Clean the surface with plain water: remove dirt, sand, any spider’s webs or insects (also in the junction box).
Cut back any vegetation around the panels.
Check the appearance of the modules: no brown cells, no water leakage, no other damage.
Check the stands: check for any corrosion, tighten the mechanical fixings. Note: For a grid-connected system, always disconnect the PV array from the inverter and work with insulated tools and gloves, observing all the safety rules when dealing with high voltages.
Check the fixing of the charge controller and fuses.
Check the state of charge: the indicators should accurately reflect the voltage state of the battery at ‘battery full’, ‘battery charging’ or ‘battery low = load shedding’.
Tighten the terminal clamps.
The recommended checks should be done at least once a month for small systems. In the case of larger systems, monitoring should be planned and organised by the supplier of the components with on-the-spot training of the users.
Note: The checks and maintenance operations on the batteries should always be carried out with insulated tools and observing safety regulations to avoid any short circuit.
352 Solar photovoltaic energy
