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[Music]  you  [Music]  all right solar panels solar panels are  for troubleshooting are pretty  straightforward actually what you're  gonna want to measure two things first  of all you make sure the fuse is still  there how do you can you tell you go to  the controller you have a blanket on top  of the solar panel and you actually  measure on the battery post of that and  there journal exposed there's set screw  so you can actually get your little  multimeter there and you want to make  sure that you see battery voltage at the  controller that's the first thing you  want to confirm a do I have connectivity  to my battery yes check great next with  a blanket on top of the solar panel you  disconnect the solar panel and you  actually then put a multimeters in the  leads they're not connected to anything  and you take away the blanket and you  look at what the open voltage of that  panel is what is the voltage of the  panel when it's actually simply and the  sun's shining to it you take that  measurement you write it down then you  put a blanket back on in their bunk it  is because you should never connect or  disconnect anything under load like you  don't disconnect your vacuum cleaner  from pulling it off the wall when it's  working because you have arcing so you  never disconnect anything ever under  load ever at home or on a boat so the  way to stop a solar panel is to cover it  if it's not outputting no load no charge  you reconnected with a blanket on top  then you come back on here and what you  do is now you disconnect this fuse here  and then you measure what is the panel  voltage this here should be the same  when the batteries are disconnected it  should be the same because they're  talking and there's no load it's not  converting anything and you should see  whatever was here should be here if it's  not then you have a problem on this  segment and then you reconnect the fuse  and now you measure what voltages add  the panel's here and what is voltage  here and then you write all that stuff  down and unfortunately you have to send  it to someone you have to well maybe not  but you probably want to you send it to  someone who installed them you sent it  to the person who sold you the panel's  or you send it to the manufacturer but  you're looking for different values this  panel is gonna have a certain open  values open open voltage value you want  to  make sure that you're in range right you  want to make sure that if your batteries  remember your solar panels are not  charging your batteries if your  batteries are full like I get this all  the time I really don't understand my  solar panels are not working I'm like  are you battery's holes yes they're full  and they're not outputting I don't see  any amps coming from my solar panels  well yeah of course  the controller is there to regulate the  voltage do you want your batteries to be  force-fed amps and volts regardless of  their state of charge no well how could  you expect this device to not do its job  and to give this battery current and  voltage when it doesn't need to  if these batteries are full there's  going to be no amps going from here to  there that's that's job the device here  is to figure out so the batteries need  something if they don't I'm going to  open the circuit and maybe I'm going to  pulse a little bit to give it something  to flow charge but there's not going to  be a lot of current going through this  wire if this battery is full so when you  test this you bring the solar back the  battery down and you say okay now work  and you can't test this that night you  can't test this in a cloudy day you test  this high noon and generally better is  it summer because if you do this in the  wintertime when the Sun is at high noon  over the sky of that inclination you're  not gonna get good results right you're  gonna want to test it generally between  May April and maybe early parts of  October to have some sort of value that  is representative of what that solar  panel can do when the Sun is directly  overhead because otherwise your numbers  are just you're off right and that's how  you test a solar panel install  regardless Solar series or singular is  the same thing you just write stuff down  this is a lot of mumbo-jumbo but you  write it down and then you send it to  someone and that person looks at it and  says yeah you got a problem or no you  don't but it's very important to know  what your battery voltage is remember if  your battery is full or a battery  chargers connected to that or you have  multiple controllers and the batteries  are complete full well they're going to  be outputting very little current like  on my boat when my battery is completely  full my alter is running  I'm connected to shore power maybe or  I'm just connecting the shore power my  batteries are completely full my solar  panels are not going to be outputting a  lot because my controllers are looking  at the battery voltage and going I don't  need to output a lot the batteries are  already full so solar is not this thing  that forces you to take a charge if it  did it would ruin batteries more than  charge them any questions on solar what  is the average lifespan of an average  solar panel I would say 1020 probably 15  now I've got owners that had small  little boats like a 26 footer that went  to Hawaii like a Contessa 26 and they  had solar panels on the rim and this  panel saw a lot of green water that  panel did not last 20 years you know it  depends you know normal coastal here no  problem I'd say 10 15 20 my panels on my  boat are measured and quantified output  that is logged because I'm a geek every  year and they're still outputting after  6 years exactly what I had when I put  them in 6 years ago so they're gonna  degrade over time but they're they're  pretty good other questions on solar  unless you have solar I mean this only  happens when you don't think you're  charging enough right