Hello!
New to the forum, hopes to get some needed help
I have a small system setup on my balcony, running a 50 W solar panel via a regulator to a 50 Ah deep-cycle AGM battery. I use the system to charge my cell phone and laptop battery mostly (and some xmas lights during winter) and it has been working fine for about one year.
Then suddenly the panel stopped charging the battery about one week ago. On the panel side of the regulator I get about 8-10 volts only which is not nearly enough to charge the battery.
I have done the following troubleshooting:
* Replaced the battery with a smaller one, still not charging - So battery is not the problem
* Replaced the regulator with a spare one, still not charging - So regulator is OK
* Replaced the solar panel with a small 10 W unit - Charing, so problem must be with the panel.
I have googled a bit and then measured the Voc and Isc. Voc is 20.7 V (specs says 21.76 V) and the Isc is 2.84 A (specs says 3.06 A). It's not spot on, but still not so bad I think.
But as soon as I connect a small DC load to the panel the voltage just dives to 2 Volts, so I guess there is a large internal resistance right?
Is there anything more to do or test, or just accept that the panel broke already and buy a new panel?
/Johan
New to the forum, hopes to get some needed help
I have a small system setup on my balcony, running a 50 W solar panel via a regulator to a 50 Ah deep-cycle AGM battery. I use the system to charge my cell phone and laptop battery mostly (and some xmas lights during winter) and it has been working fine for about one year.
Then suddenly the panel stopped charging the battery about one week ago. On the panel side of the regulator I get about 8-10 volts only which is not nearly enough to charge the battery.
I have done the following troubleshooting:
* Replaced the battery with a smaller one, still not charging - So battery is not the problem
* Replaced the regulator with a spare one, still not charging - So regulator is OK
* Replaced the solar panel with a small 10 W unit - Charing, so problem must be with the panel.
I have googled a bit and then measured the Voc and Isc. Voc is 20.7 V (specs says 21.76 V) and the Isc is 2.84 A (specs says 3.06 A). It's not spot on, but still not so bad I think.
But as soon as I connect a small DC load to the panel the voltage just dives to 2 Volts, so I guess there is a large internal resistance right?
Is there anything more to do or test, or just accept that the panel broke already and buy a new panel?
/Johan
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