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I've attempted to tried and hook the solar panels to my regulator on parallel but they continue to display the same watts. How would I go about maximizing the wattage output?
Carol
Carol
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Re: How do I hook up 2 15 watt solar panels for max output?
You would want to wire the outputs in parallel. That will give you the 12 volts but add the current capability of each. Connect positive to positive and negative to negative when you wire them together. You could always pick up a meter to test them as well. -
hm...not sure what was mixed up here exactly, but I'm thinking FutureSol meant to say she hooked them up in series, not parallelComment
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Whether you hook up the solar panels in parallel or in series, the power (watts) will be the same.
Power = voltage x amps. Now, if you hook up the solar panels in series (plus of one to the minus of other), that WILL double the voltage but, again, the power stays exactly the same since the current stays the same as just one solar panel.
If you were to hook up the solar panels in parallel (plus of each panel connected to each other and then the negative of each other connected together) that would double the amps (current), and but yup, you guessed it... the actual power stays the same.
For more information on how solar panels electrically behave I'd suggest checking out this educational overview on solar panels.Comment
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