Solar panel wiring help

[John L]

I need some advise.
I have 6 - 210 watt Hightec solar panels. Total watts of 1260. The panels have by pass diodes.
The voltage is 22.4V, open circuit voltage is 24.9V.
The amps are 9.3A and short circuit current (amps) is 9.85A
I have a victron 150/100 MPPT solar charge controller.
The wire run down to the controller is 10 gauge.
So my question is am I better off running 3 series (74.7V) and 2 parallel (19.7A) or 2 series (49.8V) and 3 parallel (29.55A)
I was not sure what numbers to use for volts and amps so I went with the higher numbers.
I'm thinking 3 series 2 parallel because 29.55amps may be too much for the 10 gauge wire.
Thanks

[howson]

John L

Series is great as power is conveyed via a high voltage and the higher voltage "wakes up" the Victron controller (5v above battery charge level) earlier in the day. The downside is even with bypass diodes any shade has a detrimental affect on series configurations.

Have you seen this thread? https://gdrvowners.com/forum/solar/4...n-solar-output

The balance is enough voltage to "wake up" the MPPT and get more power from the array over a longer period vs. the impact of shade on a panel configuration and, of course as you identified, the issue with high amperage in a parallel configuration.

To blow out brain cells even more..."the panels have by pass diodes" can have many different meanings. Some panels have a diode for each string of cells, some a diode for two rows (that is my Renogy's configuration) and some for the entire panel. More bypass diodes = higher probability of generating power due to partial shade on a row of cells. I suspect you've read this one: https://gdrvowners.com/forum/solar/r...n-solar-panels

If the 10 ga wires down to the controller are keeping you from configuring the system as desired (definitely the weak link in the configuration) I suggest swapping them out. For comparison, my 1200W system uses 2 ga. https://gdrvowners.com/forum/solar/1...n-2019-315rlts I used 10 ga between each panel and the AMSolar Junction Box. Since you have the same Victron MPPT controller I'm using, it will handle 2 ga.

Please report back with any lesson learned. (I learn more every day.)

Howard

[50ST8R]

I need some advise.
I have 6 - 210 watt Hightec solar panels. Total watts of 1260. The panels have by pass diodes.
The voltage is 22.4V, open circuit voltage is 24.9V.
The amps are 9.3A and short circuit current (amps) is 9.85A
I have a victron 150/100 MPPT solar charge controller.
The wire run down to the controller is 10 gauge.
So my question is am I better off running 3 series (74.7V) and 2 parallel (19.7A) or 2 series (49.8V) and 3 parallel (29.55A)
I was not sure what numbers to use for volts and amps so I went with the higher numbers.
I'm thinking 3 series 2 parallel because 29.55amps may be too much for the 10 gauge wire.
Thanks

John,

good to see you getting the solar installed. We went the higher voltage and less amps because of the wire gauge. E out 4 175 watt panels up and have been happy with the results thus far. Still running some tests to see how long we can stay disconnected or what adaptations we need to boondocking longer. Trip next week to Door County should clear up those questions pretty easily.