The photo below shows the new bypass diodes I installed. Since I had the panel off the roof, I went ahead and just replaced all three diodes. In the photo below the + output of the solar panel is the lead on the right. Proper orientation of the bypass diode is to have the cathode end (the end with the white band on it) connected to the positive of the solar panel. All three diodes are oriented in the same direction.
Since my solar panel is a 270 watt panel, with a little over 8 amps of current, I chose to use 15 amp 45 volt Schottky diodes I found on Amazon. In order to solder the Schottky diodes in place it requires a pretty high powered soldering gun. A little 60 watt soldering iron just won’t cut it. I used a Weller 260 watt soldering gun. Honestly I’m not sure a Weller 140 watt soldering gun is adequate. The way to solder the Schottky diodes in is to set them in place, then heat up the soldering gun before heating up the point to be soldered. Doing so minimizes the possibility of damage to the solar panel.
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