We had a wind storm a week ago (or 10 days) and some of the forward panels on a mobile rack system, are each on their own pivot that can also slide, to access stuff underneath the rack when it's laid and locked-down flat.
Weeks before the storm, I had cut the zip ties holding the edge down flat, which keeps these big gusts from blowing the forward panels up and over each other. That was for a brief period where I had the entire rack laid down, facing straight up, during peak summer production. I then raised the rack back up on it's pivot, but forgot to strap the end of the panels back down to keep them on the same plane - to stop them from popping up in hard wind gusts.
For the last 10 days to two weeks, I recall that my peak voltage and wattage, and production, was strangely lower. I go up to the rack today, looking for a bad connection, and where the entire rack is supposed to be pivoted towards the sun, with all the panels flat, I find the two of those forward panels that had jumped up and overlapped their adjacent panel, shading about 5%.
That caused hard shading on a section of panel for that time. I corrected the issue, and I can't tell if it's battery charge state or what. Where the panel voltage and overall production then went up, when I corrected the issue, but not as much as I thought it should.
Can hard shading all day long on a small section of two panels cause permanent damage if done for a week or two?
Thanks
Weeks before the storm, I had cut the zip ties holding the edge down flat, which keeps these big gusts from blowing the forward panels up and over each other. That was for a brief period where I had the entire rack laid down, facing straight up, during peak summer production. I then raised the rack back up on it's pivot, but forgot to strap the end of the panels back down to keep them on the same plane - to stop them from popping up in hard wind gusts.
For the last 10 days to two weeks, I recall that my peak voltage and wattage, and production, was strangely lower. I go up to the rack today, looking for a bad connection, and where the entire rack is supposed to be pivoted towards the sun, with all the panels flat, I find the two of those forward panels that had jumped up and overlapped their adjacent panel, shading about 5%.
That caused hard shading on a section of panel for that time. I corrected the issue, and I can't tell if it's battery charge state or what. Where the panel voltage and overall production then went up, when I corrected the issue, but not as much as I thought it should.
Can hard shading all day long on a small section of two panels cause permanent damage if done for a week or two?
Thanks
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