Introduction
Testing your solar PV installation ensures that it can produce enough energy for your residence or commercial needs. Testing your solar PV installations will assist you in determining what is wrong with your system. Inspect the system for potential faults such as loose wires, faulty breakers and fuses, grounding faults, inverter malfunctioning, and so forth. The regular repair and maintenance of solar PV systems and panels will inspect that your power system is working correctly. The regular testing and solar system inspection of modular and non-modular components of the solar PV installation. This article provides you with the reasons why you should do regular solar PV system testing and inspection of your solar installations.
Figure: testing and inspection of your solar installations.
- System can stop working
Solar panels are interlinked and can fail. When fails or any malfunction occurs in the solar PV system, it will be challenging and must be inspected by professional maintenance engineers and technicians. The regular testing and maintenance of your PV installation ensure that you are getting the most power out (PVOUT of kWp/Kwp) of it.
Solar Panel Costing provides solar repair and maintenance, consultation, and installation services of solar power PV systems in the UK. You can book a survey for solar installation or solar services by filling out the form at their official website https://solar-panel-costing.com/survey.html.
Figure: Solar panels malfunctioning
- Save money
Solar testing and system inspection of your solar PV installations will help you better understand how they can help you save money. You can save finances by regularly inspecting your solar PV installation to ensure that your power system runs smoothly. If there is any fault detected or malfunctioning of any components identified, then you can fix it before any big problem occurs (damage to battery and inverters).
Your solar PV system must avoid unnecessary expenditures on modular and non-modular components such as panels and inverters, the life of which is an essential factor that evolves around your financing. Suppose your solar panel is not working correctly. In that case, it may have been damaged by hail, heavy snow, cracks, etc., or the battery or inverter has failed permanently, resulting in a loss of finances on your investment.
Figure: save financing by regularly inspecting your solar PV system
- Ensures that panel produces enough Output Power
Testing your solar PV installation allows you to ensure it’s running correctly at all times when needed. Regular solar system inspection of your solar PV installations ensures optimal output for your residential or commercial needs at all times when required, especially when there are extreme weather conditions like hurricanes and hail, snow, or clouds.
Figure: make sure that the panel produces optimal output
- Help you detect problems at an early stage
Regular solar repair and maintenance of your solar PV installations will help you identify problems early. Periodic maintenance of your solar PV installations ensures issues in PV modules to save them from before events when they become permanently damaged. As a result, plenty of finances can be saved by lowering the likelihood of module replacement in the long term.
The standard solar battery lifespan lasts 5 years-10 years, the charge controller lifetime is about 15 years, and the inverter lifespan lasts for 10-15 years; in addition, the panel itself is a long-time investment of about 25-30 years. Early-stage solar testing and inspection of solar system modules will save your investment.
Figure: saving money by reducing the replacement cost
- Save from electrocution
Solar PV systems can fail unexpectedly and cause electrocution. As we know that the solar panel generates DC power, and we store it in a battery and use a charge controller to charge the battery and direct current to be stored in the battery instead of flowing back towards panels and to power up the AC appliances, inverters involve in design to convert the DC power to useable AC power. If any faults occur in the Solar Panel or battery or charge controller, the hazardous DC shocks occur, which tetanus the muscles; however, inverters faults lead to AC safety issues which directly affect ventricular fibrillation of the heart, which does not allow the heart to pump smoothly and deliver the blood to the whole body. However, in both types of electricity, the victim may be electrocuted. However, timely solar system inspection and solar repair and maintenance lower the chances of electrocution to negligible.
Figure: lower the chances of electrocution
- Degraded nature of Solar panel system
Regular solar testing and inspection will help make sure that everything is working correctly and that there are no issues with your installation or equipment, which could save you from costly repairs later on down the road. However, timely solar system inspection and maintenance of modular and non-modular components of the solar PV installation ensures that they do not sink before their lifespan. Panels need cleaning and maintenance every year for 25-30 years, twice a time in an entire year. The shading factor, the harsh snowy weather having many days of autonomy, and hail ultimately retargeted the lifespan of solar panels, shortened their life, and affected their functionality due to the degradable nature of semiconductor Silicon atom, which retards over time.
Figure: shortened panel life
- Troubleshoot any issues with your solar PV system
Solar testing and system inspection will permit you to troubleshoot any problems with your solar PV system as early as possible so that you can quickly encounter them before they cause massive damage. Troubleshooting determines if your solar PV installation produces enough electricity to meet your needs.
Troubleshooting ensures that your panels aren’t damaged by hail, snow, or cracks. It identifies why the solar PV panel does not produce its full power or produces partial power.
Troubleshooting solar inverters is a big concern that must be tackled before time. In the grid-tie system, if any damage to Islanding occurs at the grid station, the inverter shut-downs due to voltage fluctuations. However, in some cases, malfunctioning of solar inverters occurs due to these voltage fluctuations; here at that time, inverters are not delivering enough power, which leads to troubleshooting fuse that may blow out, a circuit breaker may be tripped off, or wires do sustain the voltage fluctuations and become damage.
Troubleshooting the Solar Panel combiner Boxes will ensure any malfunctioning strings, wires, or fuses are functioning correctly or not.
Figure: Troubleshooting ensures that your panels aren’t damaged
- check if there are any power surges or spikes
Check if any power surges or spikes could damage your inverter or other equipment, ground faults, charge controller faults, etc.
Any unwanted current fluctuation forces the current to flow to the ground conductors. Ground faults in solar panels occur due to poor insulation of wires, short wires, etc. Ground faults can cause hazardous life damage.
Solar Charge controllers ignite when they receive any power that exceeds their rating power.
Power surges and spikes lead to the threatening damage caused by the overvoltage conditions. Short-circuit failings in the PV power system cause power fluctuations.
Figure: Panel power spikes
- Plan for repairs and replacements
It’s also helpful in knowing how much power your solar PV panel yields and how much power your PV panels can produce. That’s why, when the time comes for re-buying new panels or batteries, charge controllers, or inverters later down the line, you’ll know exactly what size system would work best for you at this time. Hence in this way, you can plan for future repairs and replacements.
Figure: Plan for future expansion or replacement
- Provide you with a sense of security
Solar testing of your solar PV installations will give you a sense of security that the system is working as it should be, which can, in the end, help a lot. Solar PV modules and non-modular components can be repaired or maintained before they become a big problem that requires replacement.
Is regularly testing your solar PV installations worth it?
Regular periodic Solar testing and inspection, cleaning, and maintenance services will help you save money and investment. Regular testing will detect where the fault is and which component is malfunctioning. However, regularly testing your solar PV installations will save you from the significant faults in PV solar panels, including Open-circuit faults, Line-to Line faults, degradation, bridging, bypass faults, and shading conditions. These faults will lead to power surges, power spikes, electrocution, and many more.
Construction insulation is critical to lowering carbon emissions. Proper insulation significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions in residential properties. A better insulation system would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the commercial building sector. Therefore lower carbon dioxide emissions lead to lower carbon footprints, eventually beneficial for the climate.
Hence regular solar testing and solar system inspection of your solar PV installations are worth it.
Figure: beneficial for the climate
Conclusion
If there is an issue with your solar PV system, testing will allow you to figure it out at an early stage. Solar testing and inspection of your systems will allow you to hold considerable funds. Repairing or maintaining an entire system is more complex than identifying the root cause of the problem. However, early-stage solar system inspection helps to lower carbon emissions to a great extent. Furthermore, it ensures you obtain as much out of your investment.
