I’ve been getting some PMs about how to connect greater voltage solar panels to lower voltage battery banks for off grid application. Several individuals believe they have to buy panels with same voltage rating as their battery bank, that is wrong. With an MPPT charge controller like the Outback Flexmax 60 or 80 you can use panels or strings of panels in series with a voltage up to 130vdc and charge a 12v, 24, or 38v battery bank. This makes it possible for you to use smaller gauge cable runs at longer distances, lower amperage breakers, and so on from the charge controller to the solar panels. Take a appear at the attached diagram on how I strategy to connect my 20 Dupont solar panels to my 12 volt battery bank.
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Home » Off The Grid » How to use greater voltage solar panels for OFF GRID 12v, 24, & 48v battery banks.mp4
The gauge wiring used in the schematic seems too light. I’d verify that.
@jhs5150 Not sure where I put it, I’ll look for it and see if I can dig it up for you
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Hey Al. Do you have a website or a way do download this diagram as a PDF or whatever? I did subscribe to your channel.
@econewpower i’ll check them out. thanks and i enjoy all your vids.
@cyim1st1 You can get great panels for the cheapest price at sunelecDOTcom. They have some great SUN brand panels for very cheap that are good quality made in Germany. I would not just try to buy the Duponts as I don’t think they have them anymore but they have many other great alternatives. As long as you stay within the specs of your TS-60 you’ll be fine.
Thanks a ton for the info! One more thing where would you suggest buying the dupont panels from?
@cyim1st1 Your tech guy is wrong, TS-60 will work fine. The DuPont panels VOC is 100vdc, the TS-60 can work with solar panels with VOC as high as 125vdc. Go to this link, morningstarcorpDOTcomSLASHenSLASHsupportSLASHlibrarySLASHTriStarPERCENT20DatasheetPERCENT20English.pdf and see for yourself that the Max. solar voltage (Voc) is 125V. The tech guy needs to learn his products. If the URL is too confusing just to the Morningstar Corp. website and read the TS-60 datasheet.
@econewpower …I have a morning star TS-60 and i talked to a tech guy that sells the dupont panels and he said those panels wouldnt work well with my TS-60..i have a 12v system.. what are your thoughts on that? im new to all this solar stuff! thanks
Multiply your Voc by 125 for safety.
Hi. I have some Sharp 160 watt panels that have a 43.1 volt Voc. & 5.23 Amp Isc. I have 21 panels that I want to wire 3 in series with 7 parallel strings. With 3 panels in series giving me 129.3 volts, do you think this will be a problem for my charge controller which has a max Voc of 150? I read somewhere that you should mu,
@econewpower I never see my system read over .510 watts. Since I have twice that much could or would it be a good idea to run each string to its own battery bank with its own controller. Or would that be a waste of money? I’m still learning
@CCDeer1960 The Flexmax reads array watts charging the batteries. If the batteries are fully charged the array watts will be close to nothing no matter how many solar panels you have.
Does your Flexmax read array watts? If you have 1000watts of panels,does it show 1000w on the display or is it a lower wattage?
@tpboles To add the Dupont panels which are 100v you would have to purchase an MPPT controller like the Outback to bring that voltage down. If your panel is 80 VOC like you said previously you would also need an MPPT controller. Example: my Harbor Freight panels are 21VOC connected in series strings of four panels yielding 84VOC, I had to use an MPPT controller to bring the voltage down. When ordering a panel first the technician what you need and they’ll help you select the components.
@econewpower Ok, thanks for all the info Al. Appreciate it.