I designed, permitted, and completely installed my own grid tied solar system with P320 SolarEdge optimizers, SE7600 HD Wave inverter and Q-cell Duo G5 310W panels. I have 27 panels in 2 strings all facing the same direction (due west). One string is 14 panels, the other is 13. I'm a huge reader but I rarely post to places. You guys have been very helpful with my journey of learning on solar panels and I've read a significant number of threads on this forum.
It all works great, except I have one panel (on the first string, panel 1.1.5) that has about 60% of the power output of the others. It's clean, looks fine and does something that I think is really strange. During the low output time (which is always during peak hours and sunny) the optimizer drops the voltage for that panel down to 16V, which is about half of what the other optimizers on the string are doing (about 29V each). I contacted SolarEdge and they shipped me out a replacement optimizer which after replacing does the exact same thing. The logical part of me says at this point it must be the panel but I can't figure out why the optimizer would behave like it's doing. I asked SolarEdge and they brushed me off.
Normal output for a panel on this string is voltage around 29V when it's putting out 250-270 watts and the optimizers also put out about 29V as well. On the bad optimizer/panel I have a module voltage 2V higher, about 31V and it's only putting out 150W. And the optimizer voltage is of course at 16V.
Whole inverter runs about 394V. I know it's not clipping because that's when the inverter voltage rises above 400V (usually 440V) and I watch for that with some python scripts I wrote.
Here are some clues I'm considering
* My panels are really two half panels in parallel. Maybe half the panel has a temperature related defect and for some reason this causes the optimizer to drop the voltage?
* Because this is my string of 14 (other string is 13) One of the optimizers has to have reduced voltage output to balance the strings for some reason?
* I got two bad optimizers in a row?
* I'm lazy and should just swap the panel position instead of starting this thread?
I do plan on swapping the panel position but it's no fun moving panels around on the roof and I was hoping maybe someone would have ideas on what could cause the optimizer to behave so strangely.
It all works great, except I have one panel (on the first string, panel 1.1.5) that has about 60% of the power output of the others. It's clean, looks fine and does something that I think is really strange. During the low output time (which is always during peak hours and sunny) the optimizer drops the voltage for that panel down to 16V, which is about half of what the other optimizers on the string are doing (about 29V each). I contacted SolarEdge and they shipped me out a replacement optimizer which after replacing does the exact same thing. The logical part of me says at this point it must be the panel but I can't figure out why the optimizer would behave like it's doing. I asked SolarEdge and they brushed me off.
Normal output for a panel on this string is voltage around 29V when it's putting out 250-270 watts and the optimizers also put out about 29V as well. On the bad optimizer/panel I have a module voltage 2V higher, about 31V and it's only putting out 150W. And the optimizer voltage is of course at 16V.
Whole inverter runs about 394V. I know it's not clipping because that's when the inverter voltage rises above 400V (usually 440V) and I watch for that with some python scripts I wrote.
Here are some clues I'm considering
* My panels are really two half panels in parallel. Maybe half the panel has a temperature related defect and for some reason this causes the optimizer to drop the voltage?
* Because this is my string of 14 (other string is 13) One of the optimizers has to have reduced voltage output to balance the strings for some reason?
* I got two bad optimizers in a row?
* I'm lazy and should just swap the panel position instead of starting this thread?
I do plan on swapping the panel position but it's no fun moving panels around on the roof and I was hoping maybe someone would have ideas on what could cause the optimizer to behave so strangely.
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