How would you string this?

[Prefersdirt]

Need some help laying out my panel setup to maximize production and minimize wire cost.

Facing south and west give me the best sun. South is totally clear. West gets sun most of the afternoon. I do not know how much sun will reach pure west facing panels in the winter as we are new to the property.

The farthest the panels will be from two EG4 inverters is 300FEET. So plan for that distance.

I have 30 Trina Solar 320w panels and 10 unknown 250w panels (these 10 were bought before Covid from Santan Solar).

Each EG4 has 2 PV inputs but I am somewhat confused on how much will take in. The spec sheet lists 90V-450VDC and 120A.

The Trina solar panels are 320W, 33.4V and 9.58A with a VOC of 40.3V

The SantanSolar are 250W with 37.6V and 8.85a.

I can leave out the 250W panels as I can use them in another project. But adding the extra 2kw would be nice for winter.

How would you put together the panels?

What size wire would you use to run the current to the inverters?

I am doing ground mounts myself so options are there!

Thank you!!!

EDIT: Remeasured - figure 100 YARDS - or 300 FEET.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

IIRC, EG4 also has 18A limit on PV input (up to 22.5A is safe for overpaneling, but won't use more than 18A), so no more than 2P

10S1P Trina on MPPT1, 2 and 3, 10S1P SanTan on MPPT4.

That minimizes voltage drop over that absurd distance, but you need to run the numbers using Vmp and Isc:

Voltage Drop Calculator

This free voltage drop calculator estimates the voltage drop of an electrical circuit based on the wire size, distance, and anticipated load current.

www.calculator.net

You'll have > 5.5% loss on each string with 10awg run for each MPPT. 6awg will get you under 3%.

Recommend you wear a diaper before you check pricing on 7,200 ft of 6awg copper.

 

[ghostwriter66]

300 yards with 6 AWG COPPER will keep you about 3% loss ... I would NOT go below that ...

thats allot of strands of cable -- you might want to be looking for someone of FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE selling .... going to be really $$$ either way

 

[Prefersdirt]

You'll have > 5.5% loss on each string with 10awg run for each MPPT. 6awg will get you under 3%.

Recommend you wear a diaper before you check pricing on 7,200 ft of 6awg copper.

300 yards with 6 AWG COPPER will keep you about 3% loss ... I would NOT go below that ...

Remeasured - I had the 100 correct - but was yards. Well, 100 steps at 1 yard/Meter each (this includes plenty of slack for nondirect routing).

Thank you

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Remeasured - I had the 100 correct - but was yards. Well, 100 steps at 1 yard/Meter each (this includes plenty of slack for nondirect routing).

Thank you

so 300 feet? WHEW.

8 strings of 12awg (one pair per array) would see a < 3% loss.

Voltage Drop Calculator

This free voltage drop calculator estimates the voltage drop of an electrical circuit based on the wire size, distance, and anticipated load current.

www.calculator.net

2400 feet of 12awg may only require a damp towelette for a light clean up.