New member from Western Kentucky in need of help with first solar setup.

Hi all, I'm glad to be a member, I'm unsure and pretty much lost on what I need and which way I should set my solar array up, I have ( 4 ) 100 watt Renogy monocrystalline panels
With these specs:
100 watts
Optimum operating voltage of 17.1 V
Open circuit voltage of 21.5 V
Optimum operating current of 6.1 A
Open circuit current of 6.4 A
the panels are in series into a EPEVER 40 amp Triron 4210N series mppt charge controller with a 50 foot run between my charge controller and solar panel array
I'm going to add on ( 6 ) more Renogy 100 watt monocrystalline panels to an EPEVER 40 amp Triron 4215N series mppt charge controller that will also have a distance of 50 feet between the panels and charge controller but I'm not sure if I want to wire all (6) of these in series or parallel or a combination of each set of (2) in series because of occasional shading at times on the panels and depending on the way they would be setup, if I run all six in parallel what gauge wire I would need for a 50 foot run ? Or if I ran each set of two using the six panels in series and connecting the three sets in parallel what gauge wire would I need for the 50 foot run or if it would even be feasible to do that ? or just keep everything in series ? Thank You for any advice.

You didn't say what battery voltage you were charging. That might matter. You can connect them parallel and series mixed. There are wire size calculators you can use. Note that most MPPT chargers have a max input volts and then a lower max input volts for hot conditions (like summer). So pay attention to that. Smaller wire is easier to handle, so running four number 10 wires will give you more cross section of copper than running two number 6 wires. You can get a 500 foot spool of #10 at Home Depot for about $80 or 100 foot for about $30. So the 500 foot and running more than one pair was a winner for me.

DThames said:

You didn't say what battery voltage you were charging. That might matter. You can connect them parallel and series mixed. There are wire size calculators you can use. Note that most MPPT chargers have a max input volts and then a lower max input volts for hot conditions (like summer). So pay attention to that. Smaller wire is easier to handle, so running four number 10 wires will give you more cross section of copper than running two number 6 wires. You can get a 500 foot spool of #10 at Home Depot for about $80 or 100 foot for about $30. So the 500 foot and running more than one pair was a winner for me.

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Thank you for your reply, Yeah sorry I forgot to say at what voltage I will be running the charge controller at 12 volts and I’ll be running into a 12 volt battery bank and I’m shooting for the bank to be 800 to 1000 amp hours overall to start with .

When you size your wiring gauge, include some extra, or extra size in the conduit so that if you want to add more panel in the future, that you can do it. Today you might consider 3 panels in series and then parallel two strings like that. If you have a large conduit and run 10ga, a pair of wires for each series string, you could add another string later by just pulling 2 more wires in your conduit.

Id wire for 2s/34.2v if 10 will be your eventually number.

Youre probably better off just eating the $450 freight charge and ordering 10+ 250w panels from santan solar. Itd be 2.5x more solar for the same price.


It sounds like you are going with lead batteries. If so youre making a common but diasterous mistake here in having way too high of expectations with 1000ah bank. 1kw of solar will barely handle a 200AH bank of lead @ 50% discharge year round in W. KY with nothing extra to spare for clouds.

Ped said:

Id wire for 2s/34.2v if 10 will be your eventually number.

Youre probably better off just eating the $450 freight charge and ordering 10+ 250w panels from santan solar. Itd be 2.5x more solar for the same price.

Used SanTan 250W Solar Panel | SanTan Solar

www.santansolar.com

It sounds like you are going with lead batteries. If so youre making a common but diasterous mistake here in having way too high of expectations with 1000ah bank. 1kw of solar will barely handle a 200AH bank of lead @ 50% discharge year round in W. KY with nothing extra to spare for clouds.

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I got 28 panels from them and the shipping (2000 miles) was about $330 as I recall. Commercial size panels are really the way to go for a house sized system.

Ped said:

Id wire for 2s/34.2v if 10 will be your eventually number.

Youre probably better off just eating the $450 freight charge and ordering 10+ 250w panels from santan solar. Itd be 2.5x more solar for the same price.

Used SanTan 250W Solar Panel | SanTan Solar

www.santansolar.com

It sounds like you are going with lead batteries. If so youre making a common but diasterous mistake here in having way too high of expectations with 1000ah bank. 1kw of solar will barely handle a 200AH bank of lead @ 50% discharge year round in W. KY with nothing extra to spare for clouds.

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Thank you for comment and your help, mainly I would only be using my system for a few 12 v led lights off of the battery bank , a 32 inch led tv ( 120 volt ), a satellite tv receiver, a satellite internet receiver, and a 12 volt 450 watt inverter, I know very little about solar so I figured I would probably have to go with the lead acid batteries because of very limited funds which I was figuring on going with 10 6 volt 225 amp hour deep cycle batteries wiring every pair of two in series for a total of 5 twelve 225 amp hour batteries, but I am open to all options, I already have the change controllers and solar panels all components except the wire to run to and from the panels and controllers and the battery bank , so I am open to all suggestions on what batteries I need, type, amp size and how many I need that would at least give me the same run time hours as the golf cart batteries @ to 50 to 60 % change, the cost for the10 6volt Trojan L A G C battery bank would cast me $ 960.00 tax included locally. Thank you meet much for any and all help and advice .

Will you be running 2 - 40 amp controllers in parallel to your battery bank with 500watts of panels in parallel on each controller? 12 Volt system?

The reason I ask is that my current set up is a 12 volt system and has 2 - 40 amp mppt controllers in parallel with 500 watts of panels (wired parallel) to each controller. I have run #8 AWG from each panel setup for each controller at a distance of 100 feet with no issues. I might be pushing it a tad for voltage drop as I've not ran the specs through the formula. hope this helps.

Steve Darnall said:

Thank you for comment and your help, mainly I would only be using my system for a few 12 v led lights off of the battery bank , a 32 inch led tv ( 120 volt ), a satellite tv receiver, a satellite internet receiver, and a 12 volt 450 watt inverter, I know very little about solar so I figured I would probably have to go with the lead acid batteries because of very limited funds which I was figuring on going with 10 6 volt 225 amp hour deep cycle batteries wiring every pair of two in series for a total of 5 twelve 225 amp hour batteries, but I am open to all options, I already have the change controllers and solar panels all components except the wire to run to and from the panels and controllers and the battery bank , so I am open to all suggestions on what batteries I need, type, amp size and how many I need that would at least give me the same run time hours as the golf cart batteries @ to 50 to 60 % change, the cost for the10 6volt Trojan L A G C battery bank would cast me $ 960.00 tax included locally. Thank you meet much for any and all help and advice .

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Thats way overkill. I would stick to 4 and use the leftover funds to get a ~3kw backup generator with a 75A (max) charger.

Reason being you absolutely HAVE to get lead batteries charged 100% everyday. 50A+ epever controllers have an automatic generator start relay that will automatically kick a generator on that has its own starter. Champion makes one for $500. Could get away with just 2 batteries with that setup.