Inverter/Charger

[dgd]

Designed for 7 year life @ 20% DOD. Yet you got 17. That's impressive!

Yes and still counting 
I doubt they are still full capacity but as my daily use is around 10% DOD the life cycle count is probably a lot higher. I do notice that the occasional 25 to 30 DOD seems to waken them up with the no load resting voltage rising from 25.4 to 25.9 so a decent discharge refreshed them. I never see them below 24.2v

In winter 2006 they got abused running down to 22.5 quite often, several weeks of no sun, too few PVs and I thought they would give up, but they recovered 

dgd

[dgd]

DGD, what does that 30  DoD amount up to in watthrs?
Types of loads? etc

The daily report below shows usage.
As you can see real usage is fairly low. The worst case being a few days over new year where a storm front moved in.
Although the minimum battery voltage reports 23 and below this is due to the 1 second updates catching the 2Kw electric kettle or 3Kw coffee machine being switched on. I never see the voltage below 24.2 and it usually is about 24.5 just before dawn.

Loads, the 500WHr/year fridge/freezer is biggest but short term bigger loads are electric oven, microwave, hoover, microwave... Probably like all off-grid homes cooking and washing and hoovering all occur when sun bright and lots of spare energy.
Also lots extra energy diverted from PVs to hot water heating 

[Cniemand]

Looks a lot like my usage patterns. Although my LFP bank is 5 kWh. My first two years I would only use 3-4 kWh /day even though the solar array is fairly large.  The last year or so I have doubled that (or more) by using a space heater as a diversion load (not actually set up as one in the CLassic) to heat the house during the sunny winter days here.

[russ_drinkwater]

Does the the angle at which panels are mounted have much of an effect on water invasion or do you consider it is
mainly caused by use of poor quality silicone sealants?
Would it help if the frames and cover were re-siliconed with a high quality product to help reduce leakage?
We get no snow here and rain is patchy most of the time.
Dust is the biggest problem and I have to "window" wash the panels on a regular basis.
Also the colour of the surrounding roof may have an influence on panel performance.
The reason I say this is that we have all our rooves painted white and they are a lot cooler, but have a lot of reflected "radiance".
I would imagine panels used on boats in the ocean and large bodies of fresh water would have some reflection/refraction effect on them.
Intensified by sporatic cloud cover and further reflection.

[Cniemand]

Could be. Much akin to a ground mounted Solar array surrounded by snow.

[dgd]

Does the the angle at which panels are mounted have much of an effect on water invasion or do you consider it is mainly caused by use of poor quality silicone sealants?
Would it help if the frames and cover were re-siliconed with a high quality product to help reduce leakage?
We get no snow here and rain is patchy most of the time.
Dust is the biggest problem and I have to "window" wash the panels on a regular basis.

Usually failed silicone sealant. Worst cases around junction boxes sealant dries up, gets hard and powdery like chalk then crumbles away. Sealant no longer glues box to PV or prevents water ingress. I have resealed several dozen PVs and lost many after traces to box corrode away.

On glass side PVs always get layered in dust and grime and it can collect in the tiny gap between glass and frame on lowest part of frame. Then lichen and assorted green stuff grows out of there.
I have seen lichen spread out over the glass until its partway over the cells.

This is one reason, inability to clean, that I tend not to mount PVs on building roof or anywhere I cant get a
cleaning mop sponge at it. A decent pressure water hose may work but won't always remove bird poop or live lichen.

dgd