Re: [RE-wrenches] Lightning Strike Fries Array

2015-05-25 Thread John Blittersdorf
Wayne, I have successfully repaired Evergreen EC110's with the potted J-Box by whittling out the potting material (which fortunately was clear) around the diode and soldering in new ones. We just repaired 4 for a customer. Tedious but worth the effort. All 4 were repaired in a little over an h

Re: [RE-wrenches] Lightning Strike Fries Array

2015-05-22 Thread Gary Willett
Wayne, et al: I also recommend that you perform a Megger test on the DC Source Circuit conductors before recommissioning the system. There could be wiring faults caused by the lightning strike that may go undetected. It's also possible that an undetected ground fault might have occurred duri

Re: [RE-wrenches] Lightning Strike Fries Array

2015-05-22 Thread Gary Bassett
renches Subject: [RE-wrenches] Lightning Strike Fries Array Hello Wrenches, Today we visited a 10KW residential ground mounted system where there was a recent lightning strike that fried phones, irrigation system, cable and apparently the array. There was no external visible damage but also no

Re: [RE-wrenches] Lightning Strike Fries Array

2015-05-21 Thread Richard L Ratico
Wayne, Never had an entire array fried. My experience consists of a total of less than 10 modules out of a total of maybe 50 at two different sites. One site had the much more common (these days) modules with leads and diodes potted in an epoxy-like material. We use a Dremel tool with a burr bit t

Re: [RE-wrenches] Lightning Strike Fries Array

2015-05-21 Thread jay peltz
Hi Guys, The high current can be in the form of higher irradience, not the current in the lightning. That can destroy the diodes. you should be able to test on the module side of the diodes to see if there is voltage on the cell side. And that will tell you if its worth trying to replace the dio

Re: [RE-wrenches] Lightning Strike Fries Array

2015-05-21 Thread toddcory
but under a surge like a lightning strike wouldn't the diodes open rather than short? i always considered the pv's to be the least likely thing to be damaged from lightning and inverters and charge controllers (electronics) to be the most vulnerable. what in a pv would fail? an intercell conn

Re: [RE-wrenches] Lightning Strike Fries Array

2015-05-21 Thread Matt Sherald
Hi Wayne, Several years back I had all sixteen SolarWorld modules on a tracker get zapped. The two other trackers adjacent to this one had no damaged modules. The same strike blew out the phone box at the end of the road (some distance away). The SolarWorld jboxes were all sealed with no way to

[RE-wrenches] Lightning Strike Fries Array

2015-05-21 Thread Wayne Irwin
Hello Wrenches, Today we visited a 10KW residential ground mounted system where there was a recent lightning strike that fried phones, irrigation system, cable and apparently the array. There was no external visible damage but also no voltage at the combiner. We pulled 10-15 module junction bo