Hey All,
I've been slowly adding components to my tiny Solar PV system. I started with a 12W 12V panel with a cheap PWM controller, it functioned as a glorified cell phone charger.
A few months ago I got a decent 40A MPPT controller. And just a few days ago I upgraded the panel to 30W 24V. I installed it and ran it in the sun for a few days, it;s working great!. I looked at my charge controller monitor and watched the MPPT do it's thing; it was very exciting!
Today it's cloudy with rain in the forecast. The panel is producing about 100mA or so, this is more than the old panel would do under these conditions but still pretty low.
if I were to add a second panel in series I'd get a higher voltage and more current, right? What kind of production can i realistically expect on a cloudy day?
This leads to my next question. As I further build this out I'll likely build a series parallel setup using 3 arrays; one for morning exposure, one for mid day exposure and one for later in the day, they will all get mid day exposure.
My question is, let's say I have a single array of 4 panels, what happens to the output if some of that array, say one panel, is shaded?
I'm just trying to get my head around this.
Thanks
Rich
I've been slowly adding components to my tiny Solar PV system. I started with a 12W 12V panel with a cheap PWM controller, it functioned as a glorified cell phone charger.
A few months ago I got a decent 40A MPPT controller. And just a few days ago I upgraded the panel to 30W 24V. I installed it and ran it in the sun for a few days, it;s working great!. I looked at my charge controller monitor and watched the MPPT do it's thing; it was very exciting!
Today it's cloudy with rain in the forecast. The panel is producing about 100mA or so, this is more than the old panel would do under these conditions but still pretty low.
if I were to add a second panel in series I'd get a higher voltage and more current, right? What kind of production can i realistically expect on a cloudy day?
This leads to my next question. As I further build this out I'll likely build a series parallel setup using 3 arrays; one for morning exposure, one for mid day exposure and one for later in the day, they will all get mid day exposure.
My question is, let's say I have a single array of 4 panels, what happens to the output if some of that array, say one panel, is shaded?
I'm just trying to get my head around this.
Thanks
Rich
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