As we turn to clean and renewable energy, there are a lot of people in California who are turning to solar panels to lessen their dependence on the grid. Though PV panels are strong and sturdy, there are going to be circumstances where there are going to be micro-cracks that would affect the overall performance of your solar system. With basically everyone having their own solar panels, the need for a residential solar panel repair service in California has increased.
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Can a damaged solar panel be repaired?
No, you really can’t repair the damaged parts of your collar panel. Once your solar panels are compromised, there is no way that you could fix them because there is no way that you could reattach the parts that may have broken off. When you are working with PV panels, then they are going to be sealed off completely so that you could take advantage of the panels and get optimum performance. You are going to have to replace the whole panel when you are thinking of repairing the damage.
What happens if one solar panel is damaged?
This would depend on the extent of the damage that happened to your solar panel. If the tempered glass is the only one that was cracked, or if the frame has only been bent a little bit, then you could expect your solar panel to be working just fine.
But sometimes the damages could cause a lack of protection, making the debris and rain get into the system, then could further damage the solar panels.
If the damage reaches the wiring inside your module, then this could cause the efficiency of your solar panel to decrease dramatically. And it could go to the extent that there would not be any electricity that your solar panels would produce, so this is basically affecting your whole system.
How do you diagnose a bad solar panel?
1. Overheating system
You have to check the heat fade and any of the hot spots to help determine whether your system is overheating. You would easily be able to decipher any temperature issue by simply touching your panels, if the area is hot, then the panels are overheating and are overloaded.
When you allow your system to overheat, it could affect the performance of your system and cause you to have less power whenever it is hot. So do your best to avoid this.
2. Inverter problems
When you have a solar system, there are going to be chances where there are going to be problems in your inverter. This would have to be one of the most serious problems that you may encounter when you are a solar panel owner because there is a big chance that the whole system would be inoperable if this is the problem.
To check this, always check the indicator light, when you see that the light is green, then this means that the whole system is working just fine. But if the light is red, that means there is a problem.
3. Loose wiring
Some of the issues that you may encounter as a solar panel owner is loose wiring, these wires that are connected from your system to your home solar batteries, inverters, and your individual PV cells. So if this happens, there is a chance that your connections would fail.
You need to be a licensed technician to touch the wires if you suspect that you have loose wiring, so to help this, contact your installer to help you with this problem so they could inspect the panel system themselves.
4. Micro-cracks
Over time, there might be some micro-cracks that may appear on your PV panels. These micro-cracks could then compromise the performance of your whole solar system. There are not a lot of things that you could do when this happens so you are going to end up having to replace the whole panel.
How easily do solar panels get damaged?
Solar panels are not fragile, they are actually made up of these silicon solar cells that are very durable. They are around 0.20 mm thick, so they are thin wafers but they are able to flex. Even though they are typically flexible, there is a chance that your solar panels are going to get these micro cracks. These micro-cracks could cause your panel to malfunction and have inactive cells. Usually, these damages are because of the severely cold temperatures, hail, strong winds, snow, and the sun.
