Gifted panels, are they any good?

[Lupen]

Hello to all. I am new here and new to solar power too.

I have a small shed where I would like to make a small solar system, mainly to have lights and maybe some small radio or applience to use from time to time.
Anyway from a cooworker I got 2 panels basicaly for free. This panels are used. I can see in some areas some small brown spots, there are some , I see some microcracks and what appears to me some ''delamination''. I measured the voltage when put on sun (there were some small shadows from branches but almost all on sun) and got around 41,3V from both of them, open ciurcuite voltage is rated at 45,5V.

My question is, are this 2 pannel still usable? And if they are, is there any fire hazzard due to this brown spots.
I attach some pictures.

Thank you for your help in advance.
Luka

 

[crossy]

Panels really tend not to catch fire, the panel blazes you see on the news tend to be high-voltage strings with arcing poor connections. Yours look a bit beat up, but anything that's free is worth trying out.

Anyway, you have half the battle in that you are getting somewhere near the rated O/C voltage

Next task, with your meter on DC amps and the panels in full sun (or as close as you can get) measure the short-circuit current, anything around 5A or more and you're good to go.

Add a suitable charge controller and a 12V battery and you have a system that will do what you need.

 

[Lupen]

Thank you crossy for a quick reply. That give me some good will to move on with this project.
I will try to measure the current and post it here. Sadly it is forecasted bad weather for few days where I live.

Thanks again.

 

[crossy]

Thank you crossy for a quick reply. That give me some good will to move on with this project.
I will try to measure the current and post it here. Sadly it is forecasted bad weather for few days where I live.

Thanks again.

Even here in (mostly) sunny Thailand we have several miserable days forecast