Polishing up my Solar System
So I currently have 300w(2 each 150w panels), a Samlex 30a Controller. It feeds 4ea. 6v batteries in series and paralleled. My rig came prewired for Solar. It has the Samlex panels and the Samlex w...
Forum Discussion
Almot wrote:All good Almont answers but clarification on this one: The pigtails are spec'd for the panel and no need to change them which would void any warranty anyway. Use the same gauge wire to the controller for series but I'm assume (makes an ass out of u and me) the OP has 12V parallel panels.
#3: Normally, panel pigtails are #12 or #10. Plenty thick for series, not enough for parallel 3*150W.
OP For parallel panels the individual panels are connected usually in a combiner box on the roof or perhaps using MC4 2-1 Y or even 3-1 connectors. At that point the panel amps add together and the wire from the combiner to the controller has to carry the total amps and larger wire may be required to reduce voltage drop.
And assuming your wire to the controller is 8 gauge as you think then it is likely adequate for 3 panels.
Likely adequate? What does that mean? :@ It means we don't know because it's also length dependent which may be difficult to determine given the mfg installed the wire.
What to do: I'd connect the third panel to the other 2 and then with full summer noon sun check to see that I get the expected max amps. Unless you tilt the panels you can't do this during this during the winter. And most likely the mfg used the god awful Z mounts so you can't easily tilt the panels.
