Effect on solar equipment under cover

[howardwheeler]

Everything is fixed on my trailer, and my 945 watts of solar panels are now parked under the shed that covers my fifth wheel. Should I turn off the breakers from my panels to the controller and should I shut off the controller? Is there any harm to the equipment to be in total shade? The controller says it's making zero amps.

[howardwheeler]

Shut off each breaker to the panels then shut off power to the controller. All is quiet. Thanks

[Crabbypatty]

My combiner box is on the roof and each panel has a circuit breaker. When covering for the winter, I flip all the breakers off.

[howardwheeler]

I'm not sure how long I'll be under cover. Maybe a few weeks. I'll first shut off the panels then the controller. Thanks for reminding me.

[2oldman]

Lwiddis wrote:
2oldman, the trailer or the module power?

Oh.. I guess I misunderstood. The panels are on a separate trailer?

It's spring, stuff isn't supposed to be in storage!

[Lwiddis]

2oldman, the trailer or the module power?

[2oldman]

How long is it going to be there?

[westend]

Observe the proper sequence when removing solar power. Some controllers will not like being disconnected from batteries with module power still present.

[howardwheeler]

I'll just shut it all down. Thanks. The reason I asked is so many unintuitive things seem to circulate around Solar I don't want to do something harmful I would never have known about. Learning about the voltage spike at dawn on a cold day showed me I don't understand the intricacies of solar.

[Lwiddis]

time2roll, I have considered cutting a hole for one panel...with reinforcement of the edges, weighting it down etc. May do so.

[time2roll]

Need a skylight. Otherwise no harm either way.

[Lwiddis]

Howard, I have shut mine down to avoid the small drain the controller takes.