Solar pannels - Should I wire in Paralle3 dor series?

[temptress]

So I've been reviewing the Solar charging on Temptress and I now have a 2 x 100w 19v (max) rated panels. Looking at my charge controller it can cope with up to 40v and 40a on a 12v system.

I was planning on wiring the panels in parallel but given the ability of the controller to accept higher voltages is it worth wiring these in parallel?

I have my thoughts but a discussion with a friend recently lead me to think there might be another way.

Opinions please?

 

[Cardo]

This was covered recently. From what I could garner, there wasn't much in it, although someone suggested wiring in parallel tends to work slightly better.

I've ended up wiring in parallel.

 

[neil1967]

I believe that if you wire in series you can get away with lighter cable between the panels and the charge controller, because you are carrying less current than if you had connected them in parallel (assuming you have a single cable from your panel cluster to your charge controller); however, I understand that panels in series are more susceptible to the effects of shading - ie if one panel is shaded it will drag down the overall output more than if they were connected in parallel. All makes sense to me as an engineer, but no practical experience I'm afraid. I will be buying solar soon (probably 3 x 120W) so I would be interested in any other views.

Neil

 

[Cardo]

I believe that if you wire in series you can get away with lighter cable between the panels and the charge controller, because you are carrying less current than if you had connected them in parallel (assuming you have a single cable from your panel cluster to your charge controller); however, I understand that panels in series are more susceptible to the effects of shading - ie if one panel is shaded it will drag down the overall output more than if they were connected in parallel. All makes sense to me as an engineer, but no practical experience I'm afraid. I will be buying solar soon (probably 3 x 120W) so I would be interested in any other views.

Neil

This sounds familiar. I ended up getting thicker cables to reduce loss and wired in parallel as due to the positioning of our panels it is likely one is likely to be partly shaded at any time (Aside from when the sun is right up at the top).

 

[temptress]

This sounds familiar. I ended up getting thicker cables to reduce loss and wired in parallel as due to the positioning of our panels it is likely one is likely to be partly shaded at any time (Aside from when the sun is right up at the top).

That's what I thought but had to ask. I will wire the second panel in parallel to the first.

Must of missed the conversation about this recently and I can never find anything with the search facility. Been busy re-fitting, getting launched and sorting things out. T -6 weeks now so very busy.