diy solar

diy solar

Some Solar Panels are not getting the useful life expected.

Interesting. I knew about the mechanical aspects of what the sheet does, but UV is a puzzler. The encapsulation, cells etc all get bombarded by UV from the top side so why would the under side be any more prone, especially considering it would be largely shaded by the cells in a typical roof mount application? AFAIK the glass isn't particularly opaque to UV.
 
Just for giggles, I asked fred480v what the backpanels on his 200w solar panels are made out of. He responded within an hour with, "TPE". I had to look that up.

DUN-SOLAR TPE is a multi-layered film lamination designed to be used as the backsheet for photovoltaic solar panels. It acts as a durable protective barrier for the electronic components found in solar panels. Construction includes: Outer Layer - DuPont™ Tedlar® polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) film.
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Since it uses Tedlar, I'm good with that.
 
snoobler said:
Not at all happy that the pics all say "7 yrs AZ"... :(
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Yup, I'm in AZ too.

Makes me wonder about some of those brand new, major manufacturer solar panels, that are being sold cheap, with no manufacturer's warranty, or label.
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DASH said:
Yup, I'm in AZ too.

Makes me wonder about some of those brand new, major manufacturer solar panels, that are being sold cheap, with no manufacturer's warranty, or label.
.
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Got a smoking deal on talesun panels manufactured in Taiwan. We will see if I regret it in 7 years.
 
If it is just the backing sheet failing letting moisture into the encapsulation, say rain splashing up off the roof, flood filling it with some sort of sealant would be an answer perhaps. It'd have to be UV resistant but yellowing wouldn't be an issue.
 
And I thought buying some solar panels would be easy. Since manufacturers seem to like to lie, how is one suppose to know if they are buying good panels?
 
Jim, some of this is due to evolving technology. Seven years ago, they went with what they thought was acceptable. Seven years of field experience shows that some backing board material used at that time didn't hold up. When I was looking at new panels I asked the vendor what the backing board was constructed from. If the manufacturer has a thorough brochure that information might already be there.
 
when you have ppl demanding cheaper products - you get cheaper quality -- its a race for the bottom ... /// also the demand for solar right now is through the roof - so when company A then B then C is out of the backing - you go to Compnay D that you know makes inferior backing products but hey - it keeps the sales guys happy and maybe the end-user will get 10 years out it .. or 15 .. or 20 .. or 5 ... NO ONE KNOWS .....

I will say though that with Silver prices jumping and Trump again squeezing China ... we are anticipating Solar prices about to jump hard ... so good back or not - we are getting what we can - where we can ...

On a totally different note -- the other day I was in the archive (this dusty old room that they keep manual written reports from the 80's) and came across a sales receipt in 1988 for a 50W solar panel for $2725 ... 2725 dollars ... the funny part was the engineer that had my job even before I was born had wrote in the notes -- Good Price - we should stock up !!! ... NOW thats funny ...
 
HRTKD said:
Jim, some of this is due to evolving technology. Seven years ago, they went with what they thought was acceptable. Seven years of field experience shows that some backing board material used at that time didn't hold up. When I was looking at new panels I asked the vendor what the backing board was constructed from. If the manufacturer has a thorough brochure that information might already be there.
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Thank's for your tip. I've got so much to learn before I spend any money on solar panels. Back in 1975, I worked for a defense company doing research and development on Solar Cells, but for Space application on Satellite. Things have really changed especially on these bound to Earth Panels.
 
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