Marcel Grigore
New member
Hello everyone.
This is my first experience on a public forum, so please bear with me.
I have recently acquired a solar system which contains 4 x 85w BP solar panels, a STECA charge controller and 2 x 6V 400amh deep cycle batteries. I have the 4 panels connected in series and the 2 batteries linked in parallel. The panels are charging the batteries at 12.5A max in full sunny day, which I thought it is not really enough. I started disconnecting the solar panels one by one, to find out that one of them wasn't producing any Amps. I then opened the black box on the back on the panel, and checked the 2 diodes, the panel is fitted with. When I connect the voltmeter to the negative and positive of each diode, one diode is reading 9.4V and the other only 4.47V. I opened the other panel's boxes and checked the voltage, and every single diode produces around the 9.4-9.7V.
The questions I have are: Is this particular panel faulty? Is the diode at fault? How can I fix the problem? Could this damage the system?
I think I have described the issue accurate, and I hope that there is an answer to my question?
Many thanks
Marcel
This is my first experience on a public forum, so please bear with me.
I have recently acquired a solar system which contains 4 x 85w BP solar panels, a STECA charge controller and 2 x 6V 400amh deep cycle batteries. I have the 4 panels connected in series and the 2 batteries linked in parallel. The panels are charging the batteries at 12.5A max in full sunny day, which I thought it is not really enough. I started disconnecting the solar panels one by one, to find out that one of them wasn't producing any Amps. I then opened the black box on the back on the panel, and checked the 2 diodes, the panel is fitted with. When I connect the voltmeter to the negative and positive of each diode, one diode is reading 9.4V and the other only 4.47V. I opened the other panel's boxes and checked the voltage, and every single diode produces around the 9.4-9.7V.
The questions I have are: Is this particular panel faulty? Is the diode at fault? How can I fix the problem? Could this damage the system?
I think I have described the issue accurate, and I hope that there is an answer to my question?
Many thanks
Marcel