nifty-stuff.com
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- Joined
- Oct 3, 2019
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Hey guys, sorry this is probably a dumb set of questions, but here goes...
I have a handful of 34.5V panels I got cheap (see attached) from a friend. I thought this was going to be a simple way for me to "play with solar", but turns out to be a rabbit-hole of confusion and questions
It seems like almost all of the panels that go on roofs are high voltages like this, no?
I'd ideally like to use these without batteries (see my other thread here), but since it doesn't seem like that's an option, I figured I'd go with a cheap PWM Charge Controller (like this one) and a lead-acid battery, but I'm realizing the CC won't really work since the max V for a 12v setup is like 30v.
The only option would be to move to a 24v battery setup... maybe using two batteries in series, but that complicates everything else with my 12v inverter, etc., and I don't think there is a way to wire two 12v batteries in series for the CC and parallel for the inverter, right?
So, what do most people do in similar situations where they have panels with 30+volts and a 12v use-case (batteries, inverters, etc?).
Do they just pony-up for MPPT systems? From what I can tell, these play nicer with high input V way more than PWM, no?
Any other ideas / suggestions on how to utilize these panels without too much complexity and cost?
I'm starting to wonder if I'm over my head with this stuff.
I have a handful of 34.5V panels I got cheap (see attached) from a friend. I thought this was going to be a simple way for me to "play with solar", but turns out to be a rabbit-hole of confusion and questions
It seems like almost all of the panels that go on roofs are high voltages like this, no?
I'd ideally like to use these without batteries (see my other thread here), but since it doesn't seem like that's an option, I figured I'd go with a cheap PWM Charge Controller (like this one) and a lead-acid battery, but I'm realizing the CC won't really work since the max V for a 12v setup is like 30v.
The only option would be to move to a 24v battery setup... maybe using two batteries in series, but that complicates everything else with my 12v inverter, etc., and I don't think there is a way to wire two 12v batteries in series for the CC and parallel for the inverter, right?
So, what do most people do in similar situations where they have panels with 30+volts and a 12v use-case (batteries, inverters, etc?).
Do they just pony-up for MPPT systems? From what I can tell, these play nicer with high input V way more than PWM, no?
Any other ideas / suggestions on how to utilize these panels without too much complexity and cost?
I'm starting to wonder if I'm over my head with this stuff.