I’ve cleaned a few solar panels and it takes more than just a little rinsing and a “once over” with the soft scrub brush. I remember having to scrub these panels for a while. Even with a little dawn…

Any advice ?

Picture of grime for reference

Hi All!
I’m taking a poll!!
i’m in FL, S of Tampa, Gulf Coast, Manatee County.
Our solar was installed in summer of 2023 by PES Solar. We needed repair and went to call them only to discover they have closed the busns. We now have what’s called an Orphaned System.
Anybody in FL, and other states too, have their solar installer close the business?
Please start with your state and the busns name. Do we need to petition the state legislature for more consumer safeguards in FL or elsewhere ? THANKS!!

For utility-scale solar projects, how do you capture & map module serial numbers to their actual locations on site? Are teams using barcode scanning apps, handheld scanners, or manually maintaining spreadsheets?

I'm looking for practical ways to improve module traceability & want to avoid last min headaches during commissioning & handover.

Looking for a mid-range charger controller to fit my particular situation. Needs to charge 48v banks of deep cycle lead acid batteries (it's what I have, ok? I know the downsides but severe budget) and in addition to solar input, take 120 or 240VAC input from a generator when needed because I can't add more panels or storage. So far my only other option is a regular charger controller and a AC - DC adjustable bench power supply. You would think with all the off-gridders that this would be an easy search but so far no.

Our residential solar inverter broke over a month ago, Error Code 18xB7. It is fully covered under an active manufacturer warranty with Solar Edge. We hired a certified solar installer, Energy Aid also known as Otovo, to come out and evaluate the system. They confirmed the error code and ordered a replacement inverter from the manufacturer on our behalf. We never signed a contract, labor agreement, or any scope of work at this time.

A day later, we were quoted $1,800 to swap out the inverter. We told them 'no thanks' and asked how we could get our inverter from them. We were told they were having it sent to our home, BUT it somehow ended up in a warehouse 100 miles away.

For weeks, we’ve been calling the Energy Aid/Otovo to get our inverter. Customer service kept claiming they had no record of us declining the install (even though we told them every single time we called), and they would say they’d call us back with more info—but of course, they never did. We eventually got ahold of a manager who promised to escalate things and have our inverter shipped, or have an employee drive it down directly to us. A few days later he sent us a shipping label and things were looking up, but sadly it’s now been about 10 days and the item still hasn’t been handed over to the shipping carrier. We tried calling the manager, but he no longer answers or returns our calls. My guess is they just created a shipping label without ever really having the inverter ready to send to us.

We’ve also tried contacting Solar Edge (the inverter manufacturer) 20 days ago to see if they could do something to help. They told us to just ask the installer to send the inverter to us (ha-ha-ha, good one). We told them that was impossible and so they claimed to have escalated the case to logistics. Sounds great...however, it’s been crickets ever since from them as well.

We haven’t been producing solar energy in over a month now. We're feeling pretty helpless. What are we to do? Any advice is appreciated. Thank you for reading.

I would really appreciate any input you guys could provide as this will be the biggest purchase I've ever made besides the home!

I have a south facing roof w/o any shading which is great, but it's not the biggest. I'm estimating it's around 900 sq ft. I received a few quotes and just want some thought as to the pricing and if I'm overlooking anything that I should be adding/removing before taking the plunge. Average home usage ~20kwh in the winter months, 35kwh in the summer, SCE TOU-D Prime, just bought used tesla Y which will likely charge 5-10kwh/day average with 15kwh/day on Sat/Sun. Tesla can mostly charge during the super off peak daytime hours 8AM-4PM

The best locally based company quote
$50k - 22 REC 460AA Pure RX, 1PW3 + 1 dc expansion, panel upgrade
-they say 10.1kW array producing 16,300kW/year
-option for $15k off with prepaid PPA but the more I have looked into this, the more I am leaning towards not going this route. I don't want the 6 years looming over my head and the unknown FMV transfer plus any headache with selling the home, even if that is a very small chance

Sun Atlas Power (in house installer for Signature Solar)
$42.5k - 21 Peimar 450 (originally quoted 18 panels but i asked for more and they said they can probably squeeze 3 more), EG4 flexboss 18 (engineer says 21 is not necessary), gridboss, 2x EG4 exterior 16kwh batteries, panel upgrade
-they say 9.45kW system will produce 15,500kW/year

I initially stumbled upon Sun Atlas because I have been toying with the idea of trying DIY and browsing signature solar amongst many other sites. EG4 is appealing, I like the more modular design of having a flex boss and grid boss in terms of servicing and modifying the system in the future as well as a better value for the bulk battery storage. I can see the value proposition for the PW3's but don't like how it's a single point of failure, completely software locked, and you need tesla certified technicians.

9.5-10kW seems a little under powered for my home, but adding additional panels on the west facing part of the roof doesn't seem like it's worth it (quoted extra 4k for 4-6 more panels and will be ~80ft wiring distance from panel). I do eventually plan to build a 12'x25' covered patio and then slapping on 8-10 more panels + off grid battery to power the patio electronics and a mini split for our living room/kitchen which is the main area that needs the AC so it would reduce the reliance on central air system a lot.

Main questions
-any EG4 experience? On paper, the EG4 with Sun Atlas looks much better and this is the only installer I've found so far that can do it
-I know Peimar panels aren't as good as the REC, but those aren't an option with Sun Atlas Power though they said they have some hyundai 440 panels and Aptos 460. Are the Peimar's good enough?

Of course I'm plugging everything into AI and the response I'm getting is that the inverters could be a tad undersized at 290w and could cap output on the sunniest hours. Is this a thing? Should I ask the solar company to use IQ8HC or similar? Not sure what the cost difference would be.

I'm looking for a device that will allow me to connect my solar system (inverter, controller, battery, panels) to a camper's current system that supplies AC, DC, and charges a 12v SLA battery.

The goals are to marry the systems so that if I plug in shore power I do not destroy the solar system, and shore power also charges the lithium battery (and continues to charge the SLA).

I will likely cross post this in some RV forums, but I felt that here might be a great place to start.

I am open to RTFM replies that direct me toward information that you have found useful, and i will not feel insulted.

I could readily create an imperfect system where one unplugs the solar from the system manually, which would still allow charging from the shore power (controller takes DC in already), but trusting that -vs- something automatic is much less desirable.

I have a portion of my roof which will have shading issues during the winter months when the sun is lower to the horizon due to some taller trees that can't be removed or trimmed. During summer there is no shading issue as the sun is higher in the sky. I was considering having a string of panels put in the area that will have winter shading, and having a dc disconnect for that string that I just flip to off for the winter months. The idea being during summer I get the extra generation and credits on the electricity bill, and in winter the fact there is no circuit prevents shading related damage to the panels.

My thought was since the circuit will be open-circuit there will be no current flow, so no hot spots can develop on the shaded panels. Am i right that this would largely prevent any damage to the panels, or is there a bit more to it than that? Obviously i wont be climbing up and down and removing the panels, so do disconnected panels exposed to sunlight / weather age prematurely? (No snow/ice where I live)

Hi folks

Background:

Magna-sine 4024 with two Midnite Solar 150V controllers for two solar arrays

Sometimes, when the display will say (for example) 24.5 V, we'll want to plug in the generator to top off the power.

So we'll get the generator going and plug it in, and the display goes directly to "Float" instead of through the usual Bulk and Absorb stage.

I'm stumped as to why this is happening as it started this year with no software updates yet.

Any one have any ideas as to what's going on and how it can be fixed?

Hello, I currently have a DIY setup for my chicken coop area to run a pond pump, lights, brooder, and other various appliances. I have 16 100w panels wired in 4S4P. All of the panels run into a 12g wire that connects to the MPPT (could be too small of a wire) the MPPT 4/0 wire then goes to the battery and then another 4/0 wire to the inverter. I have 2 12.8v 300ah batteries wired in parallel with 4/0 wire. In full sun I'll get around 80v at 30a yet for some reason it's only charging 0.1-0.2kw. Overnight the battery will die. The inverter says it's pulling about 200w for all the appliances. I'll have to unplug a heat lamp or whatever and let the system charge. I tried the different battery types on the MPPT configuration screen and still no dice.

Do you guys have any ideas why I'm getting such a low charging current? And yes I know these are cheap eBay parts, I don't want to break the bank on a chicken coop light bulb.