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  • Panel Production

    This system is just over 2 years old. This picture shows the panel production for the past year and I was wondering if it is normal. 7 of the 24 panels produced 35% less than the rest and 1 panel produced almost 70% less. Is there supposed to be that much difference between panels? This only started happening in the past year. The first year every panel produced about the same amount. If this is abnormal, any ideas of what is wrong and how to fix it? Thank You.
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  • #2
    The problem is likely either additional shading grown up recently, or bad panels. Try checking
    if the poor producers still hit the same peak power as other panels at the best sun time of day.
    If they do the panels are probably good but oft shaded. If they never do, suspect the panel or
    possibly the micro inverter. Bruce Roe

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    • #3
      There isn't any shade around the panels and the production gap is consistent throughout the day. I don't have micro inverters, but each panel does have an optimizer. Could it be bad optimizers? It seems like 8 panels going bad out of 24 is a pretty bad failure rate. Could loose connections or something cause it? Thank You.

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      • #4
        It could be a reporting problem. Do you have any way to independently confirm the reported production numbers? Would be a good place to start before tearing into the hardware.

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        • #5
          I don't have a way of checking on the individual panel output, but I have a sense energy monitor that can confirm the real time and total production numbers of the inverter. I, unfortunately, have just now gotten the ability to see the production per panel, but over the past year I had noticed the drop in total peak and daily production that is consistent with the drops shown for those panels.

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          • #6

            Originally posted by UltimateBid View Post
            There isn't any shade around the panels and the production gap is consistent throughout the day. I don't have micro inverters, but each panel does have an optimizer. Could it be bad optimizers? It seems like 8 panels going bad out of 24 is a pretty bad failure rate. Could loose connections or something cause it? Thank You.
            I have micro inverters and one thing I have done is swapping micro inverters between a normal production panel and a low production panel to verify the problem is not due to a faulty micro inverter. I believe you can do similar with optimizers. In my case, I was able to narrow the the root cause to a small seasonal partial shading (~10% panel area) that caused much higher than expected production decrease (~40%) and learned that shading shadow location and shape on the panel can have very high impact.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by UltimateBid View Post
              I don't have a way of checking on the individual panel output, but I have a sense energy monitor that can confirm the real time and total production numbers of the inverter. I, unfortunately, have just now gotten the ability to see the production per panel, but over the past year I had noticed the drop in total peak and daily production that is consistent with the drops shown for those panels.
              you might not but the SolarEdge system does and the permission can be granted to you to reports from each optimizer.

              Have them give you full access and click on the owner check box as well for you.
              OutBack FP1 w/ CS6P-250P http://bit.ly/1Sg5VNH

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              • #8
                ButchDeal, I do have that access, but DanS was suggesting that it might be a reporting problem and had asked if I had a way of double checking the numbers, which I don't for the individual panels.

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                • #9
                  Any chance you have Suniva panels?

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                  • #10
                    I do, indeed, have Suniva panels. Suniva OPT280-60-4-1BO

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                    • #11
                      Symptoms sound very similar:

                      https://www.solarpaneltalk.com/forum...e-rate-opt-280

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                      • #12
                        Well, crap, that looks exactly like what is happening to me. And now they're bankrupt and not honoring any warranties. Thank you for solving my mystery though.

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