Solar Panel
I have a new northern Lite and the solar panel is not working is there a fuse? and if iso does anyone know where to look for it it is nor in the inverter converter box with the other fuses and circui...
Forum Discussion
CA Traveler wrote:work2much wrote:I should have added that serial is superior when the panels have bypass diodes. Virtually all larger panels have bypass diodes. This may not apply to some 12V panels.CA Traveler wrote:devildog1971 wrote:No doubt.
(for 4K I could have put 400 watts or more on the Bigfoot)
As a DIY I paid $1450 for 750W in 2014 for all of the parts including UV wires, aluminum for mounting and SS screws and bolts, etc. This included a high end Morningstar MPPT 60 controller. All panels in series which provides much better shade performance than parallel panels, but that is a whole different topic.
For shaded conditions parallel is superior. In series shading one one panel affects all the panels. In parallel it only affects the shaded panel.
My 3 serial panels (90V total) have 3 bypass diodes each. Each diode will bypass 20 cells (10 volts) of my 60 cell panels when there is a shadow on that portion of the panel. So basically I have 9 serial panel sections. When 1 section has a shadow for example the diode causes a short which is 0 volts and passes the full amps of the other 8 sections. So the result is (90V-10V) * 8A (panel Imp) or 8/9 of the panels power.
The same panels in parallel result in 1/3 power loss, hence the voltage is lower than the other 2 panels. The result is the power is 6/9 of the 3 panels vs the serial 8/9 of the 3 panels.
In the past I've posted graphs showing the effect of bypass diodes. It's easy to see the 10V steps with full amps for the given sun condition on leafy shade, hard shade and other types of shade.
From past comments I'm aware that panel bypass diodes with serial panels and shade and not well understood. But with some electrical knowledge and research what I've posted can be verified.
The linked video in my post was using 200 watt panels with bypass diodes. Per's results were similar to my own using series vs parallel in panels with bypass diodes. Slightly better with no shade and dramatic worse with shade.
As far as 12v vs. higher voltage panels I haven't found any high voltage panels that are small enough for a truck camper. I can see larger panels with more bypass diodes could be more efficient in shaded conditions but I would still bet that panels in parallel would outperform when there is substantial shading on some panels.
What model truck camper do you have and what panels do you have mounted on the roof that are high voltage? In my search for high voltage panels building my system (would have loved 24v or higher) I came up with none that would fit my roof and I have a large camper.
