Guys,
We have 23Kw of Solar on our roof in Australia - two Solis Inverters in 3 Phase - a 25Kw unit and a 5Kw - we need the Strings because of weird roof layouts.
On the 25Kw unit - one of the strings is 13 panels long.
We put this set of panels in last year in April - so this is the first year that we have experienced Solar on these panels in January/February.
These panels are laid out as a single string in a L shape - 7 panels face North and the other 6 NNW
The 6 panels on the NNW face suffer shade until mid morning in our WInter period - May through to September so we fitted them out with TS4 optimizers - the idea being that these would be isolated and the strong would operate on the 7 North panels until the others came out of shade.
All of the panels are mounted in landscape orientation in relation to the roof (so long sides face the gutter and the ridge line)
What we are finding is that 3 of the 6 panels are being shaded along their length - so across the two halves of the panels by the eaves of the house until approx 12:30 during January and February and they are dragging the whole string down so we are seeing nearly the full voltage on the sting but the amps are less than 1 until they come out of the shade and then the whole string roars to life.
I would have thought that the Tigos would have isolated these 3 panels out of the string and allowed it operate - however this is not the case - we have done testing and bypassed the shaded panels and the rest of the string does come to life.
It is almost as if the 1/2 cut nature of the panels, the triple diodes and the TIGO are all fighting each other and not achieving what we want.
Has anyone done any real world testing with Tigos, 1/2 cut panels and shading ?
My thought is that i will split the string into one string of 7 panels and the other of 6 and parallel them - the TIGOs should handle the string length mismatch by virtue of their voltage boost capability.
Do people think this would work or would we still see the shaded string bringing down the other string ?
Craig
We have 23Kw of Solar on our roof in Australia - two Solis Inverters in 3 Phase - a 25Kw unit and a 5Kw - we need the Strings because of weird roof layouts.
On the 25Kw unit - one of the strings is 13 panels long.
We put this set of panels in last year in April - so this is the first year that we have experienced Solar on these panels in January/February.
These panels are laid out as a single string in a L shape - 7 panels face North and the other 6 NNW
The 6 panels on the NNW face suffer shade until mid morning in our WInter period - May through to September so we fitted them out with TS4 optimizers - the idea being that these would be isolated and the strong would operate on the 7 North panels until the others came out of shade.
All of the panels are mounted in landscape orientation in relation to the roof (so long sides face the gutter and the ridge line)
What we are finding is that 3 of the 6 panels are being shaded along their length - so across the two halves of the panels by the eaves of the house until approx 12:30 during January and February and they are dragging the whole string down so we are seeing nearly the full voltage on the sting but the amps are less than 1 until they come out of the shade and then the whole string roars to life.
I would have thought that the Tigos would have isolated these 3 panels out of the string and allowed it operate - however this is not the case - we have done testing and bypassed the shaded panels and the rest of the string does come to life.
It is almost as if the 1/2 cut nature of the panels, the triple diodes and the TIGO are all fighting each other and not achieving what we want.
Has anyone done any real world testing with Tigos, 1/2 cut panels and shading ?
My thought is that i will split the string into one string of 7 panels and the other of 6 and parallel them - the TIGOs should handle the string length mismatch by virtue of their voltage boost capability.
Do people think this would work or would we still see the shaded string bringing down the other string ?
Craig