Solar panels in series or parallel?
Hello All, It has been a while since I have been here. I need to come back more often. I have a 2016 fuzion 345. Love the tech but man does it eat power. I did put 6 6 volt batteries and that w...
Forum Discussion
pnichols wrote:JimK-NY wrote:
Shading is the enemy of parallel wiring. If one unit is slightly shaded by something on the roof or by something such as a tree branch, the output of the affected unit drops to essentially zero and the output of the system is greatly decreased. When using series wiring, a shaded panel allows the other panel to charge with system at full output.
Because of the shading issue, I picked series wiring.
I believe that this post may have it backwards - in that it makes more "electrical sense" that two panels in parallel would be the best setup to keep current flowing from the one panel if shade incapacitates the other panel. With two panels in series I believe that nearly all current flow can be cutoff if only one is incapacited because of shade on it.
You seasoned solar folks out there please correct me if I'm the one that has this backwards.
Now I am confused and am not sure which is correct. Mine work because if one is shaded, the output of the other is not affected. Voltage of the 2 panels is about 12 regardless of the number working.
