Solar question
I am working through the solar deal hopping to have something in place for the spring. Right now I am looking at 200 to 250 watts worth of panels that I can expand in the future. Just so I understa...
Forum Discussion
Monos have a smaller foot print than Polys for the same wattage, so they are more efficient in bright light. That's great on the roof of a house that is grid tied when the clouds roll in. When that happens the VOC and Soc drops hard on both the 220w and 245w mono panels I have. Even light cloud cover will drop my 245w monos down from over 16a to just above 2a each. (heavy cloud cover, forget it) My 230w poly wakes the controller up at dawns early light and produces 4a in pea soup.
I know it isn't what the advertizing says but over 3 years the results have been the same, at least with the three different panels I have. They are consistent enough that I will probably sell all four of my panels to get a matching set of 250w polys for mounting. ( sunny Colorado gets a lot of clouds)
In any event it is my belief that you are looking at this the wrong way. it starts with your roof. Check for the panels you have a available, can afford and see out of those what will fit on your roof. Once you know this you can figure out what is the best controller to run them.
YOu may start small and expand? That is easier with a PWM system than a 24v panel/ MPPT system. On a PWM system you can put a 100w panel here, a 140w there, and a 120w over there. Run them all to the controller and off you go. All of their VOCs are close as will be the panel you upgrade with tomorrow even if it's a different brand or type. With the big panels the VOC goes up as the wattage does. So a 220w panel has a lower voltage than a 250w panel. That difference in voltage can confuse the MPPT controller needed to run them. Even if the wattage is the same, a different brand or type can have a different voltage. This can make it hard to expand in the future.
So look at your system from all angles and design it a few times differently. There are a lot of panels and components that can be combined in different ways to fit your needs in the situations you camp in. You can't get that designing a system around a couple of buzz words.
I know it isn't what the advertizing says but over 3 years the results have been the same, at least with the three different panels I have. They are consistent enough that I will probably sell all four of my panels to get a matching set of 250w polys for mounting. ( sunny Colorado gets a lot of clouds)
In any event it is my belief that you are looking at this the wrong way. it starts with your roof. Check for the panels you have a available, can afford and see out of those what will fit on your roof. Once you know this you can figure out what is the best controller to run them.
YOu may start small and expand? That is easier with a PWM system than a 24v panel/ MPPT system. On a PWM system you can put a 100w panel here, a 140w there, and a 120w over there. Run them all to the controller and off you go. All of their VOCs are close as will be the panel you upgrade with tomorrow even if it's a different brand or type. With the big panels the VOC goes up as the wattage does. So a 220w panel has a lower voltage than a 250w panel. That difference in voltage can confuse the MPPT controller needed to run them. Even if the wattage is the same, a different brand or type can have a different voltage. This can make it hard to expand in the future.
So look at your system from all angles and design it a few times differently. There are a lot of panels and components that can be combined in different ways to fit your needs in the situations you camp in. You can't get that designing a system around a couple of buzz words.
