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Connecting Solar Panels for Camping to Home (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by to c/solarpunk@slrpnk.net
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Hello! Hopefully this is the right community for this question.

I’ve started small with solar by getting a 100W panel that connects to a battery that I charge daily and use it to charge things like my laptops or other devices.

I want to start adding additional panels and sending that solar power into our home to use throughout.

As I vaguely understand it, I can get a grid-tie microinverter and then plug panels into that? Will this work? Do I need different type of panels? Do all the panels need to match in specs/watts? It has MC4 (I think?) cables and bullet output.

How are yall sending solar to your home without getting a full on roof mounted solar system?

Thanks!

EDIT: in California

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[–] [S] 3 points 4 months ago (8 children)

For sure. At least it’s something for now. Easier than the battery system I got going on. I was planning on adding more panels anyways. Probably like the ones you’re talking about. Do they all have to be the same or I can mix and match panels on the microinverter?

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (7 children)

    Panels can have different voltages, so you can't just randomly mix them. And those mini-inverters have maximum capacity you can't exceed (typically 800W).

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    Ah so they can have different wattages but voltage has to match?

    If you exceed capacity it doesn’t just cap?

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    If you wire the panels in series then the total voltage will be the sum of all the panels' voltages. The final amps will be the amps of the weakest panel.

    If you wire the panels in parallel then the max voltage will be the voltage of the weakest panel but the amps will be the sum of all the panels' amps.

    So it depends what your charge controller can handle. High volts or high amps. Also series and parallel react differently to partial shade. I can't remember the details, only that parallel seems to cope much better.

    High voltage (24v or higher, ideally 48v) is good for longer distances as transmitting electricity at 12v suffers losses after a few meters unless you have extremely thick wires. If your panels are < 4 meters from your plug/controller then parallel panels (with it's lower voltage) will be ok.

    Don't skimp on fuses. If anything goes wrong you want the panels to be cut off, not pumping electrons into the fire.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 4 months ago (2 children)

    Thanks! I was looking at the micro inverters that you can plug 2 or 4 panels into so I presume that’s parallel?

    I know you can daisy chain panels too so maybe I’ll look into matching panels and using a single input microinverter.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    It depends if they are linked in series or in row, but yes, typically it is better to have them all with the same open-circut voltage.

    I guess most will have an overload protection, but with these cheap ones I would stay on the safe side and not add so many panels that an overload can easily happen.

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