Lwiddis wrote:
Interesting article.
“The MPPT controller will harvest more power from the solar array. The performance advantage is substantial (10% to 40%) when the solar cell temperature is low (below 45°C...”
I don't camp much when the temp exceeds 113 degrees F for me or my panels.
Typically panel temp is about 20C above ambient, which I can confirm from my measurements. So when it is nice out at 25C, panel is 55C and down 10% in watts at around 50C
I cannot understand the way they do panel specs at panel 25C which would mean ambient is just above freezing. Sort of weird.
The MPPT guys all talk about power but PWM could care less about power--just the amps. So all that power being wasted by PWM is bogus, since you still get the rated Isc so the power does not matter.
The main thing is that you need the buck converter in the MPPT to do 24-12 with 24v panels, which PWM controllers cannot do. They can do 12-12 or 24-24, while an MPPT can do either 24-12 or 12-12 or 24-24 so you have a choice between series and parallel with 12v panels.
