Eco-Worthy 12v solar panels, Now drifting to... mono vs poly
When I search here, the only Ecoworthy results I get are for their controllers. Does anyone have any experience with their 12v panels?
Forum Discussion
jrnymn7 wrote:
"If you start with a 12v panel and PWM, you can add more 12v panels and then choose to stay 12v in parallel with PWM or put them in series as 24 or more and go MPPT."
That's actually how I was considering it. With 12v you can always series/parallel up, but you can't go down from 24v.
But what's the deal with pwm and mppt then? There are 12v kits with mppt. Is pwm sufficient when dealing with lower amps?
You mean is it sufficient with lower voltage--yes. With higher voltage the PWMs don't have a high enough intake voltage limit on their bucks so you must go MPPT. The PWMs are buck but only from 12v panel voltage levels. The MPPTs can buck a 24v panel to 12v
You get about the same amps and daily AH haul with 230w and MPPT as you would with two 115s and PWM. In hot sun on the panel you can get more amps from the PWM than from the MPPT while in cold temps you can get more amps with the MPPT. The differences are trivial for camping purposes where your solar is always a rough and ready amount each day anyway due to changing cloud cover.
Beware of eBay $15 "MPPT" controllers. they will not run a 24v panel They are fake MPPT and are really PWM. cheapest real MPPT seems to be Eco W and other brands priced at about $100 and on up. I don't know if any of the usual suspect 12v kits have a fake MPPT controller. Most seem to have a normal sort of PWM controller.
Study the kit and look up the controller it has to read its manual and discover what it really is. Some are quite good, like that windynation one that is like the Solar30.
