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Solar Panel Questions
This is the place to ask and answer questions about solar panels, how to install and where to find!
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John MArcellus Hanson on -
How much does the efficiency change when a solar panel is wet?
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Permalink Reply by Nick Yecke on -
John,
I haven't seen anything that suggests any significant decrease in efficiency from water droplets, since the panels are coated with glass. The light may refract when passing through the droplets, but they may also act as a lens as well. I could see a decrease in efficiency from snow though, because its high reflectivity index would cause more light to reflect back into space (as is the case at the poles) and make it more difficult
for light to penetrate into the panel.
Hope this helps.
- Nick
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Permalink Reply by Bryan Accra on -
I'll also add on that solar panels are rated for maximum efficiency on a clear sunny day. If they are wet, it might mean there is cloud cover which will have an effect on the efficiency anyhow. If they're wet and it's sunny, they would probably dry up quickly enough so there would not be any significant effect.
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Permalink Reply by Anora on
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We are considering an off grid solar system for our home. We live in Liberia west Africa and we have 6 months of Rainy Season (April -Oct) and 6 months of Dry season (Nov-April). We are looking at 12-120watts panels or 10-130 watts panels. We want to use 24 volt batteries but don't know how many we would need to run our system. I am very new to solar power (Novice) and could use all the advise and info I can get my hands on. Most of what I know about solar power I have read on the net or spoken to a few friends who also live in Liberia and uses solar power. There is no Gov't power here due to the 15 yr Civil unrest in the Country. All advise .
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Permalink Reply by Anne-Catherine Dargis on -
Hi Anora,
Thank you for reaching out to us. We would be happy to help you design a system to allow you to have a reliable power source. You can fill out our design request form to answer a few questions about your solar needs, and we'll get started! Please send us an email at admin@pvpower.com to request the form.
Best,
Anne-Catherine
Anora said:We are considering an off grid solar system for our home. We live in Liberia west Africa and we have 6 months of Rainy Season (April -Oct) and 6 months of Dry season (Nov-April). We are looking at 12-120watts panels or 10-130 watts panels. We want to use 24 volt batteries but don't know how many we would need to run our system. I am very new to solar power (Novice) and could use all the advise and info I can get my hands on. Most of what I know about solar power I have read on the net or spoken to a few friends who also live in Liberia and uses solar power. There is no Gov't power here due to the 15 yr Civil unrest in the Country. All advise .
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Permalink Reply by Mamunur Rahman on -
Dear Anora,
Your country going renewable use in big way see. www.reeep.org/file_upload/5272_tmpphp5vFwxs.pdf. However,
Liberia has high rainfall, annual solar isolation shows good prospects for the
application of solar technologies such as photovoltaic and solar thermal for health,
education, agriculture and micro-enterprises. Despite the lack of national data on solar
resource in Liberia, global weather data obtained from RETScreen International of
Canada and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the US Department of Energy
show that monthly average daily solar radiation on horizontal surface in Liberia is
between 4.50 to 6.0 kWh/m 2/day 3.
Now you need to know, we use electrical applications in two types of current. One is Direct DC and another is A/C alternate. DC is for small home purpose like light, small fan, television etc. A/C for transmission in long distance, run almost any electronics and electrical application now on days we use.
For remote area, SHS small home system like 40 watt/ 70 watt on wards many different capacity you can use for lighting and other purpose. You need example 40 watt panel, wire, frame for mounting panel, charge controller for charging batteries. Now you can charge daytime as you know if sun is available you can get 4 hrs minimum charging time therefore you can use or storage 4 hrs times 4o watt means 160 watt day.
At night time, you start 5 watt bulb, it consumed 5 watt one hour, if you use two light so 10 watt each hour. You can run 10 watt 16 hrs at that system. Comes to battery, battery store power because night time you don't have sun but you need power, you need appropriate amp battery to store the power minimum is 3 days autonomy at each day working hours. Like if you use 4 hrs day you need to store 12 hrs power to your battery.
For 40 watt system, it cost comes around 300 usd in India, Bangladesh south east Asia regeon with all package like panel, frame, wire, switch, batterys.
Regards
Khondoker Mamunur Rahaman
Member
ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials U.S.A
The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) Austria
Anora said:We are considering an off grid solar system for our home. We live in Liberia west Africa and we have 6 months of Rainy Season (April -Oct) and 6 months of Dry season (Nov-April). We are looking at 12-120watts panels or 10-130 watts panels. We want to use 24 volt batteries but don't know how many we would need to run our system. I am very new to solar power (Novice) and could use all the advise and info I can get my hands on. Most of what I know about solar power I have read on the net or spoken to a few friends who also live in Liberia and uses solar power. There is no Gov't power here due to the 15 yr Civil unrest in the Country. All advise .
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Permalink Reply by Paul Majchrowicz on
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I have two Aimes 3000 watt inverters connected to 8 Trojan Crown 395 AH
6 volt batteries, a Flexcharge NCHC-12 charge controller and ten 215
watt solar panels. Each inverter is connected to one leg of my service
panel and there is a switched relay that switches the power source
between the solar plant to the grid. The inverter that did not fail is
wired to switch power to the grid when the battery voltage drops to 10.5
volts. Except for my refrigerator everything with a large motor is
excluded from the solar panel array and permanently wired into a
separate service panel connected directly to the grid.
Everything worked fine until I added two 200 watt solar panels.
Shortly thereafter one of the inverters failed. It was replaced with a
new unit which also failed. I checked my solar panel array and noticed
that one of the 200 watt solar panels was delaminated in the center. I
brought this to the attention of the retailer. He said that the panel
wasn't delaminating but that the glass had failed to fuse in that spot
during manufacture. He also stated that the panel was working properly
with the correct voltage and watt output and that it could not have
caused the failure of the two inverters.
Can a bad solar panel cause your inverters to fail? Can the fact that
two of the panels are 220 watts and the other 10 are 215 watts have any
effect on your inverter?
I've been told that the solution is to add 8 more batteries. My old
batteries were supposed to charge to between 14 and 15 volts reading on
the inverter and never got past 12 until I added the two additional
panels. Why would adding more batteries prevent the inverters from failing?
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