diy solar

diy solar

Solar panel tester.

Your NEP micros are connected to two panels, correct? Do you know if they are in series or in parallel? Does the gateway give you any information about voltage or current? That might be a clue about panel degradation if you can believe the numbers.
Yes, my Microinverters are duals, though they only have single mppt (so two panel connections, but both will be at identical voltage).

The gateway monitor shows per-panel instantaneous production power only, not voltage or current. I can see when shadows start to hit in early evening because some panels start to drop power much faster than the majority of the array.

Both on an instantaneous per-panel level as well as on a daily per-minute level for the full 4kW array (capped to 3kW of max output), everything looks as it should (all panels roughly similar until early evening shading arrives).

The issue is that the measured AC current on the home run wires is only half of what it should be to match reported production power. And this is true throughout the day’s full production curve.

So my immediate problem is to get my gateway to report accurate power output and only once that is resolved will I understand whether that issue may have masked an u settling issue with my panels.

For example, the Microinverters may be applying voltages that are half the voltage they think they are - I’d be getting Isc x 50% Vmp in terms of actual power but my micros might mistakenly be reporting Isc x Vmp.

I have no idea, I’m just certain that until the issue with the reporting on my Microinverters is fixed, it’s not worth doing much more debugging.

The good news is that the Micro-inverter vendor appears to be recognizing the defect and is offering to correct it.

I probably got ahead of myself by posting on this thread but I’d like to have a plan for how I’ll check all of my panels if I end having to pull them off of the roof (which would only happen after the Microinverter reporting inaccuracy issue has been resolved).

Appreciate everyone’s help and apologize if so might have cried wolf.
 
People here complain about the resolution the cheap FLIR but they've worked fine for me. I used one of the phone plug ins to locate the heated water lines of the floor in my shop. I would expect a bad panel to have a much higher temperature differential.
 
People here complain about the resolution the cheap FLIR but they've worked fine for me. I used one of the phone plug ins to locate the heated water lines of the floor in my shop. I would expect a bad panel to have a much higher temperature differential.
What did it cost you? Link?
 
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