Greetings solarpeople,
I was designing a small solar system with 2 panels in series to be connected to a MPPT grid tied inverter.
I normally look at cheap 18V 100W panels but recently found the 16V types with 32 cells instead of 36 cells. These 16V panels are 10 euros cheaper each and therefore worth considering; however I am concerned about the lower voltage and possible consequences.
After reading for a while I understood that their lower voltage is meant to partially "self-regulate" the charging of 12V batteries because when the battery is full around 14V, the current naturally decrease due to voltage resistance (so bad to use off-grid in 12V battery system); I also understood they are cheaper to produce (less cells; less material). Since in this case the panels are to be connected in series to an inverter with 22-60VCD range I am expecting that buying 16VDC instead 18VDC won't have any impact on the solar output/production the inverter receives and transforms while I save 20 eur.
Could you please help me confirm this assumption or explain me why 16V panels are a bad idea for this application?
Additional advantage that I see is that given that the inverter has a range of 22-60VDC, a third panel in series might just fit because VOC of 19,2V x3 = 57,6V < 60VDC (Kind of safe) Please alarm me if I am wrong here.
I was designing a small solar system with 2 panels in series to be connected to a MPPT grid tied inverter.
I normally look at cheap 18V 100W panels but recently found the 16V types with 32 cells instead of 36 cells. These 16V panels are 10 euros cheaper each and therefore worth considering; however I am concerned about the lower voltage and possible consequences.
After reading for a while I understood that their lower voltage is meant to partially "self-regulate" the charging of 12V batteries because when the battery is full around 14V, the current naturally decrease due to voltage resistance (so bad to use off-grid in 12V battery system); I also understood they are cheaper to produce (less cells; less material). Since in this case the panels are to be connected in series to an inverter with 22-60VCD range I am expecting that buying 16VDC instead 18VDC won't have any impact on the solar output/production the inverter receives and transforms while I save 20 eur.
Could you please help me confirm this assumption or explain me why 16V panels are a bad idea for this application?
Additional advantage that I see is that given that the inverter has a range of 22-60VDC, a third panel in series might just fit because VOC of 19,2V x3 = 57,6V < 60VDC (Kind of safe) Please alarm me if I am wrong here.