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Post by cbcalhoun on May 28, 2019 15:50:16 GMT
Thinking about getting the 400Watt premium kit. They show the 4 100 Watt 12v panels in series. Looking at the charge controller it looks to have a input voltage of 12 / 24v auto select. I am confused at the voltage input on the controller. In the past I have just ran the 100 watt panels in parallel into a PWM 30amp viewstar controller and had a 12v output to the battery bank. Can anyone explain the diagram of 4 panels in series into the MPPT controller? My thoughts are that would be 48+ volts and the inline fuse seems to be undersized.. www.renogy.com/template/files/pics/400_watt_premium_kit_rover_bt_1.png Thanks, Chris |
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Post by bupkis on May 28, 2019 16:55:23 GMT
you missunderstand input voltage limit. when you connect a battery to the controller the controller decides if it is a 12v system or 24v system. Then you connect the 4 panles in series with a Voc of ~80+v. During mppt the controller will force the panels to operate @ Vmp or say 17v x4 = ~68v. So the input is 68v and say 350 watts, 5 amps. The controller transforms this to battery voltage for charging, say at some pt it is 13.9v and charging, that's 350 watts/13.9v or 25 amps going to the battery.
Check the voltage input limit of the rover, is it 100v, that would be based on panel's Voc of ~20-22v each.
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Post by cbcalhoun on May 28, 2019 17:06:27 GMT
Thanks for the clarification. The actual rover product link shows. 100Vdc Max Input but the specs in the premium kit for the rover says Max. Solar Input Power: 520W (12V), 1040W (24V). This is where I got confused.
Chris
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Post by bupkis on May 28, 2019 17:53:49 GMT
the solar limit is really 40A battery charging and they calculate that at 13v, or 13 * 40 = 520watts.
These controllers can be over paneled since one will likely never see 520w from 520w of panels.
If an mppt controller is over paneled, the controller will clip excess battery charging amps to 40. The rest in wasted.
Over paneling allows for larger harvest is bad sun and early/late day, bad solar angle ...
the 12v and 24v are the nominal battery voltage.
The 520w can be supplied as one big panel or several smaller ones in series (not to exceed 100vDC) or several in parallel or a combination of serialparallel
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Post by cbcalhoun on May 29, 2019 15:23:23 GMT
So it sounds like I would be safe to do a 30 Amp Rover CC with the 4 100watt panels. Is that correct.
Thanks,Chris
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Post by bupkis on May 29, 2019 16:52:24 GMT
yes, for what it is worth the 30A rover is rated 400w of solar for charging 12v battery.
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Post by Rouel on Jun 23, 2019 16:39:14 GMT
It seems that the post title was not addressed. 4 panels in series, means the current is equivalent to that of one panel, and the voltage is 4 X that of one panel. 4 panels in parallel, means the current is equivalent to 4 X that of a panel, and the voltage is equivalent to that of one panel. So, if panels are in series, if one panel gets partially shaded from the sun, the total PV output (Watts) is tremendously reduced. If panels are in parallel, then if one panel is partially shaded from the sun, then the total PV output (Watts) is not reduced as much. So another possibility, is pair up the panels, 2 in series, and the 2 pairs in parallel. Then one has the equivalent of 2 X the voltage, and 2 X the current, of one panel. Maybe the MPPT controller, and the whole system would perform slightly better than the other panel arrangements. But that may depend on the solar exposure of the panels. Perhaps Renogy can chime in on advantages / disadvantages, of these 3 panel connections and the performance of the MPPT charge controller to charge battery Banks,
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