Ruck_and_Roll
Senior Member
Looking to upgrade my solar a bit....and running into a little bit of a problem (but maybe not). This question could be asked before, but couldn't find the thread.
Current panel is a Renogy 160 watt poly, it appears they no longer produce these (have e-mail/call into customer service). I thought it would be easiest just to add the same additional panel to get up to 320 watts, but that also feels like a little bit of overkill.
Did a little bit more search on "mixing" panels in parallel:
https://solarpanelsvenue.com/mixing-solar-panels/
My thought was to just throw on 100 watt panel (and upgrade charge controller from Victron 75/15 to 100/30).
Seems like the limiting factor is the lowest voltage of the panel in parallel. Looked at some specs and the "optimum operating voltages" of the 160 watt and 100 watt actually aren't all that different (18.6 and 17.9).
optimum operarting
Voltage
Current
Power
160 W Poly
18.6
8.6
159.96
100 W Mono
17.9
5.72
102.388
260 combo
17.9
14.32
256.328
There actually doesn't appear to much power loss at all....anyone have any experience with mismatched panels like this?
Best,
Ruck
Current panel is a Renogy 160 watt poly, it appears they no longer produce these (have e-mail/call into customer service). I thought it would be easiest just to add the same additional panel to get up to 320 watts, but that also feels like a little bit of overkill.
Did a little bit more search on "mixing" panels in parallel:
https://solarpanelsvenue.com/mixing-solar-panels/
My thought was to just throw on 100 watt panel (and upgrade charge controller from Victron 75/15 to 100/30).
Seems like the limiting factor is the lowest voltage of the panel in parallel. Looked at some specs and the "optimum operating voltages" of the 160 watt and 100 watt actually aren't all that different (18.6 and 17.9).
optimum operarting
Voltage
Current
Power
160 W Poly
18.6
8.6
159.96
100 W Mono
17.9
5.72
102.388
260 combo
17.9
14.32
256.328
There actually doesn't appear to much power loss at all....anyone have any experience with mismatched panels like this?
Best,
Ruck