I was getting 1 amp vs 8 .85 although it was not ideal conditions but sunny. Not an ideal test.
solar panels ( 4) 250 watt panels in series/parallel
- Thread starter sparkyv
- Start date
sunshine_eggo
Happy Breffast!
Then something is wrong or you have lots of shade.
Just yesterday I hit 520W from my 990W of panels which are mounted flat on my trailer. This is at 40ºN latitude in near-mid January. And that was at 11am with a few high clouds. I saw over 950W at times last August.
700 watts is not enough power .
I have 4500 watts of solar and I can get 2300watts at noon if the sun is out .
I’m am not in a good solar area .
In June I can get 3700 watts easy at noon .
the thing is I don’t see that power because I start charging at 800 am and by the time I see full power I’m in absorb and the controller is limiting the power .
I have 4500 watts of solar and I can get 2300watts at noon if the sun is out .
I’m am not in a good solar area .
In June I can get 3700 watts easy at noon .
the thing is I don’t see that power because I start charging at 800 am and by the time I see full power I’m in absorb and the controller is limiting the power .
that was 1 amp for each of 2 panels. could not access the other 2 but at combiner box was 1.5amp for the 2 panels.
wattmatters
Solar Wizard
Under good insolation and environmental conditions, provided there is a sufficient load*, PV panels should produce at or close to their rated output at STC. They can even exceed it in some situations.
A couple of months ago (late Spring here) my 11kW array on a 10kW grid-tied inverter hit a 5-min average power output of 10,022W. Being a 10kW inverter it can't pull the full 11kW of the array. Those panels are 3+ years old.
My 2.22kW off-grid array rarely gets close to it's max potential output because it rarely ever has a load sufficient to cause it to supply that much power. Not sure how old the panels are as they were pre-loved units but being 370W panels they won't be all that old. That said, I do have it hitting 2.31kW one morning when there was some decent load to attend to (battery recharge duties due to the battery having been discharged during a grid outage the day/night before). Can see here the output close to full capacity for about 90-min, with some interruptions (passing clouds I'm guessing):
* sufficient load means not only actual loads (loads connected to inverter AC output and battery charging) but also having a solar charge controller/MPPT with sufficient rating to pull the maximal power from panels. In many cases systems have a capacity lower than the panel's rated capacity (over panelling, which is a perfectly fine strategy but you will never see PV output reach the limit of the panels). e.g. my 11kW array can never supply more than 10kW as that is the max my grid-tied inverter can draw/supply.
A couple of months ago (late Spring here) my 11kW array on a 10kW grid-tied inverter hit a 5-min average power output of 10,022W. Being a 10kW inverter it can't pull the full 11kW of the array. Those panels are 3+ years old.
My 2.22kW off-grid array rarely gets close to it's max potential output because it rarely ever has a load sufficient to cause it to supply that much power. Not sure how old the panels are as they were pre-loved units but being 370W panels they won't be all that old. That said, I do have it hitting 2.31kW one morning when there was some decent load to attend to (battery recharge duties due to the battery having been discharged during a grid outage the day/night before). Can see here the output close to full capacity for about 90-min, with some interruptions (passing clouds I'm guessing):
* sufficient load means not only actual loads (loads connected to inverter AC output and battery charging) but also having a solar charge controller/MPPT with sufficient rating to pull the maximal power from panels. In many cases systems have a capacity lower than the panel's rated capacity (over panelling, which is a perfectly fine strategy but you will never see PV output reach the limit of the panels). e.g. my 11kW array can never supply more than 10kW as that is the max my grid-tied inverter can draw/supply.
sunshine_eggo
Happy Breffast!
I'll check it today for exact, but we are at 42degrees here in mass, they are south, about 45 degrees
i used the pencil at 90degrees to panel to find best angle
wattmatters
Solar Wizard
Put your array parameters into this to see how it compares with expected production:
solcast.com
Solcast Solar Irradiance Blog
A collection of our current and past announcements, events and thoughts on everything related to the solar-powered future
solcast.com
wattmatters
Solar Wizard
e.g. here's an example of expected daily output over last handful of days for a random location in Massachusetts USA for 1kW array, facing due south on a 45° tilt:
This assumes of course that PV output is not curtailed for system reasons (e.g. insufficient load).
Looks like some pretty crappy solar days in that particular location this week.
This assumes of course that PV output is not curtailed for system reasons (e.g. insufficient load).
Looks like some pretty crappy solar days in that particular location this week.
Thank you, Thats a great site and very helpful in determining how my system is performing. Apparently I'm at about 30% of what I should be getting. I have used 250 trina poly panels, I am going to try some used 335watt Q sell used commercial panels next.
