Hi All
Ive just purchase a 100/50 MPPT Smart solar. I have 10 180W, 36V,5A panel taken from my house and will be using these for my offgrid holiday cabin.
My calcalutaions tells me that i can use 4 panels connected in parallel which would give me 720W. Could i get away with 5 panels?
TIA
Sorry yes its 12V. Thanks for your reply.
You did not tell us your battery Voltage. Presumably it's 12V?
If you can put 5 panels, then that would really help when the weather is not sunny. In sunny weather, the 100/50 will limit the battery current to 50A no matter how many extra panels you have.
You could likely use all 10 of those panels if you wanted, in 2S5P configuration. That'd make short & foul winter days almost unnoticeable.
The Isc (short circuit current) could be up to 60A with that mppt, and 5x should be a doddle. Even more... what's the Isc of your panels?
You could run your panel figs through this: https://mppt.victronenergy.com/
It'll recommend an mppt, but if within the capabilities of your 100/ (V) unit then you'll be ok. If it says 150/, then you shouldn't series wire them. The Amp recommendation is irrelevant, and your /50 will just curtail it's A as it needs.
I'd series wire them in pairs, then parallel in as many as you want, yep the whole 10x.
Sure you'd be 'overclocked' with Watts, but it'd work fine, and cover bad weather well. And if you wanted in the future to expand your cabin capabilities, you could series your batts too and add a 24V inverter. 12V loads like lights through a dc>dc Orion converter. Then you could harvest more of that potential..
