beemerphile1 wrote:
Saw a tv show about solar on houses and other buildings. The statement was made that a system with panels in series could be dragged down by a poorly functioning panel. A system with panels in parallel would not be affected by a poorly functioning panel.
Others may be able to explain the hows and whys of the statement.
In series the bypass diodes would allow current to pass through a defective or heavily shaded panel.
In parallel you still lose the power from the defective or shaded panel.
In some unlikely extreme case the series panel could open the circuit completely for no solar power.
Either way the defective panel gets replaced and it becomes a non-issue.
BTW anyone with a large enough system to power a home will have most panels connected in series to the voltage limit of the inverter or controller. Home systems are typically 3kW to 20kW and are not really running on 12 volt batteries.
