Wire Gauge Required Question
For some reason I just can't understand the various wire gauge tables, and I have tried to, so I am hoping somebody will take pity and do all the work! :) One table that I can follow says that for...
Forum Discussion
BFL13 wrote:
I have been getting the amps at the battery equal to the panel's Isc during tests, so to me Isc is a real number target for max amps with PWM. (with cloud effect you get more of course)
So that is the gold standard for amps from any amount of watts worth of panel with PWM. It is all proportional. The MPPT has to do better than that to justify the high cost of its controller.
You need to see the expected amps on the Trimetric so you know everything is ok. If you don't have an expected amps with MPPT how do you know if it is working right?
It is not an obsession (ok, it is! :) ) but just a system check same as with anything else.
Understood... :)
The MPPT controller is designed to accept higher panel voltages which means it will have a much wider power bandwidth than a PWM controller.
It may not outperform a PWM by very much under ideal conditions, but under lower light conditions where lower voltage panels will drop out, the MPPT controller will still have sufficient voltage to produce power for the battery bank.
So, during the course of a full day of use, the A-Hr benefit is typically quite a bit higher for the MPPT controller vs. the PWM controller.
