Damp inside solar MC4 electrical connectors

Has anyone else thought - "my solar panels should not have been installed in the rain / damp weather"?

My solar panel installer company claims it's OK to install on the roof in all weathers, all year. Rain did get inside my connectors, and the roofer plugged the connectors together anyway. The damp will never escape the IP68 (= waterproof) connector, and so will corrode the (tinned) electrical contacts within.

It seems a fact that the corrosion will stop the system working within a year to two, and most certainly within the 10/25-year guarantee.

What do other engineers think? And did you complain?

If enough IET electrical engineers who had solar installed all agree, then finally the solar installation industry will have to listen.

Cheers, Adrian.

Parents
  • The damp will never escape the IP68 (= waterproof)

    IP68 isn't exactly hermetically sealed - as some of us have found to our cost apparently water tight enclosures can often end up with moisture inside them - often a combination of condensation (the standards make no mention of keeping gaseous water vapour out) and pressure changes as temperature cycles (typically boxes exposed to direct sunlight during the day, then freezing temperatures overnight). Those that are serious end up with pressure equalization/breather caps in addition to all the seals.  So I suspect the same might be true of trying to keep water in - after a few months on a roof, being baked in the sun (if indirectly if behind a panel) - some will slowly, molecule by molecule, find its way out, so the situation might not be quite as bad as envisaged.

       - Andy.

Reply
  • The damp will never escape the IP68 (= waterproof)

    IP68 isn't exactly hermetically sealed - as some of us have found to our cost apparently water tight enclosures can often end up with moisture inside them - often a combination of condensation (the standards make no mention of keeping gaseous water vapour out) and pressure changes as temperature cycles (typically boxes exposed to direct sunlight during the day, then freezing temperatures overnight). Those that are serious end up with pressure equalization/breather caps in addition to all the seals.  So I suspect the same might be true of trying to keep water in - after a few months on a roof, being baked in the sun (if indirectly if behind a panel) - some will slowly, molecule by molecule, find its way out, so the situation might not be quite as bad as envisaged.

       - Andy.

Children
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