JiminDenver wrote:
Question on Diodes, would they be effective even if the panel was only partially shaded?
My identical panels are effective in partial shade. I've even had controller amp output with shade on 2 1/3 panels which leaves 2/3 panel. This left about 20V as input to the controller and 7 of the 9 diodes conducting. ie Full shade on 2 panels and partial shade on 1 panel.
By partial shade I mean shade on a group of cells that contain a bypass diode. That's an sub array of 2x10 cells for my panels with 60 cells. If the shade covers some cells on each sub array then the 3 bypass diodes conduct on that panel.
With the MPPT60 the panel voltage can be logged and I've logged 10V panel changes with shade (each panel capable of about 30V).
