Solar panel repairs are the thing I get asked about most, and the question is nearly always the same. Is it worth fixing, or am I better off replacing the whole lot?
There is no single answer to that. But there is a way to find out, and it does not start with a quote. It starts with working out what is actually wrong.
We went out to a home at Nambour recently to look at a system that was not performing the way it should. It is a good one to walk through, because the process is the same on every job.
We find out what is wrong before we talk about money
An underperforming system can have any number of causes, and most of them look identical from the ground. The panels sit up there looking perfectly fine.
So we test rather than guess. At Nambour I went over the array with a thermal imaging camera. Panels run warm in the sun, so heat on its own means nothing. What we are looking for is the difference, where one panel or one cell is running hotter than the ones around it. A failed cell or a bad connection has to push current through resistance, and that shows up as heat long before anything shows on the surface.
Then it is the multimeter. We test at the inverter and at the array, and compare what is actually coming in against what should be. Between the camera and the meter you can usually narrow the problem down to one of four things: a single panel, a string, a connection, or the inverter itself.
That matters, because those four things cost very different amounts to put right.
What tends to go wrong on older systems
In my experience the inverter is usually the first thing to go. It works harder than anything else in the system and it is the part with electronics in it.
After that it is connections. Rooftop isolators and junction boxes sit out in the Queensland sun for years, and the plastic eventually gives up. A cracked enclosure lets water in, and water and DC do not mix.
Panels themselves can degrade too. You will sometimes see discolouration or browning across the cells, which is a fair sign that panel is not doing what it was doing ten years ago.
And then there is the boring one that catches a lot of people out. Trees grow. A system designed for a clear roof in 2013 may be sitting in afternoon shade by now, and nothing is wrong with it at all.
When a repair is the right call
If the array is sound and the fault is one component, repair it. Replacing an inverter, a run of cable or an isolator on an otherwise healthy system is straightforward work and it is a fraction of the cost of a new system.
The same goes for a single failed panel, provided we can still match it. That gets harder as a system ages, because panel models come and go, but it is worth asking.
If someone tells you a whole system needs replacing without testing it first, get a second opinion. It might be true. But nobody can know that from the driveway.
When replacing makes more sense
There comes a point where you are spending good money to keep an old system limping along, and that money would be better put toward a new one.
Usually it is one of three things. The system is too small for what the household now uses. There is no storage, so everything generated during the day goes out to the grid for a small feed-in payment and gets bought back at a higher rate that evening. Or the switchboard is not built to carry anything more, so any upgrade means that work anyway.
When two or three of those are true at once, replacing is generally the better spend. I will tell you which camp you are in once I have looked at it, and sometimes the answer is that your system is fine and you do not need me at all.
Four things you can check before you call anyone
Have a look at your inverter display or app. Most will show a fault code or a warning light, and that alone tells us a great deal before we arrive.
Compare this quarter’s bill to the same quarter last year rather than to last quarter, so you are comparing like seasons.
Stand back and look at the roof in the middle of the afternoon and see whether anything is shading the panels that was not there a few years ago.
And please do not get up on the roof yourself. A solar array is live in daylight and there is no switch that changes that. Ring someone.
Solar panel repairs across the Sunshine Coast
We are a local solar company based in Caloundra, and we repair and service solar across the Coast, including Noosa, Buderim, Caloundra, Mooloolaba, Maroochydore and Currimundi.
If your system is not doing what it used to, I am more than happy to come and test it properly and tell you honestly what it needs. If that turns out to be a repair, we will repair it. If you would rather look at replacing an older system, we do that too.
You can request a quote here, or please don’t hesitate to call or email.
Justin Zerna
Owner, AHJ Trade Services
0492 910 232
justin@ahjtrade.com.au
