Camping tactics can get confused with electrical efficiency I suppose.
eg, with solar it is smarter (for RV battery charging reasons) to run your laptop on its own battery in the morning and then charge it from solar in the afternoon, when the battery amps have tapered so there is "free" solar to run loads. That has nothing to do with PWM vs MPPT though.
Cost comparisons PWM vs MPPT are very difficult because panel prices are all over the map and then besides that there may be shipping costs for some who cannot pick up their own.
Some places have much lower cost per watt 24v panels than 12v panels; some places they cost the same. MPPT controllers remain very expensive, but that may be changing. Thinner wire is less expensive, but how much saving you can realize with that depends on how much wire you need- sort of a minor aspect anyway.
My PWM 200w set cost $1.08/W for panel and $39 for the 20a controller, and the set gets 12.6amps (Isc) I am over sized a bit on controller amps. a 15a would be ok. So 216 plus 39 =$255.
So 600w worth of that would cost three times at $765 and get me 38 amps. about $20/amp
If you can get 24v panels to make up 600w at $ 0.75/W, that would be $450 plus the controller. to get 45a What does that MS45 amper cost? No idea $400? if so that is $850 for 45amps. about $19/amp
So somewhere close in cost per amp at the 600w level between MPPT and PWM?
