generating solar but no output - bad?

unclebob

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Jul 11, 2018
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If i put up a set of solar panels, but have nothing to put the generated electricity into, what happens to it?
Is it bad for the panels to not be connected up to anything?

I have a badly damaged garage roof which im thinking of replacing with just solar panels. Problem is, as the garage is not water tight, I have no electricity going to it either. So i have no means of using the power i would generate...

Is it bad for the panels to not be connected up to anything?


Even if i connected up a few car batteries while i test by 18650's, they wont be discharged so eventually will be full...

Also, when i do put the panels up, there will be lots of shading in different parts of the roof - almost every panel will be shaded differently over the day...
Is it possible to have lots of single panels connected to cheap inverters, which then link together to connect to one proper charger/inverter?
 
Solar panels with "no load" will just sit there and do nothing. They won't be harmed by it. A solar panel is just like a battery. If it's not in use, it just sits there doing nothing.

Not like a wind/water turbine where it needs a load to keep it safe. The only reason they need loads is keep from overspinning and blowing themselves a part.
 
As Korishan said there wont be any damage to the solar panels.
With the shading there is several options;
Microinverters, individual inverter per panel, direct AC from the panel level so AC wiring on the roof, they used to be fairly expensive but there are now a fair few on eBay, some that wil run up to 4 panels independently and can be strung together.
Optimisers, basically an MMPT per panel going to a centralised inverter, DC wiring on the roof, older systems had the optimisers and inverter as matched, Tigo now make a unit that can be used with any inverter, theres probably others that do the same.
Theres also DC coupling from solar to battery with multiple MMPTs and a charge controller.
 
If you built any electricals in the garage as if they where outdoors, eg conduit, waterproof enclosures, waterproof light & power fittings, etc, etc, it'd be OK.
But then the cost - might be cheaper to bite the bullet & re-do the roof - colourbond (corrugated steel) under the panels isn't that expensive?
 
unclebob said:
I have a badly damaged garage roof which im thinking of replacing with just solar panels. Problem is, as the garage is not water tight, I have no electricity going to it either. So i have no means of using the power i would generate...

This is definitely the way forward ....using solar panels as the roofing with nothing else ...I have done this on a small scale , use silicone to seal the joints to make watertight ...

As for shading problem , you must connect panelsin parallel to reduce loses ...

Micro inverters are ridiculously expensive ...just charge thepowerwall when you get it ... I'm moving my whole house over to 24DC , electrosmog free zone... AC is only for transmitting power over long distances .
 
Thanks for the input, the garage structure I'm hoping to redo in 5-10 years in a different shape/layout so don't want anything too costly/permanent. I was thinking of using wooden joists bolted together to make the span (total front to back is approx 8m and 5 m wide) mount aluminium u channels to that,which would act as the drainage between the panel joints ( the channel being -|_|- kinda shape) with the panel sitting on the two outer lips. The closest point from the garage to the house consumer unit is approx 25 m. I'm thinking of putting a metal shed in the garage to mount the electrics onto, and eventually store the battery packs too- but not sure how that will work with moisture over colder damp months in the UK. Then run armoured wire back to the house carrying AC into my existing Henley block. I need to think about devices as I don't really want to send DC down the 25 m stretch, but as I won't be using fit and provider payback schemes I don't want to push into the grid my excess!
 
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