Series vs parallel solar panel configuration efficiency for charging my eg4 battery.

I’m wondering what would charge my battery quicker.

6 -235 watt panels in series? 200ish volts and 8amps.
Or
3s-2p
100ish volts 16amps.
Or is it going to be the same no matter the configuration?

I’m also wondering how to safely go about disconnecting my array to work on it to apply this new change.
In other words.
Does it matter which wire I disconnect first?

Assuming this is not a short cable run then the 200V at 8amps by just a tiny amount because the losses in the PV wire will have less of an impact at a higher voltage.

robby said:

Assuming this is not a short cable run then the 200V at 8amps by just a tiny amount because the losses in the PV wire will have less of an impact at a higher voltage.

Click to expand...

Thankyou. Makes sense I suppose

robby said:

Assuming this is not a short cable run then the 200V at 8amps by just a tiny amount because the losses in the PV wire will have less of an impact at a higher voltage.

Click to expand...

The other factor to consider is shading. Parallel arrays can help reduce losses due to partial array shading. But it might also more easily bump into charge current limits. Then higher voltage strings will begin producing energy a little bit earlier. Not much in it.

The answer, as it so often is, is "it depends".

I'd just try to get the array voltage in the sweet spot for the charge controller being used. If both configurations are in the sweet spot voltage range and the array has no shading issues then I'd opt for the single series string at a higher voltage (assuming the full series string Voc is not going to threaten the upper limit of the charge controller on cold mornings).