Wet Leakage Current Testing for Solar Modules
Perform Wet Leakage Current Testing on solar modules at our Accredited PV Laboratory.
What is the Wet Leakage Current Test?
The wet leakage current test is an electrical bearing test that manufacturers carry out on various electrical equipment to be able to test the electrical isolation of the equipment’s housing to ensure it can withstand moisture or wetness from outdoor conditions.
How is the Wet Leakage Current Test performed?
For testing, the module is submersed in a shallow tank until the entire module surface is covered except for cable entries or the MC4 connections of junction boxes not designed for water immersion (less than IPX7). Then a testing voltage is applied across the output connectors -which are shorted- and the water bath solution and increased up to the module’s system maximum voltage and applied for a duration of two minutes.
The insulation resistance shall not be more than 40 MΩ per each square meter of the modules which have an area bigger than 0.1 m2.
Why we perform Wet Leakage Current Testing on PV modules?
The purpose of the Wet Leakage Current Testing is evaluating the solar module’s insulation against penetration of moisture under wet environmental conditions where the PV system is installed. Different weather conditions like rain, morning dew, fog or melted snow can lead to moisture penetration which can cause corrosion, ground fault and electric shock hazard.
Reasons for PV modules failing the Wet Leakage Current Test?
The wet leakage current test is one of the highest ranked failed tests during inspection of PV modules at laboratories. If the testing fails for another reason other than the connectors' problem, the failure will probably occur after the humidity freeze test or Damp Heat test for PV modules which may fail due to poor lamination or edge sealing during manufacturing.
Wet Leakage Current Testing and IEC 61215
The Wet Leakage Current test is an electrical safety test and one of the main qualifying tests for IEC 61215. The wet leakage testing is carried out after the insulation test and repeated at the end of the quality tests after all other tests have been passed.
