Serial vs Parallel Solar Panel Shading
I was asked if a post in another thread if this "Serial is actually better for shading (than parallel) if that is a concern for you." was a typo. It is not a typo but panel shading is not always under...
Forum Discussion
BFL13 wrote:
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I tried the 60 cell panel with the batteries at "24v" as an experiment, and it got them to 30v before stalling out. So it can charge the 24v ok, but not do any sort of overcharge when you need one of those from time to time. For that you do need 72 cell panels with a 24v system.
Or a couple of 36 cell 12V panels in series.
That's what I'm using for my portable setup feeding a 24V battery bank via a 20A Epsolar Tracer mppt.
They're big suckers for 12V, 170W, ~25# and a meter square each. Wouldn't want to wrangle anything much bigger for a portable system.
And yes, 12V panels are stupid expensive for what you get. Think they cost ~1.5x what I paid per watt for the fixed 24V panels on the roof. Guess 12Vs are not used much for the big commercial or household markets, so you don't get the cost reductions associated with such large quantities.
