solar panel size

[slonger]

I am looking at a solar panel kit the one I have seen is 240w Panasonic: 240W high efficiency kit - Panasonic HIT240W my question is am I better to buy the large panel or would it be better to buy 2 x 120w panels instead?

 

[trevskoda]

i would go for two so if one packs in you could isolate and still get by.
I have two through one of these splits charge to both batts but the lowest one gets charged first,will take 15 amps about 200 watts.so if you look on ebay for 100 watt panels 2 should be ok.

 

[hextal]

I may be reading it wrong but the panel (which does appear to be uber efficient) doesn't seem compatible with the mppt controller.

The spec appears to show panel output voltage of circa 44v (twice the usual output voltage), which appears to be over the input voltage of the standard tracer, though its not entirely clear.

Also, what battery bank size do you have? Rough rule of thumb is to match the panel wattage roughly to the battery bank ah.

I'd say that kit is a bit steeply priced and you could probably shave 150 notes off that.

 

[Deleted member 13867]

The solar panel is a 24 volt nominal output so normally this would be unsuitable for a 12 Volt system however with a quality MPPT controller this excess panel voltage will be reduced to 12 volts nominal with a proportional increase of charging current. It is quite likely that a 24 volt panel will deliver more usable charge with less sunlight than a 12 volt panel under the same lighting conditions.