DO NOT BUY USED SOLAR PANELS

DO NOT BUY USED SOLAR PANELS

They are a great bargain for home owners and come in a low cost. There are quite a number of disadvantages such as : Estimating the lifetime of a solar cell can be a difficult to pick up.  This is because some of the very old ones are still in use today. Some cells outlive their stated lifetime range (which is usually around 30 years), and as new solar technologies are brought to the marketplace, who knows how long these products will last. The old solar power cells tend to take up more space per wattage than modern day solar cells. For home owners, who purchase these products for low cost purposes, this may not be the ideal thing to do for purchasing a second hand solar power,  but don't have a great deal of space to accommodate their desired capacity. At times you may purchase a second hand solar panel and not know that condition or life span of the panels and also the panels maybe damaged. You may be identify damaged ones such as cracked, scratched, appear to have condensation under the surface, or have brittle/loose connections.  Yes they may be repaired, but a good quality used solar cell should give you less of a stress.

Ways of knowing if a Solar Panel is used is by :

Newer panels pack more wattage into less space. If you don't have to worry about space, older used panels will almost always be your best deal for "dollars per watt."  Avoid panels with obvious damage, unless you are willing to dig in there and fix them. Cracked glass, condensation under the glass, and broken connections are common problems, but can sometimes be fixed. In our experience, solar panels that are new from the factory usually put out up to 10 percent more than the rated output printed on their backsides. As they age, power output will decrease slightly during the panel's lifespan (but only if it has been in the sun the whole time..stored panels do not degrade!) The old Arco panel shown above was rated at 22 watts when brand new in 1980. It now produces about 19 watts. Not bad for 21 years in the sun!  Older panels were made with a plastic substrate that turned brown after many years in the sun. Mirror concentrators made this problem very serious. Compare the difference in browning between the old Arco shown above (no concentrator) and the Carrizo quads below (mirror concentrators). But don't discount panels that have turned brown! Measure the actual power output, and make your decision based on that. Panels that have browned will not degrade any more rapidly than ones that are still clear. Loose connections between the actual solar cells in a panel can be a problem. This was the main problem with the "broken" solar panels that were previously for sale on our site (we are out of stock on these now.) Broken connections can be fixed by soldering...you must use electronics solder that contains at least 2 percent silver. Customers have told us that conductive epoxy works great for this, with much less hassle than solder.  To test a used solar panel, set your voltmeter to DC volts, and measure across the + and - terminals of the panel. This is called the "open-circuit voltage." A 12 volt panel should show about 21 volts in full sun. Panels designed to be connected in sets of 4 (4 panels in series) will show 4 to 5 volts. If your meter can measure DC amperes, set it for this (on a high enough range so your meter won't go up in smoke) and connect it between the + and - terminals in full sun. This measurement is called the short circuit current, and is how much current you can expect from the panels. For a 12 volt panel, multiply your current by 17 volts to get watts. (17 volts is the rated voltage of most 12 volt panels.)

KOBUS LABUSCHAGNE is the owner of Autogate South Africa and his company is one of the major Solar Power products in Johannesburg, Midrand, Centurion and Pretoriawww.autogate.co.za