasionally falling to as low -8°C but it's got to -12°C before. We often have some snow but this winter it's been colder than normal and we've had more.

It doesn't get very hot in summer, normally daytime highs are in the low 20s with one or two days with the temperature above 30°C, although we've have had 35°C every now and then.

It's pretty wet with rainfall spread evenly throughout the year.
Bedford - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The solar panels are fixed to a pitched mild steal roof at the end of my garden. I've had a few problems with brid droppings but they normally get washed off by the rain before significantly effecting the efficiency of the solar panels.
 
OOOOOPs. I made a giant mistake. Yes, I'm embarrassed. My digital voltmeter had a blown fuse and I did not figure it out until this morning. When I replace the fuse, all seems ok. But the question of how to weather proof them seems vague. I read a lot of for sale info on different panels and some seem to have a sandwhich of sealants.
 
i have some "cheap" solar panels on a couble of walk way lites i built from scrap. they seemed to not hold a charge in the batterys.when i took them down to replace and check them.i noticed that the solar panels were all dulled , mine had a cheep plastic film over them that i couldn't remove. so i plolish them as best as i could, then airbrushed a clear coat of paint onto them, so far so good, the time on at nite is alot longer now.....
 
I have 8 45 watt 12 volt pv panels here that was the original power source when we bought the farm. 6 of them are still in service but 2 got moisture in between the glass and pv modules at the top. These panels are over 25 years old and I found the cover on the box was cracked so this let moisture in. I have 4 of those panels hooked up in pairs of parallel for 24 volts then in series and on a good sunny day they still output a good 6 amps. I suppose the rule of thumb with pv panels like everything else you get what you pay for, be a cheap scape and go for cheap pv then complain why they don't work after a few years.

Good quality pv panels are cheap you just need to research to find them. ie: kaneka thin film 60 watt panels are about $500 each here in Oz yet you can buy the same pv modules out of the US for $1470 for a pallet of 25 of them. It's no wonder why Oz is named the most expensive country for pv panels, the markup by the big boys is so extreme gullible people just continue to pay it rather than band together to get the prices down
/rant
 
What weather protection is needed for a solar panel?
Back to the question.

Solar panel failure is most often caused by water damage to the panel, sealant, or connections. To prevent damage or failure, mount the panel carefully. Be sure not to fix it horizontally, which encourages water collection in the frame. Also, allow for a sufficient air gap beneath the panel. Keeping your panel dry and clean will ensure efficient, maximum output.

Solar panel radiation-resistant covers are another point of interest. They are made of ceria-doped microsheet . Few adds a nominal five percent of cerium oxide to the glass, significantly improving its resistance to darkening caused by radiation or ultraviolet light. Since cerium oxide absorbs ultraviolet light, it also protects the adhesive between the cover and the cell.

Nothing can be done for mechanical failures/shocks:) for example suppose your envy neighbor throws a lightweight stone aiming at your roof-top panel assembly...:D
 
There's no simple answer. In fact, the frame design can cost more than the cells! And it's also more critical. Solar cells themselves haven't made any wide leaps in efficiency. However, the frame can lose a huge amount of efficiency due to glare off the front, UV damage on a plastic front, elevated temps inside the panel (pretty big loss here), or... god forbid... moisture entrapment and fogging on the front and/or cell damage from moisture. And the boundaries alone... with X sq feet of space for solar, you try to use many-small-panels with a gap between them and then the cells can only be so close to the edge themselves, this compromises some of your surface area.

Bottom line being that panel design can make or break the bottom line on the installation. The possible gains and losses of different panel features can make more difference than "high" vs "low" performing cells.
 
The panels I use are glass.

It looks like the semiconductor material is deposited directly on the glass, they look like two giant calculator solar panels. I know they're probably not the most efficient or the best panels, but they do the job well enough for me and will hopefully last for years despite their cheapness. The winter just gone has really tested the panels, it's been very cold and they've been covered in snow for a few weeks on end and they still seem to be working. I haven't looked at the panels, I've just measured the current but when it does get warmer I'll check for signs of water ingress or corrosion.
 
Is there any way to make the solar panel more sensitive to photon, so that many people can adopt this technology and our dependencies on natural resources will be minimized ????
 
Is there any way to make the solar panel more sensitive to photon, so that many people can adopt this technology and our dependencies on natural resources will be minimized ????
I assure you, if there WAS a magical way to make solar cells produce more power, they'd come that way from the factory.

Keeping them cool will increase their power by a moderately significant amount.
 
There are prototypes of dual layer panels out there now. They used use a higher valence shell element (germanium?) for the first layer which will pick up more of the higher energy photons, then a lower valence shell element (silicon) for the back layer which will pick up the lower power photons (infrared). They are reporting efficiencies of over 40% for these now. The main problem is they get way to hot for production yet.
 
questions about panel protection

I live in north Texas and am looking at solar power as an alternative. the weather here can be bad hail, thunderstorms, wind debris etc. If i were to use transparent covers, would this effect the panels ability to reach full potential.
 
Nah I would think they will grow like heck there but they may want to leave home before 18
 
I assure you, if there WAS a magical way to make solar cells produce more power, they'd come that way from the factory.

Keeping them cool will increase their power by a moderately significant amount.

Mount them on a water-cooled heatsink; use the hot water to heat whatever (run excess thru radiator? stirling engine/generator?).

One thing you hardly ever see is a solar-powered indoor oven; if you can sufficiently heat the water hot enough, and can keep it under pressure (so you can superheat the water), you could get some pretty good temperatures in an indoor oven by radiating the heat from the piping into the interior of the oven (insulate the oven really well). I've had good luck with homebrew box solar cookers, and saw temperatures well above boiling (250-275 degrees F).

One way to increase the power output of standard solar cells is to concentrate more light on them (usually using fresnel lenses); you have to have a sun tracking mount to do this effectively throughout the day, though, and it really heats up the solar cells/panel (so you would need some method to cool them down).
 
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