diy solar

diy solar

solar pergola on pavement, only weighted down

wiseacre said:
There's a very good chance that the panels are fine and only the MC4 connectors will need to be replaced.
I got a couple of never used, awful looking panels that were 'stored' on the ground for about 6 years.
The MC4s had to be replaced and the panels washed - good as new
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yea the more i though about it, unless they were submerged there's no way they are compromised beyond the connector. we are over 5 miles from salt air too.

i sent up the flying camera machine. 50 pallets must have been the buy, they probably got a container. There is about 5 pallets in what appears to be the "bad" pile, some don't even look opened. ironically, this photo is taken about 150 yards from where i want to place the array. it's a sign from the sun.

I'm going with 19-1 odds he will just offer to give them to me. if that's the case, assuming the first few repair/test goes well, I will buy the container ASAP so i have somewhere to store all these while i mount 8 on the roof of the container.

I'm going to try and ID them from the photo, i'm curious what kind of wattage there are. i see 6 columns, 12 rows of cells on each half of the panel. or are the rectangle cells called half cells? i have seen that term a lot.

edit: looks a lot like these...
hyundai-395w-bifacial

1707494711516.png
 
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Bop said:
Quite frankly, I wish they had never chosen the MC4- it really isn't a good connector at all...
Most of the install issues I have worked on over the years where they were having issues could be led back to faulty MC4 connections (in fact they outnumbered the failed inverters by a large margin, at least in my experience...)
Panels themselves (excluding physical damage from cyclones etc) well at least with decent tier one manufacturers, tend to be so few failures, that I would struggle to think of any at all in over two decades of installing them- there were some back in the 1990's that had issues with high voltage tracking internally between the cells and the frames, but I haven't seen a case of that in decades...
Any MC4 over half a decade old should be inspected on a regular basis (once a year) for insulation deterioration (specifically the sealing ring inside- they harden from the heat and if exposed to the weather as most are, will fail and allow water inside, oxidising the copper connections and potentially leading to arcing on the contacts inside- which can lead to inverter failure on some models...
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The problem with MC4's is it is NOT AN ESTABLISHED STANDARD.
it is a propriatory connector that other companies copy... poorly.
 
Supervstech said:
The problem with MC4's is it is NOT AN ESTABLISHED STANDARD.
it is a propriatory connector that other companies copy... poorly.
Click to expand...
Is there a standard connector that is better? If someone had to replace mc4s that were bad, does anyone recommend a brand or type of connector?
 
See if you can get a look at the end of the pallet. There might be a label.
db9849cc-afc3-4bf9-9514-a0f3ff4050d4-jpeg.181615
 
CableGuy said:
Is there a standard connector that is better? If someone had to replace mc4s that were bad, does anyone recommend a brand or type of connector?
Click to expand...
MC4's are ok, but keep them out of the weather ie either cabletied up under the frames of the panels, or in junction boxes (thats the norm here in Australia as solar cables are run in PVC conduit anyway...
 
CableGuy said:
Is there a standard connector that is better? If someone had to replace mc4s that were bad, does anyone recommend a brand or type of connector?
Click to expand...

Yes, "MC4", from Stabuli

Not so much a standard as a quality connector.
You can buy PV panels and RSD or Optimizer boxes with Stabuli MC4.
You can also buy individual Stabuli MC4 to install on mating cables.

Otherwise, some people here favor cutting off connectors and using crimp terminals, followed by water proof filled heatshrink.
 
Update: it was in fact too good to be true. They had 800 panels needing repair and are almost done replacing connectors and recertifying them so installers gaurantee their work.
 
We have 2 20 foot single trip shipping containers. We were told not to walk around on the roof; not designed for that. I built a deck, supported by rectangular steel pipe resting on the long edge members of the container structure. Solar racking can be expensive.

IMG_2140.jpeg
 
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