Planning Solar Panels
Hi everyone, I'm working on my very first DIY camper conversion, using a 2010 extended Ford E250. I was looking at solar panels yesterday, I was going to make the move eventually but maybe soone...
Forum Discussion
Chandalen wrote:smkettner wrote:
OK so $550 for 500 watts. With MPPT you could have 530 watts (2 panels) for $200 less.
What panels are that cheap? I did a quick search and I can find some Poly panels close to $500 @265w, but no Mono's.
I went for a larger controller, to allow for expansion.
Large panels in the neighborhood of 265w go for less than a dollar a watt normally. If you're paying $500 for a 265 watt panel you're getting ripped off x 2.
By the way, any 265 watt panel is going to be a 60 cell panel with a Vmp around 30 volts. This is going to need an MPPT controller regardless of price. Otherwise you'll only get about half the wattage out of the panel due to the vast voltage difference when hooked to a 12v battery.
What's NABSEP certified? Due you mean NABCEP? If so that's a decent accomplishment for sure. But I still have to disagree. The math shows that MPPT will always make more power than PWM.
