# just a thought



## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

Just a thought,,
If you had two solar panels setting in direct sun light one hooked up and charging a battery and the other one not hooked to anything.
Wouldn't the one charging a battery be cooler? I mean the one hooked up charging would be converting sunlight to electric. The solar
panel that isn't hooked to anything would be absorbing the sunlight and converting it to heat only.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

Thinking two black panels in direct sun light would would both be hot.


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

budgetprepp-n said:


> Just a thought, if you had two solar panels setting in direct sun light one hooked up and charging a battery and the other one not hooked to anything. Wouldn't the one charging a battery be cooler? I mean the one hooked up charging would be converting sunlight to electric. The solar panel that isn't hooked to anything would be absorbing the sunlight and converting it to heat only.


But as we all know, working electronics produce heat because of unavoidable resistance in the conductors.

Bottom line, I don't know.


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## MountainGirl (Oct 29, 2017)

sideKahr said:


> But as we all know, working electronics produce heat because of unavoidable resistance in the conductors.
> 
> Bottom line, I don't know.


Me either, but it is an interesting thought.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

Smitty901 said:


> Thinking two black panels in direct sun light would would both be hot.


Yes they would both be hot,,, But one would be converting sunlight (heat) into electric and the other would only have one way to disperse the energy from the sun and that would be in the form of heat.


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## jim-henscheli (May 4, 2015)

I speak from experience, my two 100 watt panels have “idiot lights” for temp and bad connections, and at one point after hurricane Irma, ones was down/disconnected, and they both would get hot, but it was not enough to set off the idiot light, so I don’t think it matters much.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

My take: The one with current flow would be warmer. Current flow will be met with resistance. Resistance creates heat. Simple Ohm's Law and the Laws of Thermodynamics.

Panels don't take heat and convert it to power.... they convert light to power. Yes, *some* _near-infrared_ is converted to electricity, but that's not heat.


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## Chipper (Dec 22, 2012)

My take why risk having both out in danger of storm damage or theft etc. Hide one away until needed.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

Back Pack Hack said:


> My take: The one with current flow would be warmer. Current flow will be met with resistance. Resistance creates heat. Simple Ohm's Law and the Laws of Thermodynamics.
> 
> Panels don't take heat and convert it to power.... they convert light to power. Yes, *some* _near-infrared_ is converted to electricity, but that's not heat.


Yes they convert light to power. But..,,, Sunlight is heat power.
One panel is converting sunlight to heat and the other is converting sunlight to heat and electric. The price of the power
is the sunlight the working panel would have less sunlight power to convert to heat because some of it is converted to electric.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

budgetprepp-n said:


> Yes they convert light to power. But..,,, Sunlight is heat power.
> One panel is converting sunlight to heat and the other is converting sunlight to heat and electric. The price of the power
> is the sunlight the working panel would have less sunlight power to convert to heat because some of it is converted to electric.


I agree..... the sun does emit heat. The sun also emits radio waves, gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet rays etc etc etc. But _visible light_ (which is the portion of the spectrum that our eyes and our solar panels are sensitive to) isn't heat.


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